Just unlocked 4 cores on my phenom x2 550 BE

canavan · 29 Aug 2009 at 20:25

Anyone know of any good fans to keep the processor running at a nice temp?

Spooter · 29 Aug 2009 at 20:57

Nice work..

Any pictures?

I noticed bobbyboy uk has his unlocked and running at 3.9Ghz cooled by a Corsair H50 Water Cooling Kit. Only around £60 and looks good.

aaron333 · 29 Aug 2009 at 21:00

Tested for stability?

canavan · 29 Aug 2009 at 22:02

Here

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/9942/quadcore.png

it was a AMD x2 phenom 550BE and i put it on AAC: auto and unleash mode enabled on bios and 2nd go it fired up and worked like a charm..

What is a stable temperature for these CPU's?
After you unlock core you can't read temp on them for some reason but all seems stable and i have ran a few tests.
overall i am happy that i got a quad core very simply, i thought it would be a nightmare but it was all easy enough.
Just need some cooling advice for it if any.

If anyone is trying to unlock xtra cores with an ASUS motherboard, just ask and i will help as much as i can.
But mine was a smooth unlocking

Balb0wa · 29 Aug 2009 at 22:55

i use hardware monitor for temps, middle one, 48 degrees

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

aaron333 · 29 Aug 2009 at 22:56

OP, try IBT on max, quicker than Prime 95 too. 10 Rounds should do it.

canavan · 30 Aug 2009 at 02:12

ty

well i like CPU's but i like drink more, i willl talk tomara when i speak english again.

Also, one major annoyance with unlocking cores is... you can't check temp's of core once you unlock it

canavan · 30 Aug 2009 at 07:32

bobbyboy uk said:
i use hardware monitor for temps, middle one, 48 degrees

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

Was that an unlocked core, and is that cpu overcloced stable?

Balb0wa · 30 Aug 2009 at 10:24

its a x2 550 , 4 cores stable, so 2 unlocked cores, yes its stable

Namak · 30 Aug 2009 at 10:27

Cool! Buy two get two free. Good work

canavan · 30 Aug 2009 at 14:41

Nicely overclocked, what fan are you using? i guess the stock fan ain't gonna cut it.
Good getting a quad core out of dual core eh lol

LittleChimp · 31 Aug 2009 at 17:54

What motherboard are you using out of interest Canavan

canavan · 1 Sep 2009 at 18:30

http://www.trustedreviews.com/motherboards/review/2009/08/06/Asus-M4A785TD-V-EVO/p1
That there peggy, i wonder if i can overclock my cpu as much as bobby :cool:

Picked that motherboard and the cpu, without knowing you could unlock it.
Got lucky in picking a motherboard that could do it though lol

Tom|Nbk · 1 Sep 2009 at 18:56

I'm tempted to do this but whats the likelihood of getting one that can be unlocked?

I'd hate to buy one and not be able to unlock.

fizzle-187 · 1 Sep 2009 at 19:10

what motherboard you using?

Azza · 1 Sep 2009 at 19:11

Tom|Nbk said:
I'm tempted to do this but whats the likelihood of getting one that can be unlocked?

I'd hate to buy one and not be able to unlock.

They all do it, just need a mobo that can mate. There are a few chips that can unlock, one of the new Semperons can be unlocked so its 2 cores not 1. I don't know the models that can be unlocked off the top of my head and I'm on a train at the mo so canny find you a list. But if no one else posts or u can't find out yourself ill find you one when I'm home, cos I'm that nice.

LittleChimp · 1 Sep 2009 at 19:14

Nice that these new 785 boards unlock also.

EsaT · 1 Sep 2009 at 19:15

aaron333 said:
Tested for stability?

Yeah, AMD doesn't disable cores just for the fun of it because it means they have to sell that CPU at cheaper price while its manufacturing still costs same.
(disabling cores is way how they can get at least some income from partially faulty dies)

aaron333 said:
OP, try IBT on max, quicker than Prime 95 too. 10 Rounds should do it.

Instability doesn't necessarily happen immediately.
After few hours of Linpack (IBT, OCCT or LinX) you can start to be sure that it's relatively stable for that kind of calculations... Few weeks ago when toying with my Q9550 getting to run for fair hour seemed that "critical" point after which it wouldn't anymore detect new instabilities.

Prime stresses PC in different ways so it can detect instability which doesn't show in Linpack.
Also as Prime doesn't exactly run components at full throttle it might take longer time to detect instability so it must be run at least overnight: In one run one core dropped out at around 13 hour... that core was one of the two which had "few settings" earlier dropped out after around four hours. (after one Vcore bump it was stable for full 24 hours)

Of course if you have also overclocked memory that opens whole new area for instabilities which might occur only when right bit patter is written to right
location.

This page has really good thoughts about stress testing:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=2281108

canavan said:
Also, one major annoyance with unlocking cores is... you can't check temp's of core once you unlock it

AMD doesn't have sensors in cores like Intel but just one generic sensor for whole packet so you can't get actual hot spot temperatures for cores.

Tom|Nbk · 1 Sep 2009 at 19:38

Azza said:
They all do it, just need a mobo that can mate. There are a few chips that can unlock, one of the new Semperons can be unlocked so its 2 cores not 1. I don't know the models that can be unlocked off the top of my head and I'm on a train at the mo so canny find you a list. But if no one else posts or u can't find out yourself ill find you one when I'm home, cos I'm that nice.

Really?

I thought it was a certain stepping?

So once these are unlocked they're basically one of the x4 Phenoms?

mmj_uk · 1 Sep 2009 at 19:39

From what I've seen Linpack/LinX is a lot omre stressful than Prime95, but you should still run it for a few hours just to see how your computer handles any heat build up.

A stable processor should be able to run both for long periods no problem.