YnHDaRkMaN

Last night I've built a PC for my girlfriend, she got a Phenom II x2 560 and a MSI 880GM motherboard capable of unlocking extra cores. I wanna test this and I was wondering, is it as easy as following the instruction booklet for the process of unlocking cores? What should I expect when enabling this feature?

Thanks in advance

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Tyrsonswood

I've got three BE 555's here and all of them unlocked with no issues. It will be as easy as the instructions say IF the cores are any good, but there's no guarantee that they are.

I don't have the same board you have so can't give you a play by play, but here I've got 3 different boards,( ASUS, AsRock, ECS) and they are all pretty much the same except the ASUS has a switch on the board. Basically set ACC to AUTO and it should fly..... You can tweak beyond that but that's the basic method.

NOTE: when unlocked you will no longer get individual core temps, but the board will give a CPU temp..... Keep your eye on that. Also realize that your current draw of the processor will go above 145 watts..... That may exceed what the board can handle. (My ECS claims 95 watts max...... I don't game on this system, so no issues "so far")

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YnHDaRkMaN

According to this compatibility list, it doesn't support 140W processors, should I just leave it like it is then just to be sure?

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Tyrsonswood

Will she need 4 cores?

Just to see if they unlock and are stable you can give it a shot and then just set it back to normal...... Unlocking doesn't change the CPU in any way. Just keep an eye on all temps and make sure everything gets good airflow.

If they do unlock properly and you want to stay with that, maybe another board will be something to look into at some point....... Really surprised it's rated at 140watt but accepts 6 core CPUs. They may state the low wattage as a "safety precaution". Are there any heatsinks on the FETs? Does it have solid capacitors? You may be fine.

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YnHDaRkMaN

She probably will be fine with just 2 cores, but if she can get extra performance at no extra cost, that would be great. She likes to play some Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 with me, but those games are not that demanding. By the way, what are the risks of unlocking cores? Since it's her computer and not mine, I want stability more than anything else.
No heatsinks on the FETs and it does have solid capacitors (source)

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Tyrsonswood

Risk? Other than the wattage, none really..... If the other cores unlock but are not stable it will BSOD or just reboot without the blue screen, Windows may not even load. It's not really harming anything with the two rated cores..... As I said, you can just set everything back to normal and it's an X2 again. It doesn't change the CPU at all. Also note, you may only get 3 stable cores if it unlocks at all, it's all a cr@p shoot.

Overheating of the CPU and /or Motherboard would be the things to look out for if they do unlock and run stable. What cooler are you planning? The stock cooler will be lacking at best with 4 cores..... and won't supply any airflow to those FETs.

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YnHDaRkMaN

Being like that, I'd better leave it like that, since there's no more budget to throw a CPU cooler in there, and here where we live gets really hot (40 degrees average on summer), and most probably the CPU and mobo will get to high temperatures easily.

Thanks for all the help, I'll try this some other time

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Tyrsonswood

Probably a good call. It can get hot here too and I don't have AC.... basically I don't do much with those systems during the hot months, and I've got decent coolers on them.

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