AMD Core Unlock advice

[Resident]

M/B - Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P
CPU - Athlon II X3 460 @ 3.4Ghz
RAM - Corsair DDR3 4Gb (2x2Gb)
GFX - AMD Radeon HD 6570 1Gb
HDD - Seagate Momentus XT 500gb & Seagate Barracuda 500Gb
OPT - LG DVD-RW
PSU - 500w

It's a modest system but I discovered that I have another core in my CPU which if I unlock it becomes a Phenom II X4 B60

Now unlocking cores is entirely new to me so what are the likely issues ?

I don't want to cause any serious harm to either my CPU or mainboard so can I get some advise from you knowledgeables please?

 

[MaxP779]

Unlikely to be any issues.

Stress test it with linX or prime95 to make sure the core isnt defective, no blue screens or anything and its fine. Enjoy your new quad.

 

[Steveocee]

Possibly slightly higher temps as the heat won't have as much surface area to disperse into.

 

[Resident]

Possibly slightly higher temps as the heat won't have as much surface area to disperse into.

Heat shouldn't be that much of a problem, I've a Matterhorn Pure sat on the CPU, currently with the stock Alpenfoehn fan but soon to be 2 x SP120 PEs.

Thanks for the advice guys, I shall give it a thorough testing.

 

[JonSmith]

Do a stress test, and try and push that baby to 3.8 or more, it's a C3 deneb after all!

 

[valkynaz]

Now unlocking cores is entirely new to me so what are the likely issues ?

Well the core was disabled for a reason so there's a chance it may be defective. However if it really was defective I doubt you would have been able to boot up. So the likely issue is that the core probably won't overclock as well as the other cores will and you will not be able to boot up.

Stress test as suggested.

 

[Davedree]

Its funny because the pII x2 560 when unlocked is the x4 b60 but as known propus doesnt have l3 Cache,always nice to see unlocked athlons and pII x2s if stable enjoy !

 

[Resident]

Just as an update in case anyone cares.

I unlocked the 4th core and whilst I was getting ready to go out I ran a 20 min Prime95 session.

No errors or lockups and according to Aida64 CPU temp only hit 51°C with the fan on my cooler only spinning up to around 85% of max.

Happy days.

 

[JonSmith]

51C is acceptable, really you'll want to put the fan speed up to maximum though. In games however they won't tax the CPU nearly as much so it'll be closer to 45C or less. Depends if you want to push the chip up to 980BE speed or not, it should certainly capable if you have the cooling.

 

[Resident]

51C is acceptable, really you'll want to put the fan speed up to maximum though. In games however they won't tax the CPU nearly as much so it'll be closer to 45C or less. Depends if you want to push the chip up to 980BE speed or not, it should certainly capable if you have the cooling.

Fan speed is currently dictated by the default PWM settings which push the fan to 100% @ 60°C

As I'm sat typing this, CPU temp is at a reported 29°C and the fan is at approximately 35% of max.

TBH I don't game much on the PC, that's what the console is for. The only reason I've got such a large spec cooler is that my stock AMD one was noisey even at low speeds and the Matterhorn was the best I could get with the budget I had.