Processor Information Help!

The CPU is what you originally bought, x3 440. When you unlock with the BIOS, you will get strange readings from monitoring software because they don't consider unlocking when writing the software. Also when you unlock a dormant core, you should stress test it and stability test it before overclocking. Sometimes AMD just turns a core off to fill a product line, other times it is a defective core or has defective cache, so they turn it off and sell it as a lesser model.

So before you try overclocking, try Prime95 or something and do a stress test and see if all 4 cores will be stable before you overclock.

And depending on what video card you get, there might not be any need to overclock that CPU if the unlocked core is stable. The CPU name doesn't mean anything when overclocking, but the name it is originally sold at is the spec it is guaranteed to be stable at. With that CPU, the multiplier is locked, so you need to raise your system bus to overclock it anyways. Then you need to make sure your memory and PCIe lanes are not overclocked too much or matched to your CPU overclock or you will be in for a world of headaches.

^+1
Run a stress test for 12 hours with Prime95 with out over clocking, and if you are going to increase the FSB, it's better to do so after you've installed the card as your CPU may be stable, though your card won't.

In addition, consider whether you even need to over clock, I doubt you do, unlocking the core is enough, and an X4 B40 can handle ANY single graphics card out now, I don't think you should bother unless you want a pain in the ass.

Thanks 1965ohio and mn96! Very good point!
@1965Ohio, I am learning a lot from your reply... All I need is to stress-test if all cores are stable. Using Core Temp only showing one reading how will I check or monitor "individual" stability of the cores specially the 4rth one?

@mn96, 12hours is too long, that's whole day, I won't be able to stay infront of PC monitoring temps for 12hours because of my work.   Or do I have to be closely watching my pc for 12hours when doing stress test?
Some suggest 2hours of stress test would be acceptable.
Also, thanks for pointing out the need to overclock (I got your point), well, true why should I overclock if I my personal use is not that demanding in terms of speed ^^,

My point is, I want to maximize Phenom ii x4 (4 cores). The speed I'm getting right now is the speed of 3 cores I believe. My friend's Intel i3 is 3.04GHz and mine is 3.0GHz and I'm the one who got 4 cores... ^^,

I wanted to get the speed of having 4cores which I think must be more than what 3 cores have. Because right now, I feel like the speed of my original chip (athlon ii x3) is just the same as the unlocked which is phenom ii x4 b40, what difference do I get? So, what benefit or how can I take advantage of 4 cores if not overclocking? That's maybe one of the reason why some people choose AMD because of the possibilities of getting x4 (4cores) at a price of (3 cores) originally bought.  

When running a Prime95 stress test, the test will fail or bluescreen your computer if their is a major issue. When I setup a stress test, I just do it before I go to bed. I only watch the temps for 30-40 minutes. If it doesn't rise after 30 minutes, it probably won't keep rising. But if the fourth core is unstable, the worker thread in Prime95 will stop with an error.

As for performance, your friends i3 single threaded performance may be better than yours, but you can handle 4 threads. So your multitasking and gaming will be smoother. You only need to overclock if you get a very high rated video card like a GTX580 or something and the CPU is bottlenecking your maximum framerates... but when you overclock by system bus, make sure it isn't tied to your PCI bus, or you could get data failures from your SATA ports and can possibly mess up your video card.

Most ASRock and ASUS boards support something called Untied Overclocking Technology or some similar term... which means you can raise the CPU and RAM bus clock and leave the other PCI components alone. Check your board to see if it supports such a feature before raising system bus.

But having said that, if you stick with a 5970 or GTX 460 or less... I don't think your CPU will bottleneck you and there will be no significant reason to overclock the CPU.

Again ^+1

You don't have to watch the temps during the test, the longer you run it the better some people run for 1 hour, some people run for 24, just run it for a long time and if after about 7 hours you don't blue screen or get errors you are fine.

What is your budget on upgrading your graphics card?
and what are your specs?

@1965ohio, okay. I think overclocking is complicated and yes I don't want to have problems in the future because I'm not really familiar with PCI bus and system bus. Also, yes, my mobo supports untied feature thing ^^,
Since my preferred vid.card will not have a problem with my cpu, then I will not overclock... I'll only perform stress test to check stability of my unlocked cpu...

@mn96, good thing you asked... Here's my specs: "Budget PC really LOL"

Mobo: Asrock n68c- s ucc
Processor: Athlon ii x3 440 unlocked to Phenom ii x4 b40
RAM: Elixir 2gb ddr3 long-dimm 1333MHz
HSF: Stocked FAN (I believe designed for 3 cores since I orginally got
3 cores (athlon ii x3 440) - my concern too if I need to replace it
Hard Disk: Samsung HD322HJ 320gb

**Basically that's it. I still don't have good cooling system (I would appreciate any suggestions too LOL**

Budget for Graphics Card, would be $100 - $140, if there is? or the price of evga gtx460 (I'm not updated yet with the price of evga gtx460) (please tell me if it's a good choice)
I'm trying my luck to find cheap evga gtx 460 LOL !!

^+1 and your current CPU fan is fine.

Thanks guys! I'll add some more information here in case I've some more to ask.
If you know anywhere where I can buy cheap gtx465, please post it here too. LOL!

Well, I live in China currently and my local vendor had 1 Zotac GTX465 in stock for a year and I conned him out of it for $150. He wanted to get rid of it, but for $250 no one in China wanted it... hence the discount. But it really isn't that much better than the GTX460... just a few more Cuda cores and a little difference processor.

But if you want the 465 or 470 you should get a little better PSU. I bought a Seasonic M12D 750w in China also for $100 at a discount because no one will buy high end parts and local vendors almost have to give it away here if they ordered one for somebody and that person didn't pick it up. None of my local vendors even carry AMD over the 965 or Intel over i3... they don't want to stock it for fear of loss since it takes them forever to sell it. Most high end parts I have to order from the Chinese Newegg, LOL.

1965ohio, wow! You're a lucky man. Really want to buy one of those there, just don't know if it's possible! LOL

Best answer selected by animoso.