Cooling advice needed for oc'd dual core.

josey99

josey99

josey99

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Hi there.

I've just bought this board, a Gigabyte GA-M720-US3 (Socket AM3/AM2+)...

h**p://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-188-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1483

... and I've just bought this cpu. An AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3)

h**p://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-249-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=803

Now I'm not daft. I know that board will allow me to unlock the two redundant cpu cores on the phenom II 550. I know how to turn that B.E. dual core phenom II into a top end B.E. quad core phenom II.

I also know it's possible to then clock it all up to about 3.6 or 3.7 ghz, as a perminant stable clock.


Now odviously the stock cooler is going to strugle with this. I'd be surprised if it didn't so I'm looking to buy a better cooler.

Can anyone recomend a vgood cooler that will easily cope with what I intend to run this as?

I was looking at this one from zalman. A Zalman CNPS10X-Quiet CPU Cooler (754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366).

h**p://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-044-ZA&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Does anyone know if this is good enough to cope with a oc'd 3.8 ghz quad core phenom II?

Thnx in advance.

Joe.
 
You act as though the unlock will be successful, sure it's handy, but the whole thing is one big risk. It's highly doubtful that any cores you do manage to unlock will be usefull in any way, and even then they're probably not going to be stable in a stress test. You're only chance really is if they've been binned as good cores, which doesn't happen often. Only when they have more quads than duals and there's a high demand for duals. But yes, if you do unlock you can still overclock.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-008-TI&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-000-TL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-061-TR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395
 
First off thnx for the quick response and linking the coolers.

RE: the unlocking. I'm actualy following a guide from a freind who's had a 90% sucess rate with 550's over the past month so yes I am fairly confident and yes those other two cores usualy work vwell with up to 3.9 ghz clocks.

The unlock itself is done via a combination of a bios update wich enables ACC and the correct bios settings etc. The motherboard I've picked is supposed to be vitaly important in this.


Edit: I'll report back with what happens.
 
I know how unlocking's done, but it's rare that it's that successful. It's all down to which CPU you get, not what motherboard you use. And what about the coolers i suggested?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-XG&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-000-PL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-060-TR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Those are the best of the best, unless you wanted water...
 
I'm going to go with the thors hammer and thnx for linking it. I've got a realy nice 120 mil fan to go with that if it's needed at any point.

No matter what I do with that cpu, I plan to take full advantage of that unlocked multiplier and run the thing perminantly oc'd. I also run my rig nearly 24/7 and the cpu is strained for a lot of that so I badly needed something good enough to take it all.
Thnx for pointing it out.



You've realy put me on the backfoot about unlocking this. My m8 was pretty confident because he's done a good few builds with that combination over this past month but if it's realy that much of a risk... He had me believe it was pretty much a certain thing but what you say odviously makes perfect sense.

Meh, no matter. I know these cpu's are hitting 3.8 and 3.9 through multipier alone with only a minor volt increase so if I can run it at about 3.6 or 3.7 as a perminant oc. Two cores with that kind of grunt should still be plenty.
Perhaps I'll try unlocking it all in a year or two and test it. Once I've had a good run out it all and am planning another build.
 
Sorry for the hijack but I was thinking about doing this as well.

I was just wonder back to the days of the 6800le graphics cards where sometime you get one back of core unlock successfully in rivatuner and the other would artifact.

I guess this is the same and its highly possible that you might have one core work fine when unlocked but the other be unstable.

Can you then select which core to unlock and leave the unstable one disabled giving you a triple core machine? (Assuming this is the case with the chip?)
 
You're not making much sense here. Of course you try to open up the other cores, if it works that's excellent. Its not certain of course, I'd try to buy from the same place your mate was to help your odds a bit. He shouldn't have sold it as certain, but it's very good even if not unlocked.

Any overclock should be permanent until forced to be otherwise :)
 
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