AMD CPU AM3 Phenom II X3 720

Smoke-Alot · 22 May 2009 at 16:17

Hello,

after reading various reviews i am getting a bit confused,

is there 2 of these chips or is it the same one, do all the Phenom II X3 720 have an unlocked multy?

AMD CPU AM3 Phenom II X3 720
AMD CPU AM3 Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition

burtie · 22 May 2009 at 16:23

Just the BE are unlocked.

Art · 22 May 2009 at 16:39

Aren't all 720's Black editions? I'm pretty sure I've never seen/heard a of a non-BE chip.

Smoke-Alot · 22 May 2009 at 16:52

i dont want to get the wrong one lol, i was sure it was the same chip (black edition) but now after x amount of reviews and price hunting i am not sure lol

Art · 22 May 2009 at 16:55

I'm pretty sure that all 720's are Black Editions. The AMD site only lists the BE and I've never seen a non-BE listed in a shop or reviewed or announced.

Which reviews did you see that make you think there's a non-BE?

Smoke-Alot · 22 May 2009 at 17:02

found out recently i am not allowed to post links,

however if you do a general search for the cpu you will notice a lot of review sites and shops dont state if it is the black edition so i want to make sure lol,
also found out if you lucky there is a 4th core you can unlock

souinds interesting

Art · 22 May 2009 at 17:03

No links to competitors, but if they're reviews by independent websites they're generally fine.

4th core unlocking does sound great, but as far as I know it's only a rare few that actually work.

Smoke-Alot · 22 May 2009 at 17:07

Art said:
No links to competitors, but if they're reviews by independent websites they're generally fine.

4th core unlocking does sound great, but as far as I know it's only a rare few that actually work.

(thanks for clearing up the links posting situation)

they do say in this review that its only a lucky few,
Would be nice

so they are all black editions with unlocked multy?

Art · 22 May 2009 at 17:11

All Black Editions have unlocked multipliers yeah, that's what makes them Black Editions.

I'm also 99% sure that all 720's are Black Editions. The distinct lack of other people chipping in either means they're all thinking "well duh!" or they don't want to risk sticking their necks out!

Smoke-Alot · 22 May 2009 at 17:15

Art said:
All Black Editions have unlocked multipliers yeah, that's what makes them Black Editions.

I'm also 99% sure that all 720's are Black Editions. The distinct lack of other people chipping in either means they're all thinking "well duh!" or they don't want to risk sticking their necks out!

lol, got to say not a lot replying, hmmmmm

my brother is trying to get me to go to intel, what do you think?
i think the 720 is the better option

Art · 22 May 2009 at 17:18

It really depends on your needs and budget to be honest. A lot of people here will tell you to got for an Intel i7 setup. That's great advice if you need/want the power, love cutting edge tech and have lots of cash to burn. On the other have, AMD tend to be better bang for buck at the moment: their hardware can cater for pretty much everyone except the extreme performance end, and it'll be cheaper.

You could go for Intel's socket 775 platform if you want: it's cheaper than i7 and can give great performance. The only mild problem is that the successor for it is already in the works and nearing a release date, so it'll be dead much sooner than later.

What are you going to use the rig for?

Smoke-Alot · 22 May 2009 at 17:27

webdesign and gaming,

for the chip the budget is around £100/130 same as the 720's

Art · 22 May 2009 at 17:31

i7 will be well out then, it's ~£200 just for the processor.

You could always start a spec-me thread in the general forum, that'll get you a lot of helpful suggestions. Make sure you include as much info as possible though, it'll help people to spec out machine better suited for you.

For £100-130 the 720 sounds good, although you'll really need to look at the rig as a whole and compare it to what you'll be using it for.

Smoke-Alot · 22 May 2009 at 17:55

here are the parts i am looking at, around 300 in total

AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz

OCZ 4GB KIT (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1800Mhz PC3 14400 REAPER SERIES DUAL CHANNEL KIT (8-8-8-27)

ASUS M4A78T-E 790GX Socket AM3 onboard VGA DVI HDMI 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

i will post it up in general and see what advice i get

95thrifles · 22 May 2009 at 18:07

Stick with the 720, its a new socket (AM3) where as the 775 socket is dead so no further releases, you wont be able to update it, with the AM3 theres more chance you'll be able to update the system in a year or two without having to start again
And yes ALL 720's are BE's theres the 710 which isnt but each model number only represents one chip so 720=BE

Smoke-Alot · 22 May 2009 at 18:32

glad to hear another user confiming the BE lol, so thats settled lol

glad you said that about the 775 as that is the situation i am in at the mo with my current setup, can only go a couple of chips higher so it dont seem worth the cost, that is why i am moving to am3

Audigex · 23 May 2009 at 03:10

It's definately BE - you may well be thinking about the very slightly lower clocked 710, about £110 on here the other week. It's basically the same chip, but clocked at 2.6gHz and no unlocked multiplier.

For your usage, it's (edit, the 720) the perfect chip. It's fantastic in virtually every game - high clock speeds (3.6 no worries, 3.4 as a bare minimum) and triple core, more than enough for web design and every day tasks and it runs very cool. The only alternative would be an E8 chip, losing a core for the sake of a higher clock. You'd likely appreciate the extra core more, however, as more web-development software goes multi-threaded. The 710 is a great alternative if you just want to run it at stock or for a cool-running system.

New games like the third core, old games are more than happy with 3.4gHz+

It runs so cool, mine's going in a HTPC system when I upgrade.

Smoke-Alot · 23 May 2009 at 07:35

Audigex said:
It's definately BE - you may well be thinking about the very slightly lower clocked 710, about £110 on here the other week. It's basically the same chip, but clocked at 2.6gHz and no unlocked multiplier.

For your usage, it's (edit, the 720) the perfect chip. It's fantastic in virtually every game - high clock speeds (3.6 no worries, 3.4 as a bare minimum) and triple core, more than enough for web design and every day tasks and it runs very cool. The only alternative would be an E8 chip, losing a core for the sake of a higher clock. You'd likely appreciate the extra core more, however, as more web-development software goes multi-threaded. The 710 is a great alternative if you just want to run it at stock or for a cool-running system.

New games like the third core, old games are more than happy with 3.4gHz+

It runs so cool, mine's going in a HTPC system when I upgrade.

thank you for the run down, it is much appreciated, i think it is settled, 720 it is,

Unless anyone got a good reason why i shouldnt go for the 720

Glaucus · 23 May 2009 at 08:49

Does that motherboard support the core unlock as only a few do. Not sure which ones though. Heard it's about a 25% success rate. Also reading a few reviews that it migh be only am2+ you can unliock the 4th and not am3.

The company says that both features can be enabled by selecting the AOD-ACC (AMD OverDrive - advanced clock calibration) feature in the BIOS, which was the same method used by Playwares to enable the fourth core on a Phenom II X3 710 using a Biostar TA790GX 128M motherboard.

ASRock says that the AOD-ACC feature unlocks 2MB of extra Level 3 cache on the Phenom II X4 805 and 810 CPUs, upping the L3 cache from 4MB to 6MB. Meanwhile, the motherboard manufacturer also says that the AOD-ACC feature will unlock the fourth core on Phenom II X3 710 and 720 Black Edition CPUs, which are basically quad-core CPUs with one of the cores disabled. The company has released CPU-Z screenshots with AOD-ACC enabled and disabled as evidence that the feature works.

However, although ASRock is marketing this as a feature of its motherboards, the company points out that your CPU won’t necessarily unlock with AOD-ACC enabled. “The success rate of this trick depends on the CPU version,” says ASRock, pointing that it’s tested a number of CPUs with mixed results. ASRock didn’t provide any figures for the success rate, but did say that a “certain percentage” of CPUs failed.

The company has listed seven motherboards that it’s successfully used to unlock the extra features of the aforementioned processors. This includes those based on AMD’s 790GX chipset, as well as some boards based on AMD’s 780G chipset with an SB710 Southbridge. ASRock is particularly proud of the latter combination on its A780GXH/128M motherboard, saying that the chipset’s support for AOD-ACC is an “Exclusive Worldwide First.”

Smoke-Alot · 23 May 2009 at 09:46

AcidHell2 said:
Does that motherboard support the core unlock as only a few do. Not sure which ones though. Heard it's about a 25% success rate. Also reading a few reviews that it migh be only am2+ you can unliock the 4th and not am3.

it does yes, just depends if i get a lucky chip apparently lol

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2379&page=5

Code:

AMD's SB750 southbridge also makes use Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC); this is an interconnect that runs directly from the southbridge and into the CPU socket.

EDIT,

just had another look around and it dosent look like i can do it from within the bios but can do it using the amd utility
http://www.cpu3d.com/review/7162-5/asus-m4a78t-e-am3-motherboard/test-setup-procedures-and-bios.html

can anyone please confirm this for me?