New
#20
does it unlock on the hard wear itself, so when you reinstall your os you dont have to get another code?
I see technology moving more and more toward the world of "artificial limitations", and I don't like it. Next thing will be $30 Blu-ray discs that work only X times, and then require you to pay $5 each time you want to see the movie again. Oh, and $2 per special feature, if you want those.
I can't say as I like this idea, but if the initial cost is lower than what it would be for a fully functional chip its not as bad as it sounds. Nobodies mentioned this but it looks to me like Microsoft is already doing this with Windows 7's anytime upgrade, which most people perceive as a good thing. You buy just the product code, type it in and features previously locked out become available. Personally I only buy AMD processors so at the moment I'm not loosing any sleep over it.
I only buy AMD too, but this seems to be a trend that's picking up speed in the industry. It's similar to games and DLC. You buy a half finished game for full price, then pay twice the cost of the game for a bunch of small DLC "upgrades" to get what should have been the finished product.
Great marketing, because everybody is taking the bait. I just wish I'd thought of it.
Well, like I said earlier, if the initial cost is lower, it wouldn't be too bad. I was thinking about this last night and in my case it could have been a good thing. I bought a bar bones system because it was all that I could afford. It has an Athlon II x4 clocked at 2.6 GHz. Right now I would be quit happy to pay 50 bucks to run a little utility and make it a Phenom processor with maybe a little boost in clock speed. Sure beats buying a whole new processor later on, at full price, and ending up with an Athlon II sitting in a box doing nothing. Not to mention taking everything apart to swap processors and risk damaging something. I would have actually been more inclined to buy a system marketed with a software upgradeable CPU. Even if it was slightly more expensive than the same system without it, it would save me money in the end.