Phenom II successful/not successful core unlock

[videl]

OK I built a phenom II X2 system and as many of you who read my threads know I successfully unlocked the locked cores on it...I know that a number of people here on toms also had the same success I did...
For those who don't know about my system I'll post it later...
But I just want all the people who had success/no success in unlocking any phenom II X2 or X3 to post their results on this thread...or you could just PM me...I'm gonna do a phenom II unlocking guide and I want to collect some statistics to see approximately how high of a chance it is to build a computer with an X2 or X3 and successfully unlock.
Thanks...

PS: If it's not hard I would like to also know what motherboard and bios version you guys used to unlock. For those who didn't have success in unlocking cores this guide I'm working on might help in unlocking it if they did something wrong...
Thanks again...

 

[chrisiomuk]

Heres a question though, is it worth having the L3 cache for gaming, does it make a big difference or would I be better just keeping it as an AII X3 440?

I have noticed minimum framerates on Bad Company 2 and GTA4 take big jumps to over 30 FPS when it gets really busy on screen but was wondering if the cache had anything to do with this or just having the extra core and 100MHz bump over my older X2 245 did the trick?

Just for reference -

AMD Athlon II X3 440 (with L3 6mb cache unlocked)
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 Motherboard (NB870/SB850)
4BG Corsair Value DDR3 1333 (2x2GB)
Powercolour Radeon HD4850 1GB Graphics Card
WD Caviar 250GB 32MB buffer main HDD
Samsung F3 500GB Data/Backup HDD
OCZ StealthXtreme 2 600W PSU

 

[Motopsychojdn]

if your gaming the L3 is a big bonus, better than having the extra core anyday imo
i have the extra core but no L3, I'm happy as I am though
Moto

 

[chrisiomuk]

Then it is decided, the cache stays, thx Moto, might see about getting the clock upto 3.2 or 3.3 GHz too, will run with stock clock for next week first tho just to make sure cache is 100% reliable.

 

[videl]

the cache should be fine as long as it got unlocked...and of course you should keep it if it works...why not? it's free and it does raise the performance...so you should keep it...

 

[chrisiomuk]

Yeah, the fact that one of the cores is def faulty reasures me about the cache somewhat. More likely that it was just downgraded due to this and no fault with cache as there is currently no production running on phenom X3's and demand would be low due to X4 prices anyway.

 

[chrisiomuk]

OK, here is an update, I have now run Prime95 for an hour after overclocking my unlocked 440 and using 'speed fan' it shows the CPU as running @ 55 degrees, is this ok (it was running unlocked but at stock @ 54 degrees). My clock speed is now 3.1GHz which also put the memory upto 1380MHz (dont like the memory clock going up as its non-heat spreaded value ram from Corsair).

Any tips, suggestions?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

should be something in your bios to unlink the ram speed, 55' is a nice enough temps as well, try to keep it under 60' on load as a rough guide
ofc you could always go for an aftermarket cooler if you want to push bigger numbers
Moto

 

[videl]

^Yup,
I wouldn't worry about the ram going up in speed by 47Mhz (that's nothing)
as long as you don't make the ram any higher than that you're fine...
unlinking the ram is not as it seems you can either change the cpu to ram ratio
or the ram multiplier and both options would only allow you to lower the speed by alot...so you either keep it this way or you overclock high enough so when you lower the ram speed it stay approximately at 1333...
Oh and 55C is perfectly fine btw...

 

[chrisiomuk]

Thanks guys, happy with the performance Im getting from the cPU so nothing extra needed there, new GPU is next.

 

[videl]

great...
what gpu you looking into buying? ati 5x series or the nvidia 400 series?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Or waiting for the 6k series from Amd Radeon? (Cant get used to typing that)
Moto

 

[chrisiomuk]

Hopefully the 6*** will bring the price down on the 5850 then I will get one of them, thinking the XFX 5850 when it gets down towards the 150 - 160 pounds mark.

 

[videl]

cool...the 6x series of amd should be mindblowing I think...

 

[Hypertension]

Kinda OT but I unlocked an AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz using ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO for my parents. Bios was whatever came with it. Ran steady under 60 deg c while maxing all cores with prime 95 over an hour in a terribly old crappy case with only stock cooler and 1 80mm exhaust.


I didn't want to start a new thread but I was curious....I have another AMD chip that I am running in my rig but was still underexperienced when I purchased the mobo. It doesn't have the core unlocking feature and was curious...if I were to switch my CPU into the other mobo with the feature, attempt to unlock, and if successful....can I remove the CPU and place in original mobo as unlocked?

In short: Unlock my cpu in parents mobo...return to my mobo....will it remain unlocked (if it was successful in the other mobo)

 

[JDFan]

Kinda OT but I unlocked an AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz using ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO for my parents. Bios was whatever came with it. Ran steady under 60 deg c while maxing all cores with prime 95 over an hour in a terribly old crappy case with only stock cooler and 1 80mm exhaust.


I didn't want to start a new thread but I was curious....I have another AMD chip that I am running in my rig but was still underexperienced when I purchased the mobo. It doesn't have the core unlocking feature and was curious...if I were to switch my CPU into the other mobo with the feature, attempt to unlock, and if successful....can I remove the CPU and place in original mobo as unlocked?

In short: Unlock my cpu in parents mobo...return to my mobo....will it remain unlocked (if it was successful in the other mobo)

Nope -- the ublock is handled by the BIOS so if the MOBO does not support unlocking it will not work -- The unlocking does nothing to the CPU chip itself so once you remove it feom the one board it does not remian unlocked.

 

[Hypertension]

Nope -- the ublock is handled by the BIOS so if the MOBO does not support unlocking it will not work -- The unlocking does nothing to the CPU chip itself so once you remove it feom the one board it does not remian unlocked.

Thats what I had suspected. Thanks for confirming. Wish I had known that when I bought my mobo with intentions to attempt unlocking. Boo hoo, only got what I paid for...now time to OC this thing and see what else I can learn from it.

 

[chrisiomuk]

Athlon II X3 440 here and using the ASUS core unlocker on my 870 chipset motherboard I unlocked the 6mb L3 cache which has been running for many months now. 4th Core seemed to be faulty but core unlocker recognized this after failing to post and deactivated it again. Still, a Phenom X3 for the price of an Athlon X3 is a bonus in my book

 

[videl]

Yeah still not too bad since you got cache...which would probably show
an increase in performance if you tested with it off and on...
you should do that...and post some scores...

 

[Leooo]

I tried to unlock some core on my Phenom II 550BE but once i saved the new BIOS option, i got a crash and my computer wont boot again.

I didn't even have the BIOS loading.
Just black screen and no signal.
I tried to remote connect with another computer buth my computer simply don't boot.

Once a clear the CMOS everything went fine, but on 2 cores, with Auto Unlock disabled.

Can i assume my CPU won't unlock? or i didnt but enough voltage?

My mobo is a GA-870A-UD3

Thanks for your help

 

[JDFan]

Yep -- not being able to boot after unlocking is a sign that the unlocked core(s) may have problems - you could try a small amount more voltage (be sure to stay within the MAX voltage spec) or could try one unlock at a time and see if perhaps just one of the two is bad - or a combination of the 2. Sometimes just one core is bad and the other is fine but sometimes you just get one that is only useable as a dual core - just play with it a bit and test a few combinations and you might at least get a triple core still.