So it used to be that overclocking your CPU, that is making it run faster than the advertised speed was almost exclusively the domain of super hardcore computer enthusiasts, nerds, and the overclocking community was kind of like this weird secret society. But fast-forward to the modern age, and it’s never been easier to give your processor an artificial boost. Many motherboards are marketed as even being overclocking friendly, with some of them offering one-click, like dead simple, auto-tuning
features, and then on top of that, AMD and Intel actively promote the fact that some of their chips can be overclocked as a selling point. But hold on a minute, why is it then that this voids your warranty if they’re encouraging you to do it? Well, one term that you might hear thrown around by overclockers is “Silicon Lottery”. The term refers to the way that small physical differences between individual processors can significantly affect their overclocking potential. So while your chip might refuse to be overclocked by more than two megahertz, your buddy’s might be happy running at a full gigahertz above spec because of nothing more than dumb luck. This variation is a big part of why 
chip manufacturers only warrant their processors up to a certain speed. They determine that the advertised frequency is the one that they can guarantee stability at and that anything much higher may or may not work due to the “Silicon Lottery”. The way that individual users will tend to tune their processors differently is another big factor. So if one person applies more voltage than another that one is more likely to burn out sooner, you know flying too close to the Sun and burned wings and all that. So the CPU companies look at this, not unlike how they look at you using your new Core or Rysen processor to slice a block of cheese, instead of using it for computing. You can absolutely use it for that purpose, it’s a free country, but it wasn’t designed for that, and they don’t want to be held 
liable if bits of cheddar on the Contacts keep it from working inside your PC. And You know what? There’s not much that you the consumer (which decide to play in “Silicon Lottery”) can do about this. Legally speaking, goods that you buy generally come with an implied warranty that guarantees that they will conform to industry norms and that they are fit for ordinary purposes. But even if you could debate whether or not overclocking is an ordinary purpose for an unlocked chip, both AMD and Intel disclaim this implied warranty in their own express warranty, that’s that piece of paper that you threw away when you opened up the box, and they are legally allowed to do so. However, that doesn’t mean that 
you are completely without recourse if you try to overclock your processor and something goes wrong, at least if you have an Intel chip. Intel offers what they call the performance tuning Protection Plan, a kind of insurance policy that you buy so that Intel will send you a new CPU if you fry your old one from overclocking. Predictably though, the more expensive your CPU, the more you’ll have to pay for this service. AMD at this time doesn’t offer a comfortable plan. Whether your team blue or team red, the good news is that modern consumer CPUs tend to be exceedingly reliable and very rarely fail at stock speeds, and voltage, or even slightly boosted ones, which means that it isn’t likely that you’d ever need to use that warranty anyway. So we’re not saying don’t do it, we’re just saying that if you decide to overclock (play in “Silicon Lottery”) and throw your warranty in the garbage, be a little conservative with how far you
push your settings, specifically voltage, that’s the big killer. So do your research to determine the widely accepted safe voltage range for your model of the processor before you proceed. Bottom line, don’t do anything obviously stupid and you will probably be fine.
