Unlocking Cores?

[jonnyt]

I have a machine with a Phenom II x2 545 and while reading the reviews on Newegg many mentioned that two extra cores could be unlocked. Is this true? if so, how? I have an Asus M4A79XTD EVO motherboard.
thanks in advance

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by jonnyt I have a machine with a Phenom II x2 545 and while reading the reviews on Newegg many mentioned that two extra cores could be unlocked. Is this true? if so, how? I have an Asus M4A79XTD EVO motherboard. thanks in advance

You'll most likely have to enable ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) in the bios and set it to automatic; if that doesn't work you'll probably have to set the settings in manually. Here is a good guide to unlocking: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...m-ii,2273.html

[systempat]

Your board has the southbridge to do the ACC feature according to the specs. So you just have to try it.
Not sure what the odds are on unlocking. My x2 550 did NOT run with the 4 cores unlocked. Your odds are maybe 50-50. There has been speculation of how many of the Phenom X2 chips are X2s because the cores failed in manufacturer tests, and how many are just branded as x2 to maximize sales. Probably only the people on the inside know that.
I did not really expect it to run on the 4 cores but tried as an experiment. The 550 model are pretty good overclockers up to 3.4 ghz at least. Would think the 545 would be similar.

[Masaki 7-11]

If you go in manually, you can also change it so that only one of the locked cores is unlocked; I think you have to leave ACC at 0% for the core you don't want enabled and 2% for the cores you want unlocked.

[jonnyt]

Originally Posted by Masaki 7-11 You'll most likely have to enable ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) in the bios and set it to automatic

Well that didn't work... hahaha I got what I paid for, no worries, it handles my needs just fine maybe in the future I'll look into overclocking
thanks guys

[jonnyt]

I just realized I forgot to enable unleashing, and it did unlock, windows now recognizes a phenom x4 b45, and I'd like to run some tests to determine if I'll keep it unlocked or not. I downloaded prime95 and started a torture test, but I don't know if I'm doing it right, I selected blender on the settings and there are 4 workers. Are these the right settings? and how long should I run it? I see messages like 10k passed, 12k passed etc. Also my machine seems a little bit louder, is this normal? any tips

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by jonnyt I just realized I forgot to enable unleashing, and it did unlock, windows now recognizes a phenom x4 b45, and I'd like to run some tests to determine if I'll keep it unlocked or not. I downloaded prime95 and started a torture test, but I don't know if I'm doing it right, I selected blender on the settings and there are 4 workers. Are these the right settings? and how long should I run it? I see messages like 10k passed, 12k passed etc. Also my machine seems a little bit louder, is this normal? any tips

Not sure how prime95 works exactly (I mainly use CPU Burn-in), but if no errors show up, you should be fine. The machine is probably getting louder because the processors is being used up at 100% (due to prime 95) and therefore heating up more, so the fans have to spin faster (and therefore make more noise) to keep the temperature in check.

[jonnyt]

So I allowed prime95 to run on blend mode for 14 hrs straight with 0 errors and 0 warnings and then in Small FFT for 9 hours without any errors or warnings too. I also just read that the temperatures can't be read with all 4 cores unlocked, and thats probably why my pc seems louder (temperature is not determining the speed of the fan), but PC probe II gives me a cpu temp reading of 31c. I downloaded speedfan where the core temp is 0c but I can set the rpm of 3 different fans (should I change these). And also Cool & quiet by ASUS shows the cpu frequency at 800mhz. I don't know. what do you guys suggest I do to make it quieter?

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by jonnyt So I allowed prime95 to run on blend mode for 14 hrs straight with 0 errors and 0 warnings and then in Small FFT for 9 hours without any errors or warnings too. I also just read that the temperatures can't be read with all 4 cores unlocked, and thats probably why my pc seems louder (temperature is not determining the speed of the fan), but PC probe II gives me a cpu temp reading of 31c. I downloaded speedfan where the core temp is 0c but I can set the rpm of 3 different fans (should I change these). And also Cool & quiet by ASUS shows the cpu frequency at 800mhz. I don't know. what do you guys suggest I do to make it quieter?

If it's not too loud I would leave it alone, otherwise you might want to consider a quiet aftermarket HSF like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185125

[jonnyt]

I just changed the speed of 2 of the case fans to 75% and the speed of the cpu fan to 90%, it seems a lot quieter, and speedfan + pc probe are registering cpu temps of around 40c. So I might stick to this setup but will continue to monitor the cpu temp. What is the max temp I should allow?

[glc]

Probably about 60 under full load.

[jonnyt]

oh ok because those readings are after one hour of playing cs:s

[jonnyt]

so what do you guys think? should I keep it on all fours? or should I cripple it back to 2?

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by jonnyt so what do you guys think? should I keep it on all fours? or should I cripple it back to 2?

If you are not getting errors and your temperature is at or under 60C, then I don't see a reason to scale back to 2. Not all processors have defective cores (especially the Phenom II series which are higher binned), so from what you've tested so far it looks like you have a fully functioning Phenom II X4. If you start getting errors or problems with the build, then the first thing you can do is scale the cores back to 2, but otherwise you should be fine.