AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE

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I've heard great reviews about the 555 cpu and I have seen people unlocking the 2 cores and then overclocking that to 4.2 Ghz. What motherboards are really good at unlocking cores/overclocking for a fair price? ($cheap as possible to $110~)
 
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thats a very good build. even a dual core can handle most multitasking (especially simple stuff like office/browser/music)

a more powerful dual core is more beneficial than a less powerful quad right now, because quads aren't that well supported. you can't rely on unlocking, but the sucess rates are high, and if you are successful you will have gotten a bargain.

erdinger

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Dec 26, 2008
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All the gigabyte motherboards work great for unlocking cores. You have to set ACC on and enable load hybrid firmware(or something similar).

I have a Phenom II X3 720 and a ga-ma790fxt-ud5p unlocking the cores worked but the system couldn't boot anymore because the core was really defect...

Also Although Cpu temps under load never reached more then 45C and I increased voltage to 1.5V it wasn't stable at anything over 3.54 gigaherz no matter what I tried.

4.2 Gigaherz is very optimistic.

Maybe you will only get 2 cores not reaching more then 3.7 ghz
 
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I'm not sure if I'm way off but I thought the 890GX boards locked the ability to unlock cores? Or did I miss-read that?

welsh, did you unlock all 4 cores?
What did you oc it to?
 

welshmousepk

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no, they are very similar.

the 620 is better in multi-threaded situations, the phenom better for gaming (l3 cache) and single/dual threaded apps.

if you can unlock the 555 then obviously you get the best of both worlds. even without unlocking though, id pick the phenom.
 
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Would you say that this is a good cpu for an entry level computer builder?
I've been doing a lot of work on an HP laptop.
My current cpu is: Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 1.83Ghz

I do..
Programming
Gaming (MW2; BFBC2)
Multi task E.G. MS Office + Browser + Music

I've developed a habit to exit programs I don't use in full screen games.

I'm having second thoughts on the 555BE due to it being a dual core and the possibility that I may not be able to unlock the 2 cores and get them to be stable.

What do you think of this setup?

CPU/MOBO: AMD PII X2 555 + ASUS M4A79XTD EVO - $196 AR
CASE: Antec 300 Illusion - $70+$10 SH = $80
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500GB - $56
PSU/GPU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W + XFX 5770 Juniper XT 1GB - $200 AR
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 - $105

Monitor: Acer X203H bd Black 20" 16:9 5ms Widescreen - $125

Total AR: $762
My budget was $760
 

welshmousepk

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thats a very good build. even a dual core can handle most multitasking (especially simple stuff like office/browser/music)

a more powerful dual core is more beneficial than a less powerful quad right now, because quads aren't that well supported. you can't rely on unlocking, but the sucess rates are high, and if you are successful you will have gotten a bargain.
 
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