Phenom II - Unlocking and Risks

[obscurelyric]

First, this is not a thread for arguing over production efficiency, methods and volumes and/or supply and demand or marketing strategies. Let's negate the future locking of cores too.

Assumptions:
All Phenom II processors come from the same production line, whether or not they end up x2, x3 or x4 core.;
That doesn't equate to all x2 and x3 having 4 stable cores but some do;
We're working with a processor that truly does have enough fault on one or more cores to bin it lower;

Scenarios:

1) The unused core(s) has/have minor faults which would make it wrong to sell as x4 processor

2) The unused core(s) has/have major faults which would make it wrong to sell as anything other than x2 or x3 processor

What are the risks? Are there any steps that can be taken to reduce them?

Thank you for reading. My first post,be gentle =D

 

[Helloworld_98]

you can't reduce faults,

you just have to get lucky and hope you get one of the 'demand' binned CPU's which were fit to be a quad or tri but were used to keep up with demand.

 

[obscurelyric]

Ok, but let's assume we have faulty cores and don't know (until we try, anyway )

I meant to ask what the risk would be in trying if this was the case but didn't word it well at all! What sort of damage can you do to both the stable cores and your whole build?

 

[Helloworld_98]

I don't think there's any risk, if the extra cores don't activate then the PC will continue on, if they do activate but they're unstable then you get a BSOD.

 

[NeilCar]

Mine would unlock and boot. I could navigate windows but whenever I would stress test it with Cinebench or Prime it would crash and restart. A screen would open asking me whether I wanted to goto the bios or back to windows. I figured I got what I paid for and gave up. A 3core that will run stable at up to 3.4 or so(I still have the stock HSF). When my 720 starts seeming slow, I will OC it. When it starts seeming slow OCd, I will give it to the kids and get something else.

I just realized I wrote exactly the same response as above. Sorry for the redundantcy...

 

[obscurelyric]

Good to hear.

I asked because the line from AMD seems to be there is risk involved and people who do this sort of thing accept it. I think the risk for them is someone who wants a x4 getting something lesser.

For me, all I want is a 550. X2 core at 3.1 stock is plenty enough at the moment, good OC capabilities. If I can unlock it that is a bonus and no risk at all..

 

[amdfangirl]

Well, if you were AMD, would you want mid-range CPUs unlocking into top of the line CPUs?

 

[jitpublisher]

Cannot believe people worry so much about things like this when you can buy a top end AMD quad for less money than I spend on gas every single month.

 

[pogsnet]

Hope this helps

http://www.itembargain.com/forum/index.php?topic=145.0

Some cores have minimal faults but still locked, that would make you lucky, eg. max tdp will become above rating that's why they lock it.

I have friends successfully unlocked those cores and playing with them smoothly on heavy games but he has adjusted/tweaked some other stuffs not just plane unlocking to make it stable like normally should.

 

[El_Capitan]

There's no risks in terms of damage that I know of. I was able to unlock my 4th core at a -4% value to the 4th core (and -2% value for all other cores), but otherwise, I'm able to get a stable 3.4GHz on my Phenom II x720 BE. My motherboard and CPU cost $215 total.

 

[sanchz]

If some OS thing is processed by a faulty core, it *might* get corrupted, but a BSOD is more likely than data corruption.
I'd say go for it. Who doesn't want 2 free extra cores?