News Intel release CPU upgrade cards

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/09/20/intel-release-upgrade-cards/1

 

Never thought i would see DLC for hardware...

 

Most likely, this probably just flips a couple of settings in the BIOS. If not, someone's sure to hack it - and failing that, Asus/Gigabyte/MSI are sure to come up with a workaround

 

I give it a month b4 hackers have blown it open and u can get code generators from every torrent site on the net!

 

Yeah as others have said people will find ways round it and it will make intel look all the more greedy for charging for something you already have. Stupid ideal this DLC thing is just getting out of control when it comes to the hardware market. Whats next AMD and Nvidia charging you to unlock DX11 capabilities?

 

If Intel do this, I think AMD will be laughing so hard as people just flock to them for their CPUs.

 

I would prefer to just spend $50 extra on buying a better CPU

 

And for $500 extra, your car could have a working cd player! It's already in there, but you need a pincode to unlock it!

^That's what I thought when I read this.

 

But doesn't that happen anyway....

"Yes we know we unhooked the battery to do repairs but it's still gonna cost you £50 for us to open a book and find the unlocking code for you"

 

I think the pricing has to be right for this to work.

I can see the need for it for those on a budget. Since they will be building a new system but just can't stretch to a more powerful CPU now. They could opt for the lower one and in a month or two buy the upgrade code.

I'm sure there will be a work around at some point but would you risk your CPU which would probably go to shut down kill mode if cracked? This isn't an overclock risk, so I think don't many would fall down that road but it all depends on how heavy Intel come down on you.

I don't agree with Ph4lanx at all. If the stock CPU before any upgrade is already better than the competition then why would you flock to that competition?

 

Either they are completely naive, or this is a rather canny way of making buyers think they are getting something for nothing (that's if you assume this will be widely abused via key generators).

In all reality, Intel will already be making a profit on the hardware, but the possibility of the *cough*"free"*cough* upgrade would go a long way to sway someone from purchasing AMDs alternative, even if AMDs were more powerful than the locked intel processor.

 

Wow, Intel's must have been a bit over-zealous with their speed-binning!

 

Software based feature locking eh, cracking this open sounds like the new core unlocking. This might even make up for gimping OC'ing on upcoming Sandy Bridge CPU's.

 

This is a fine way for them to lose their lead to AMD. I guess my next system will be AMD cpu and gpu, something that hasnt happened in a while!

 

lol I love how people say this is going to be hacked, listen this is for the people who walk in to big stores lke good little sheep and buy whatever they are told, so this for the ones who are not smart enough or want to take the time to do it themselves, kinda like those BS optimizations that stores offer.

 

Probably a CPU microcode update.
will also be hacked very very fast.

but then again, the people who own this type of machine, don't read any tech blogs.
(or they wouldn't have bought one).

 

it's another thing salesman can flog off
non technical upgrades where you don't have to open your pc or hire someone.

 

Perhaps Intel bought McAfee to assist them with making this thing as hack-tight as possible?
It's a despicable move by Intel, and I hope they get burned for it.

 

I think it's lame but even more to make it work only on windows. Does that mean in ten years you won't have the choice of your OS? That hardware goes with one software only?

 

Anyone remember the good old days when a sharp pencil could unlock the clock frequency on an Athlon?

Ah, the memories.