Question about multiplier lock on C2D E6600 and E6700

[DIYNewb]

As i understand it, the multiplier is locked on all Conroes except for the extreme edition. Does anybody know by what mechanism it is locked by? Is it hardwired into the chips themselves, or will a solution simular to the "pencil trick" in AMD chips unlock them? Or perhaps some minor soldering?

 

[mpjesse]

I doubt soldering or lead pencils will unlock the multiplier. Both intel and AMD learned their lessons on both those tricks. Considering P4's or Athlon 64's have never been successfully unlocked, I doubt Core 2 Duo will be.

Stranger things have happened though...

(just don't count on anything strange happening)

 

[DIYNewb]

I doubt soldering or lead pencils will unlock the multiplier. Both intel and AMD learned their lessons on both those tricks. Considering P4's or Athlon 64's have never been successfully unlocked, I doubt Core 2 Duo will be.

Stranger things have happened though...

(just don't count on anything strange happening)

This is truly a sad day, when CPU manufactuers wise up/stop being benevolent to enthusiasts who want to crank up and cool down (or freeze) old chips regardless of the potential damage. Damn though, 700 extra dollars to get that feature... a pact with satan i say!

Oh well looks like i'll have to do the FSB overclocking that has been described. Thanks for the reply.

 

[chuckshissle]

Stranger things have happened though...

... yeh, like your new avatar :x

:lol:

 

[ethernalite]

This is truly a sad day, when CPU manufactuers wise up/stop being benevolent to enthusiasts who want to crank up and cool down (or freeze) old chips regardless of the potential damage. Damn though, 700 extra dollars to get that feature... a pact with satan i say!

While I'm sure overclocking is one of the reasons that this is done, the first and primary reason was to stop people from selling chips at overspeced speed (i.e. up the multiplier and sell the chip at a higher speed). There were a number of blackmarket groups that used to exist, especially in developing markets like East Asia, that used advanced equipment to remark the CPU data embedded in the chip, as well as the multiplier. This allowed them to sell a, say, 500Mhz chip that sold for $120 as a brand new 800Mhz chip that would run for $700.

Nowadays, Intel (and probably AMD) physically modify the chip by blowing fuses so that it is virtually impossible to change the multiplier.