Thinking of Unlocking 4th core, Should i?

[idejason]

Well, I have a Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition and I've heard about the whole disabled cores and i know how to enable them (And I have checked if my motherboard can enable these cores and it can). However, This PC of mine is one that will not be able to be replaced for awhile if something goes wrong.

So my question is, If i do unlock the forth core and it does indeed turn out to be faulty will my PC be completely stuffed? Will it need just a quick reset of the BIOS battery? Or will it only fail to boot?

 

[hundredislandsboy]

It can fail to boot or it can boot but be unstable. Why straight to fouth core? Don't you wan't to see if it works tri-core first?

 

[idejason]

Because you cant activate it by core, You change a setting to [AUTO] and thats about it.

 

[andy5174]

Why not if that's the case?

 

[idejason]

Because, I'm not sure about the effects that it could have on my PC if the cores indeed are faulty. I really need someone to reassure me that if its faulty it will be okay and wont harm the rest of my motherboard or other components.

 

[andy5174]

No one can assure you of this. Unlocking the core at your own risk is mentioned in all the unlocking guides.

http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/535501-amd-phenom-ii-core-unlocking-guide.html

 

[idejason]

Alright thanks Andy.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Why would anything need to be replaced if you unlock the cores an dthey're not table. I read the link and it doesn't mention anything about permanent damage. Lol, it's not like Dr. Seuss if you let out Thing 1 and Thing 2 and the cores destroy the hardware. It seems you just go back to BIOS and turn off ACC and you're back in business.

 

[idejason]

Yeah fair enough, I was pretty certain of myself and now I'm happy to say that it is now a AMD Phenom II X4 B50.

Hopefully everything is stable but it looks okay at the moment, Could you please point me in the direction of a good temperature reader?

 

[4745454b]

Its my understanding that nothing bad will happen if you have defective cores. You'll get a lot of blue screens, but you won't cause damage to your hardware. You should be able to reverse it by clearing the CMOS. I say try it, then test with prime, etc. If it works then great, if not, oh well.

 

[idejason]

Well, Turns out the third and forth core run extremely hot. So at the moment I've disabled them until i get a Third Party Heatsink or something.

Oh well.