Intel wants to charge $50 to unlock stuff your CPU can already do

[Pauleh]

Seeing as it costs Intel exactly the same to manufacture that CPU wether you unlock those extra features or not, what justification have they got to charge more to enable things on it?

Because they want to make more money?

[Motoko.]

^Yup, I believe staff in places like Best Buy will be pushed to recommend these kinds of things in the future, along with product protection, internet security and microsoft office. :p

Great, another KPI to go with the 30+ they already have. >_>

I think if you are trying to defend the hyper-consumerism of this lifestyle, then it may have affected your morality. Don't get me wrong, I like getting the latest gadgets and fashions and everything else, but I vote with my dollar where I can, and I think we need to find solutions to things like this.

[+Warwagon MVC]

This might be a good move. If they can make CPUs cheaper and then charge to unlock more potential than that basically means to round up the hackers and crack the security used and unlock it without paying more. Then we would be paying for a whole lot less for a good CPU and then easily just unlock the power it really holds without paying extra. ;)

It's like a jailbreaking your iPhone or rooting your Android phone. :D

I'm you on that one.

[Motoko.]

I'm you on that one.

Didn't know you can emulate Electric Jolt and his ways :laugh:

[Ridgeburner]

I truly don't see the big deal...

If a CPU is $150 and a faster (higher clock speed, more Lx Cache, etc.) is $200, then what's the difference between paying to upgrade the CPU? Thing is, you only spend that $50 and get MORE performance, instead of another $150 PLUS $50... it also gives consumers more choices... buy the cheaper hardware and maybe a month or two down the road decide they need a little more juice. Definitely more cost effective than purchasing a new system all together or a replacement CPU.

[Inklin]

will be interesting to see where intel takes this and what legal cr*p they get in for it. it definitely comes down to monopoly abuse, obviously intel hasn't learned it's lesson yet.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

I think if you are trying to defend the hyper-consumerism of this lifestyle, then it may have affected your morality. Don't get me wrong, I like getting the latest gadgets and fashions and everything else, but I vote with my dollar where I can, and I think we need to find solutions to things like this.

I'm not defending it at all, I'm just adding a bit more depth to the thread. It's no good if everyone says how much they hate Intel because of this. :p

[Rigby]

I don't like this in a way, but then again you know that someone will quickly release a way to unlock them for free. :laugh:

[Motoko.]

I'm not defending it at all, I'm just adding a bit more depth to the thread. It's no good if everyone says how much they hate Intel because of this. :p

Oh I know, I wasn't implying you defended which is why I included if :)

It's just people should make an effort to be more informed of what they're buying, this is clearly for those who just want to buy a computer but do not have enough general knowledge about cache sizes or the architecture of their cpu. It should matter to them if they want the most for their money.

[kInG aLeXo]

Reminds me of the Casio thing when you could jump from fx-82ES to fx-570ES by using simple pencil.

[Haptic]

Looks like my next CPU is coming from AMD...

[Neo003]

This card is for simple folks who don't know what l1,l2 or l3 is. And for rest of us hack will be available in few days. :ninja:

[Quattrone]

its Intel copying Apple business model? for anything stupid, Apple charge you a lot of money.

[Motoko.]

its Intel copying Apple business model? for anything stupid, Apple charge you a lot of money.

Apple wouldn't have the balls to do this. Their computers are already outdated on launch :laugh:

[Alladaskill17]

Not going to last. Consumers will not go for this at all.

[ichi]

Makes sense: you still have a range of different CPUs with different price tags, only that you can upgrade later instead of buying a whole new CPU.

On Intel's side, they can offer several options with a single production line (which they have always done, anyway, only that you couldn't "upgrade" them).

"Where can I download more CPU", anyone? :rofl:

[Gladiatorus]

This is like buying a car and not being able to drive it unless you buy a steering wheel. Once bought, the car is yours to keep and do whatever you want with it, but if you want to unluck its full capacities (like driving), you'll need to spend $300 more ($50 in Intel's case).

This is just over the top.

[Electric Jolt]

Didn't know you can emulate Electric Jolt and his ways :laugh:

Yeah I was wondering the same thing. heh :laugh:

[kazuyette]

does anyone have a good torrent for moar CPU power plz ? :)

[Rigby]

It's not as bad as the 486SX. You got a crippled 486 (coprocessor disabled) soldered to the motherboard and in order to upgrade it you bought a normal 486DX and plugged it into a second socket (which completely disabled the onboard SX chip). Terrible setup.

[ekw]

seems like a prime solution in a business/manufacturing sense.

intel seems to start getting high yields in what would be high ended models. IIRC, they usually shave off defective cache memory or rerouting past defective hardware components (which stretches the critical path) on the die - causing this tier of models we see today (e.g. extereme models probably are "perfectly" manufactured which definitely has low yields -- causing a lot of dough. Every thing else is just a defective form of extreme that was altered after fabrication).

Obviously if they had more higher end yields, it would be quite stupid to permanently cripple a working device. Tiered selling and an option to unlock is a good way to keep the same system & streamline the manufacturing process.

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

If software can be installed to make it better, then overclockers everywhere get a decent processor with $50 knocked off, courtesy of Intel :D

[ZekeComa]

Hackers will hack this so yeah. This will fail because of that.

[Quattrone]

Hackers will hack this so yeah. This will fail because of that.

I agree, there is always a genius that will crack this one day... :laugh:

[Mockingbird]

I wonder what other motherboard manufacturers (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc.) will say since this "upgrade" require an Intel motherboard.