CPU Core Unlocking?

[bloc97]

I just bought a Acer Aspire M3410, It has the Foxconn RS880/AMD K10 motherboard. I heard that 880G Chipsets can unlock more cores and since I have a locked Zosma Phenom II 840T, I was wondering if I could unlock two more cores out of my CPU. I know that my Motherboard is OEM and there is not the option in the BIOS, but is there a way because my chipset and my CPU are supposed to be able to unlock more cores...

And, yes, my Motherboard supports a 125W CPU...

Please do not tell me that I am cheap and "go buy a real Hexa-Core CPU", I just want to try to unlock what I have now...

Thanks for helping me.

 

[inzone]

I know that when you have a cpu with a lot of cores that you tend to think that they are all being used but in reality very few applications and games use more than two cores and there maybe a game or two that use four cores , I don't know. The problem is that you can't make your computer use any specific amount of cores , it would be great if you could actually do that. I have a 6 core and I haven't used all the cores for anything so I have disabled two of them and I may disable two more if I am able to determine if that would help the cpu out in some way.

 

[nukemaster]

The ability to unlock cores is a chip set level feature, but it needs to be enabled in the bios. Unfortunately boards that do not support(by way of a required bios version, If it is a store bought system, the bios is very limited) this feature, even with the right chipset will not unlock the extra cores.

inzone is very correct, you may not even see the difference with the extra cores even if they could be unlocked.

@ inzone
Disabling cores may lower cpu temperatures and power consumption, but most modern cpus can place idle cores to sleep saving nearly as much power without a need for switching them off. This allows you do have the cores if you need them, while still saving power.

 

[bloc97]

So then it would be nearly impossible for me to unlock two more cores? I would like two more cores since I convert a lot of videos and it would make it faster...

Even a unlocked bios could not re-enable this feature on a OEM board?

 

[nukemaster]

The OEM in this case Foxconn gets an order from lets say Dell. They use a board from production and customize it for the order. In some rare cases the board may be close enough(Some Asus boards made for HP are the same as boards they sell under a different name) to use a bios from a board available for consumers, but more often then not an attempt to flash the bios this way will result in a dead computer.

Video editing is one place where more cores can indeed help. If you have a decent power supply some video editors can use the video card to accelerate rendering/encoding

 

[bloc97]

Thanks guys but would a Modded BIOS re-enable this feature? Or is it disabled by the OEM in the hardware-level?

 

[bloc97]

Ok thanks, ill try it out if I find any modded bios(es)...

 

[bloc97]

Best answer selected by Bloc97.