Unlocking fourth core on AMD Athlon II X3 445

[spaniel53]

In a previous topic I created, I asked for help with picking a setup, I found one that I liked and purchased it. Someone commented at the end saying I should unlock the fourth core on my cpu. I was wondering what sort of risks are involved, and if the general populous of this forum would recommend it. I have never overclocked, but from what I have seen, it is a simple bios setting change. I can handle that.

Here is my build:

 

[jsc]

You can try to unlock the 4th core. Maybe you will be successful, maybe not. A lot depends on why AMD disabled the core in the first place.

 

[sportsfanboy]

The core might have been defective or just not efficient as the other 3. You might need to add a little voltage if you do successfully unlock it.

 

[bullgarian]

i have 445 too. just try the ACC or UCC or whatever is called in your bios crank the voltage tiny bit and see if it`s possible to unlock.....if unlocked...overclock it..check the temps all the time. mine went from 445 to phenom 2x4 b45 did some overclocking....to 3.6 but my cooler is not what you people call "good" and stopped there. voltage is important man!.i am happy now..saved some $ (euro in my case) and feels much better than my old sempron. If you do things right there will be no problems at all.

 

[spaniel53]

So what are the risks? Shorter proc life? Instant death?

And can this all be reversed?

 

[spaniel53]

Also, can I unlock a fourth core with the stock heatsink/fan? Or would you recommend against it?

 

[chrisiomuk]

I have yet to read a post saying an unlock killed their CPU so I would assume it is quite safe to 'try'. Also with the X3 Athlons you have a chance of it unlocking the level 3 cache if it started out life as a Phenom like many did. My Athlon II 440 had a faulty 4th core but the L3 cache unlocked fine, the newer chipsets have an intelligent unlocking system designed by the various MB manufacturers but your 790 may have had the ACC completely removed if the BIOS is a newer revision as AMD decided they didnt want it with their chipsets anymore when demand for premium processors went up again (too many people unlocking cheap CPU's and not buying the good ones).

 

[spaniel53]

Best answer selected by spaniel53.

 

[Guest]

Man i got myself an amd athlon II x3 445 and managed to unlock the fourth core and made it a phenom II x4 b45 but unfortunately i didn't managed to unlock the l3 cache bcz there wasn't any:|...

Anyway i'm still using the stock cooler so it's safe to do it bcz my temp readings on Core Temp doesn't jump over 55 degrees C at full load for 4 hours...and it seems stable.

So about unlocking....get in bios and search for an option called ACC(Advanced Clock Calibration) and there you have it.

About the voltage, i didn't increased it when i unlocked it but i did when i overclocked it.

Right now i got the unlocked cpu running at 3.8 ghz with stock cooler and not going over 55 degrees so i'm happy