Chance to unlock to a Quad for under £50

[gamesaregood]

Hello Everyone,

I want to bring your attention to a new and very much quiet addition to the AMD product line which seems to have gone very much unnoticed.

I'm afraid although widely available OCUK don't have them listed / in stock yet so don't go looking for them on here, I'm hoping that this thread will encourage them to get them in

Link to AMD product specs for this CPU:

http://products.amd.com/en-us/Deskt...4=512&f5=&f6=&f7=&f8=&f9=&f10=False&f11=&f12=

As you can see Its 45nm and AM2+ but not AM3 so I would guess this is from the more early deneb batch (920 / 940?) as it only has the DDR2 memory controller. Of course the biggest downside is the stock speed of only 2.2GHz and 11 multi which is a shame and of course locked.

When looking for these make sure it states AM2+, 45nm and 2.2GHz and check the OPN PIB numbers

I picked up one of these CPUs retail boxed from a competitor and am pleased with the results however still feel there is more to be had, what do you think?

I do like that its picked up as a Phenom FX as you can see two cores and 6mb of cache unlocked

The screenshot above is about 99% stable (Over 2 hours prime 95 on blend) and did take me a while to get there... I'm still trying to tweak it but overclocking on pure bus speed is not easy so do keep this is mind if you decide to give one of these a go and don't have much experience with these CPUs.

Just to confirm what I'm working with (most in sig anyway...):

Air cooled with Tuniq 120 Tower
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P with F8 Bios
Running in an Antec 1200
Corsair HX620W PSU

The CPU is a CACVC AC 0935FPMW Stepping

Oh and being weak I've ordered a second one to play with .... knowing my luck it will not even unlock! Oh well I can put hope

Michael

 

[gamesaregood]

Hello,

Yeh sorry I'm not posted back sooner..

Stepping of the new CPU is CACVC AC 0936DPMW but its clocking identically and I'm experiencing the same issues as the 1st CPU (unlocked to a quad of course ). I'm still convinced that its not the CPU holding me back but some other settings I've got wrong on the motherboard... so something I will have to look into further.

I also put it back to 2 cores and tried to clock further and experianced exactly the same issues

It just seems so odd that although the CPUs are similar steppings I would think they would be different enough to at least vary in maximum clocks.

Both CPUs are retail boxed.

I've had this board for a fair while now and had a fair few CPUs in it. The GA-MA770-UD3 is meant to be a good board also I think but I'm unsure how they compare overclocking wise, I doubt there would be a massive amount in it though tbh.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[gamesaregood]

Cheers for the update! It's encouraging that a quad core running at 3Ghz+ can be had for so little outlay. I think it won't be long before I take the plunge and order one myself.

yeh, its going to be a crazy leap from an Athlon XP also

Remember that as with any Dual / Tri to Quad unlock there is no guarantee when it comes to unlocking, I've been lucky with both of these but its not to say that you will be also!

Let me know how you get on though if you do decide to get one

 

[gamesaregood]

Is your motherboard flashed with the latest bios? Which stepping is the CPU?

Trust me 1.5v is totally unnecessary, I clocked it to 3.2GHz on 1.35v.

Just put your memory in a divider to rule that out being the issue....

Which settings are you using in ACC? -2 on all cores?

 

[gamesaregood]

i must have gotten 1 of the 70% of the AC 0937DP that wont unlock, im happy anyways

Whats the full code of the CPU? Seems to be a later one that either of mine as you would expect....

interesting wouldn't mind given this a try!

Let us know if you do

 

[gamesaregood]

RibTickler its a case of finding the cheapest with a SB710 or greater chipset.

the cheapest board on OcUK is the asus M4A785D-M Pro AMD 785G for £58.98

Yeh that motherboard should be fine, its on the list for being able to unlock just one core also:

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/10/21/asus-refines-amd-core-unlocking/1

Just make sure the bios version is correct...

AD5000DJ22GI
CACVC
AC 0937DPMW
9386562I90200

hope thier the codes your after

Yes they are the codes but can't find much about them I'm afraid

 

[gamesaregood]

Thanks for the help.

edit: Will the Athlon x2 5000+ 2.2GHz socket AM2+ fit the asus M4A785D-M Pro AMD 785G? As it says its a socket AM3.

Just seen on ASUS web site that this board is OK.

Yeh it will be fine, basically so long as the board uses DDR2 ram as well as the SB710 or SB750 then it should be fine

 

[gamesaregood]

This chip seems like a good clocker. Whats its gaming performance like?

Seems fine, if you would like me to run a test then let me know which game you would like and If I can run the test I will

 

[gamesaregood]

Looking at picking up one of these and an Asus M4A785D-M Pro AMD 785G, works out just under £100 with del.

Anyone tried this combo or know if it works?

Although I've not tried it out I would think it should be ok...

Let us know how you get on

 

[gamesaregood]

Hey gamesaregood, thanks for the heads up on these!

I'm just working out if I have enough spare time to test one of these as well as a Sempron 140 (Sargas Die) and I'm still only about half way through testing a Athlon II X3 425 heh!

Couple of things I'm wondering, if the chip has a max multi of x11 your gonna be needing a 300MHz-HT link to get the chip to 3.3GHz, I'm not sure how easy it is to get the Ht-Link that high?

Also on the product link you posted above these are sold as Athlon chips (not Athlon II), I'm not sure what the main differences between Athlon and Athlon II are? . . . . Is it just a product name or are there big underlying architectural differences?

From your CPU-z screenie it does look just like a full blown Deneb die? perhaps with a faulty DDR3 memory controller?

I may have to choose just one new chip to test out of this and the Sempron 140, either choice isn't that good if they don't unlock . . . although probably the AMD Athlon™ X2 5000+ at least offers a guaranteed dual core whereas if the Sempron doesn't unlock your stuck with a mono core!

Lot's of nice cheap chips though, look foward to any updated results you have!

For something as good as this you need to make the time

I would be interested to see how the Tri Core compares to these when unlocked although they are more expensive CPUs to start with.

Emm, maybe its the HT Link which is holding me back, I might have to look at that.

Yes they are sold as Athlon Chips rather than Athlon II, I guess because of the decreased clock speed and the price point they are sold to meet. But they are 45nm CPUs and deffo Deneb based as otherwise I would not be able to unlock my to a Quad and gain the extra 6MB Cache

I can only presume they come from the earlier 920 / 940 kind of batch which didn't contain a DDR3 memory controller.

I have a Sempron 140 in my HTPC, its not unlocked as the mainboard doesn't support it, but the standard chip plays blu-ray and BBC iplayer HD great!!!

Yeh they are good little CPUs the for the little money they cost, especially when unlocked and overclocked

Hmm, I think I'm gonna try and get a hold of one of these chips, as it would give my old AM2 system a new lease of life if I could unlock it.

Thanks for posting this

Yeh sure would, make sure ifs its an older motherboard that its capable of unlocking the CPU before you purchase as well!

I also ordered a third CPU last night lol so I will have another one to try from the newer batch tomorrow, of course the chances of me being lucky 3 times are slim but we will see! It was a bit of an impulse purchase considering I only have 2 motherboards which are capable of unlocking them and already have 2 unlocked CPUs lol!

 

[gamesaregood]

Ok so CPU number 3 has arrived today, stepping is:

CACVC AC 0935FPDW

I'm not sure if I will get a chance to try it later but will let you know when I do

 

[gamesaregood]

How did you get along?

Unfortunately It looks like I've not been so lucky this time

The CPU unlocks and POSTS fine as a Phenom FX5000 Quad Core, goes into windows fine but when I run prime for 10 - 15mins the PC just turns off without warning, tested as a dual and its fine, used my other OC settings and its seems to be running as a dual core @ 3.1GHz without problems, just running prime at the moment.

gamesaregood what volts did you use for the fsb?
mine craps out at 2.8ghz

1.35v, these CPUs do not need a lot of volts for overclocking at the speeds we are trying to do with this chip, post up some CPUz screenshots and I will see if I can spot whats causing the issue for you.

when you unlock the disabled cores, they run at slower frequencies than the normal cores.

This is of course all incorrect, and it is indeed not a safe guarantee when you unlock the disabled cores. The reason for this is that the disabled cores are turned off for a reason: they failed factory tests. Cores can fail for any number of reasons, including defects in the silicon, problems running at full frequency, or a bug introduced during manufacturing.

When you unlock the disabled cores, they will run at full processor frequency, since you cannot run each core at different speeds. While you may see initial gains and benefits from turning a dual-core CPU into a quad-core CPU, you may introduce instability into your system. Things may corrupt, calculate incorrectly or even crash.


just a copy and paste job (is it worth the risk)

This is rubbish, its true that some are failed CPUs and its quite possible that some might fail for pointless things like a watt or two above what they should be but on the other side some are perfect CPUs which are locked because of supply and demand.

Can you post the link if its within the rules?

 

[gamesaregood]

No matter what volts i put through and HT link i cannot push above 2.8ghz, but at 2.9ghz it can boot up but prime detected cpu failure on core#1, so i rebooted pumped volts upto 1.45v and prime says core#0 and core#1 failed
so anyway this is the best i can do...

(p.s) i like how core temp detected my cpu as a phenom x2 55000

Are you running Torture test in Blend?

What speed is your memory & NB running at? Would be good to see a screen shot of that also

The Core Temp is an interesting one... I ran it on mine and it showed:

I then realized that yours is the version above so updated it and:

So deffo is a chance in their latest version

Here is a screen shot of it running as a quad also:

 

[gamesaregood]

what bios would i need for a Gigabyte GA MA790X UD4P to try and unlock one of these?

Most versions should unlock the CPU from around the F5 area but I would always recommend flashing to the latest version before the CPU upgrade.

Mines now using F9

 

[gamesaregood]

Update the bios to the latest version and give it another go, that does sound like an old version!

 

[gamesaregood]

Nice great to hear about a successful unlock on a newer chip

Now time to overclock it as well

Did you take a note of the stepping?

 

[gamesaregood]

Try less volts, I doubt you need that many for those speeds, I found CPU Vcore volts were holding me back when I was clocking mine, 1.35 or 1.375 should be more than enough!

Give it a go and let us know if its stable.

 

[gamesaregood]

Very nice

Can you list the exact Bios settings of that 3.3GHz clock... trying to work out whats limiting mine