If you find yourself owning a desktop PC that you noticed is to slow to meet your computing needs, Intel may hold the key to your problem since the company has just started a pilot program that allows users to upgrade their Pentium G6951 processor just by buying an update card that lets you unlock some parts of your CPU in order to get higher performance.

Available for a select few OEM desktops that pack the Intel Pentium G6951 processor, this update will unlock 1MB of Level 3 cache together with a Hyper-Threading support, turning it into a Pentium G6952 CPU.

After buying the card all the user has to do is to run a special upgrade program that is available on Intel's website and enter a PIN number, found of the back of the card.

This will get you a somewhat faster processor, but the performance increase varies according to the applications and tasks run, as single-threaded programs won't get that much of a speed improvement.

What is important to note is that the hardware resources activated by this fix are already built into the chip from the first time you buy it, Intel's upgrade card not doing anything else then enabling this for the user, in some ways, Intel charging us for something we already own.

Although definitely controversial this may be a welcomed news for most mainstream computer users, who could get a really simple method of upgrading their system without having to buy a new one or resort to their DIY hardware skills.

For now, this is only a pilot program, tested by Intel on low-end processors and in select markets so we don't know how things will shape up in the future.

I, for one, don't see anything wrong with Intel's approach since this is limited to OEM desktops that usually are locked out when it comes to overclocking and don't usually offer users the possibility of unlocking performance features.

What the future brings, well, that is a different problem altogether since Intel has the power to make this a sought-after feature or a irritating limitation depending on the way they choose to use this tool. (via engadget)