What;s the deal with unlocked cores?

Performance will be much better with the quad, there is no risks at unlocking cores, not so much a disadvantage but to run the unlocked cores could need a little more voltage nothing crazy all well with in specs for the processor but since you will have 2 more cores then before the unlock heat can be an issue but nothing crazy like when you overclock. I always recommend having good cooling no matter you overclocking or not.

Now with thats said you will not be able to unlock the cores if they were disabled because they were actullay faulty so not every Phenom II 550 will be able to become a quad. It is kind of a 50 50 chance you will get one that you can unlock into a quad, but alot have no problems being a triple core.

tkz for the info

My suggestion if you want a quad get one since unlocking the extra cores is a craps shoot.

It's also possible that the core(s) you unlock could be bad and cause stability problems.

Question I have not seen is: If you unlock a core and its bad, can you lock it out again?

@sturm

Yes, you can disable re-enabled cores.

Thanks, I was wondering about that. I haven't tried unlocking any yet. I have only built one computer, Athlon II X3, since this was possible. Might try it when I build a new one.