Just unlocked 4 cores on my phenom x2 550 BE

[paininlife]

congrats man, iwz thnking to get one of those for my brother ,and i wud reckon water colling for it

 

[Its_Me]

Just to clear this up, not every 550BE will unlock.

 

[LittleChimp]

Yeah not all do but the odds seem pretty good and if it doesnt unlock its still a cracking chip for the price.

 

[canavan]

Well my mate has one 2, same mobo and same processor..
Unlocked as easy as mine and apparently most BE50's will unlock

This guide is what i used and i am sort of a nub in the pc department
Hope it helps: http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/535501-amd-phenom-ii-core-unlocking-guide.html

 

[manic111]

Canavan my good man, I know that this has been asked twice and you haven't answered, but what motherboard are you using?

 

[canavan]

Asus M4A785TD-V

I said that already lol

Is this fan any good for my cpu anyone? Akasa AK 920-2 Evo
I wanna see how far i can push it

 

[manic111]

Asus M4A785TD-V

I said that already lol

Is this fan any good for my cpu anyone?
I wanna see how far i can push it

Oh sorry mate, I looked through and couldn't see it

Not sure about that fan, but remove that link now unless you want a ban for posting a site with a link to a competitor

 

[melbourne720]

Really?

I thought it was a certain stepping?

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

It seems about 75-80% are unlocking - of those tried of course. Mine didn't but still clocked well.

 

[Tom|Nbk]

Is the Phenom 2 a lot faster than C2D then?

 

[chippy08]

Is the Phenom 2 a lot faster than C2D then?

you will find your e8400 is faster.

 

[Merlin5]

I discovered my revision 2.0 GA-MA770 UD3 has the necessary SB710 southbridge and ACC in bios for unlocking all or individual cores, so I could if I wanted, attempt to unlock my 550 BE. Being a complete noob though, what is the difference between unlocking cores v overclocking? Overclocking increases cpu speed, that much I know. But if I wasn't overclocking, and just unlocking, what actually happens? As far as I know, my cpu is currently running at 3.1 GHz, that's the specified speed. So if I unlocked 4 cores, would the speed increase above 3.1?

 

[LittleChimp]

you will find your e8400 is faster.

And more expensive its fifty pounds more than the 550 and given the chance it can unlock to a quad I know which is better value.

 

[gareth170]

I discovered my revision 2.0 GA-MA770 UD3 has the necessary SB710 southbridge and ACC in bios for unlocking all or individual cores, so I could if I wanted, attempt to unlock my 550 BE. Being a complete noob though, what is the difference between unlocking cores v overclocking? Overclocking increases cpu speed, that much I know. But if I wasn't overclocking, and just unlocking, what actually happens? As far as I know, my cpu is currently running at 3.1 GHz, that's the specified speed. So if I unlocked 4 cores, would the speed increase above 3.1?

having 4 cores won't increase the speed above 3.1ghz... all 4 cores would be running at 3.1ghz still..

think of cores as brains, 4 brains is better than 2...

 

[Merlin5]

having 4 cores won't increase the speed above 3.1ghz... all 4 cores would be running at 3.1ghz still..

think of cores as brains, 4 brains is better than 2...

Ok, so 4 cores all teaming together to make a calculation would mean the processing can be done more efficiently in a quicker time, effectively similar to a faster processor?

 

[linktoinsanity]

Think of the horse and cart analagy. 1 horse can pull a cart at 10Mph. 2 horses can pull it at 10Mph but can pull a heavier cart, especially if that cart is equal weight on each side. 4 Horses can pull a heavier can still, but still at 10Mph.

I don't know how fast a horse can really pull a cart, that is just a guess, but the principle applies to CPU cores as well.

 

[gareth170]

Ok, so 4 cores all teaming together to make a calculation would mean the processing can be done more efficiently in a quicker time, effectively similar to a faster processor?

yes similar. basicly 4 processors in 1 running at the same speed.

if a game or app supports multicore/thread then you'll see a good performance increase..

also another good thing about having 4 cores is if your gaming there'll be 2 cores free for background tasks so that means no slowdown

 

[PermaBanned]

Not all tasks can be shared though. But most can, so it's alright. If you think about... making toast. You can have one person prepping the bread while the other butters it and another gets the toaster ready and the other is taking a plate out, or something. Well 1 woman can make a baby in 9 months, but 9 women can't make a baby in 1 month. That's okay though, because you're going to be making toast more often than you're going to be making babies... in a metaphorical sense, of course

 

['Wes]

Titan's decent.

 

[Merlin5]

Thanks for the explanations guys, mucho appreciato!

Ok, my bios doesn't have the hybrid function which I believe is also necessary, but I've just downloaded the latest bios update from gigabyte which I think should add it, and am about to flash the bios with the gigabyte @BIOS utility. The latest bios is two updates along from mine which is the original bios, and the latest has this description: "FD 2009/08/12 Update CPU ID(AGESA 3.5.3.0 for PhenomII /AthlonII AM3 CPU)"

What I'm wondering is, if I'm successful and it does unlock all 4 cores (I'm not going to O/C, just unlock), what do I need to be concerned about regarding stability and safety of the mobo? Do I need to change voltages? Or just set ACC to auto and enable hybrid? And will a simple unlock be alright on the stock cooler? Finally, is there a chance I could brick the mobo, or is the worst that can happen that I need to pull out the cmos battery for a minute and reset the bios?

 

[BIGBC]

Resetting the BIOS will not unflash it. If the flashing goes wrong then you can be in some serious trouble, but this only rarely happens (power failure etc).
I would expect it to generate more heat but im not really sure.