Phenom II successful/not successful core unlock

Thanks! now I hope I get more people to post soon...
I'll also post my configuration later for those who might be interested...

Did you try giving it just a touch more Voltage ? - some of the disabled cores just need a little more Voltage to get them to work properly.

x2 550BE purchased from Newegg on July-26-2009

Crosshair III Formula purchased from Newegg on January-4-2010 (Bios Version AMI 10-29-09)

Unlocked / Overclocked & running at 3.8Ghz (daily) @ 1.4v / Max OC 4.1Ghz (bench only) @ 1.485v

Using a Titan Fenir w/ MX-2 :

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And why would you care - at least we all gave them some profit to work with instead of giving more profit to their competittor !! - besides buying these CPUs with a chance of getting them to unlock allows them to sell the chips which have production errors causing them to not perform to the higher specs of a quad which returns more of a profit to them - just because there is high demand for these chips and they decide to disable perfectly good cores to fill that demand at a lower profit margin is their decision - IF they truly wanted them to be unlockable and curb demand for the Chips they would just let them be out of stock if there were not enough defective chips to fill the demand instead of using good chips.

Besides this is simply another option of OCing to get the best performance for your investment same as buying an i5 750 and OCing it to improve performance instead of buying an i7 or i9 - which I suppose you would also call f***ing thievery !!

While it may be doable on any MOBO and platform - it voids your warranty and is not officially supported by Intel - and I'm pretty sure they would call it thievery if it means you spend less money giving them less profit than you otherwise would have. - and not taking it seriously just bored and wanting to argue a bit to pass the time !! (so no problem)

Lol why does andy even care? If you are such an intel fanboy, whats the point of posting on an amd type thread. Also, are you angry cause you didn't get the best bang for your buck?

Andy was just trying to stir a conversation...I really don't care...
But I do disagree...If I bought the chip as an X2 and did something to it to make it preform better, It's not stealing it's being smart. They priced the X2 at $100 and I paid for the product, then I can do whatever I want with it. I overclocked and unlocked the cores...I voided my warranty and there's no point in arguing...If you overclocked your intel processor like your i5 you also voided your warranty...
These CPUs are made to overclock because that's what building a computer is all about these days...but both companys officially don't support overclocking because they don't do it for you...you do it yourself, and if you screw up and fry or break your cpu it's your fault and your problem they don't wanna deal with you...

Anyway, thank you guys for posting your configurations...hopefully I'll get a few more posts to get all the information I need...

He didn't do anything wrong, he is entitled to his own opinion like everyone else

Fanboy or not, andy is pretty strait forward, I would be pist too if I had spent over 2 hundred on a CPU to later find out that people are paying 99.99$ / 130.00$ for a fully functional quad.

My HTPC is a Gigabyte 790X board (UD4P) with an unlocked 550, and my son's gaming PC is a Gigabyte 785GM-US2H with an unlocked 550. I've definitely had the easiest time/luck with Gigabyte boards. My daughter's PC (which also serves as my backup as I work from home and need my PC 100% available) is an ASRock AM3 board that just refuses, no matter what I do, to unlock a known unlockable 550. I finally got frustrated and spent the $70 more for a real 965BE. That's the only board I could never get to work. But yeah...what are the odds of having that many unlock so easy? I've got a buddy that's bought three of them and can't get any of them to unlocked with the same boards I've got that worked. Needless to say...he hates me. LOL. I did sell him one for his Gigabyte board that did unlock just to make him happy.

cooler?

they are dirt cheap now at days

I got a 720BE unlocked via MSI 790FX-GD70 with BIOS 1.6 via the EC Firmware in the Cell Menu.
I have update my BIOS to 1.9 and still able to unlock via "Unlock Cores" so it goes to prove that AMD does not prohibit its partners to incorporate unlocking of cores and even more so encourages probably to boost AMD processors selling points.

It was a joke and I was not serious.

In addition, I didn't even say anything bad about AMD, didn't I? In fact, I think AMD is so kind that they choose to let you hack out the locked cores.

(However, I would still go with the quad even my MB is an AM3 as those unlocked cores could be bad ones and latest BIOSs might not support them.)

BTW, what made you so angry and care about so much as if I killed your dad?

This saying about "unlocked cores could be bad ones" may be applicable in the times of old. But nowadays, people unlocks and overclocks these gems of processors to the same level as the unlocked versions. If it's a bad core, it wont unlock. If it's a bad core, it wont overclock and survive stresstest that they are subjected to, period.

I don't hate AMD, bro.

Actually, I really want them to come up with processors that can compete with i7 and Gulftown and so we will get bargains.

What I hate is AMD fanboys who always give craps.

Yeah i can understand. Its like me with god, i dont hate god, he is fine. It is his fan club that needs to be put down.

I, myself have a sweet spot for nvidia cards because of EVGA and EVGA alone. Sadly i will be getting an ATI card though

Now, that is what I call WISDOM...

I get what you mean and yes, it is my bad to generalize. And I respect your opinion to get a full Quad anyway.

I know for a fact that my cores are all good unlocked half a year already running at 3.8Ghz stress test for 4 hour (sufficient for me) and it all still works...
Normally bad cores either don't unlock, require a ton of voltage, don't overclock, and/or don't pass more than a few minutes of prime95/stress testing.
Plus if you unlock from an X2 and only one core is bed you can lock it and have an x3 which is still a gain...one core...

And andy5174, amd is making a cpu to compete with the i7...next year 2011 they are releasing the bulldozer which should come in 4, 6, and 8 core versions all made with a 32nm process... originally was supposed to be released this year 2010 as a 45nm but amd decided to make a 6 core phenom and go with the bulldozer being 32nm....which personally I think is good...
Anyway thanks to all who posted theirs successes/non successes and configurations...
Keep posting I want to get an accurate statistic/success percentage ...

^Thanks...
You should get 3DMark06 and Vantage and test your system...

Yeah...Vantage only works on Vista and Windows 7...so if XP is all you got installed don't bother to download it...

Yeah, I was looking for the processor in your first post.
Another thing you can do is edit your first post to add the processor so all the information is in one post...

I usually only stress test my builds (unlocks and overclocks) for 1 hour under Prime95. My primary concern is temperature and memory. After I've run 3dMark06 and Vantage, PC Mark Vantage, MemCheck, Windows Experience Index (yes, I've had that lock up quite a few times with bad memory)...well, an hour under P95 is more than enough to tell me that the system is stable for 99.99% of the users I sell my PC to...if it's passed everything prior to that. Hell, just booting into Windows 7 is a GREAT test of your memory subsystem because I can't tell you how many times during either the install of Vista/7 or the boot that the system will lock up if I don't have the memory voltage/timings exactly right. That said, the very LAST test I usually do is P95 if everything else has passed. Most of the time, I run it for 1 hour and I'm good. If there's something I'm seeing in the temps (it keeps slightly increasing as it gets to bigger sets) then I'll let it run overnight. I can tell you, though, in EVERY case, on EVERY PC I've built in the past 3 or 4 years (and there's been hundreds) - if it runs for 1 hour, it will run for 8. I've yet to have any PC fail running it longer. Maybe I'm just lucky, but...I honestly don't believe anything more than 30-60 minutes is warranted.

Did 2 mark06 runs tonight. 1st as a 550 be stock config. 2nd as a b50 "stock config"
Scores is this order- 3d, sm2.0, sm3.0, cpu score, cpu speed., mem.
550 BE- 4587, 1557, 1929, 2620, 3114, 1792
x4 B50- 4776, 1537, 1922, 4679, 3114, 1792
When I figure out how to post my data and specs to Toms, I will have more detailed and confirmed results for you. ( Help with this matter would be appreciated) I can post everything into a spreadsheet, but this isn't like e-mail where you can just do a file attachment. (I thought these damn things were supposed to make life easier!)
Will log incremental changes in voltages for both cpu modes (x2, x4).
Thought of including temps., realized that is a non-issue as my system is set up to run cooler as it wants to run hotter. My NB is the hottest part of my system at 44c,
and I plan to add a side fan to keep it in the 30's.
I also plan to OC my GPU to show that lower end boards (Giga GV-R4650C-1GI) can put out impressive results for the budget builds. Also the OB HD 4200 chip.
Gigabyte has utility software to play with both of these safely, outside of the bios settings. (Like I'll stay out of them)
Anything else I could log or do to help your study, let me know. I'm already toying with the thought of building another system w/Phenom720 BE and a 790 chipset board. The Phenom x4's are too high priced. I paid $89.99 at Tiger for my 550! Mobo & CPU were $159.99. That's what the x4's start at!

I just unlocked the fourth core on a athlon II 435, now CPU_Z is showin it as a Phenom II X4 B35, if that counts. I got a Giga GA-770TA-UD3, but I'm not sure how to check the bios version without rebooting. Currently its OCed to 3.1. Now I just need to figure out how to speed up the memory. Did I read somewhere that unlocking cores messes up your PCU temp readings? is it possible to unlock the third cache?