Intel Corporation has started offering warranty on overclocked processors – a first for the company and the industry.
The warranty offered affects certain processors only and comes in the form of a plan – Performance Tuning Protection Plan (PTPP) – with some limitations though.
The plan costs money – between 20 and 35 USD and can be purchased either from Intel or one of its approved resellers. How it works – until now if an overclocker fries his (or her) CPU during overclocking Intel would not replace the CPU even if it was covered by the 3-year standard Intel warranty. Now if you purchase the PTPP for your CPU however, you are given a single replacement free of charge. Any future damage isn’t covered and the replacement is only available as long as your CPU is still covered under its original warranty. And also – you can’t buy multiple plans for the same CPU.
The PTPP covered CPUs as of now are as follows: Intel Core i7-3960X (35 USD), Intel Core i7-3930K (35 USD), Intel Core i7-2700K (25 USD), Intel Core i7-2600K (25 USD), Intel Core i5-2500K (20 USD).
The replacement plans are only available on retail, boxed CPUs and they can be transferred between owners if you sell your CPU and you’re allowed to own multiple plans, just not on the same CPU. Finally, you can’t request a replacement CPU in the first 30 days of purchasing the plan.
The PTPP offer is not unlimited though – it will be available for the next 6 months after which it will be evaluated and the effectiveness of the program will be measured. Intel also reserves the right to change the terms of the plan or discontinue it at its own leisure. Presumably if you purchase one of the plans however you’ll be covered until your warranty runs out.
Source: Anandtech