My new quad core Phenom II 3GHz cost me 92$

[CougTek]

My new build consist of a Phenom II X2 545 nested on a GigaByte GA-M770T-UD3P. I paid 92$CAN for the CPU (roughly 85U$). Thanks to the SB710 of the motherboard and the advanced clock calibration feature in the BIOS, I've been able to unlock the remaning two cores. At POST and in Windows, the processor is identified as a Phenom II X4 B45. It's working at 3.0GHz. I've been able to boot inside Windows and I'm now running Orthos to check the stability. So far, so good. Note that this feature isn't available in the original F1 BIOS version. It became available in the beta version of the F2 BIOS and it's there in the F3 (latest as of today) version.

Intel's cheapest quad core cost me more than 160$CAN. My cheapo CPU beats it in almost every benchmark.

I plan to do the same for another X2 545 on a GigaByte GA-M785GMT-UD2H. AMD's yields are a lot better than they were even just two months ago so there are very good chances that it will work too. The Phenom II X2 are currently the best value processors on the market. I would not even be worried to sell those things configured like this, assuming I have the time to test them for 24 hours. Of course, I would not be selling it as a quad core and the customer would only pay the normal bargain price for the locked 545 (I'm not a crook).

These are great times for the customers.

 

[MaxBurn]

I'm thinking it may be unwise to sell a machine like that and risk your reputation, but that's just me.

 

[time]

I'm thinking it may be unwise to sell a machine like that and risk your reputation, but that's just me.

Huh? I must be real slow today - what's he doing to sully his reputation?

 

[Stereodude]

Huh? I must be real slow today - what's he doing to sully his reputation?

Unlocking a dual core Phenom to 4 cores.

 

[ddrueding]

The risk would be in not telling them. If he says "look at this great potential bargain I may have for you!" then he's a hero.

Coug, do you have a link to the "how to..." for this procedure?

 

[MaxBurn]

I am thinking the risk is not finding something wrong and having the chip fail or mess up a pile of data. I am sure there is some binning/testing involved in selecting these downgrades, they can't just be throwing money away all the time.

 

[Mercutio]

Coug, do you have a link to the "how to..." for this procedure?

It's a BIOS option in recent Gigabyte motherboards. There's nothing really secret about it.

 

[timwhit]

I am thinking the risk is not finding something wrong and having the chip fail or mess up a pile of data. I am sure there is some binning/testing involved in selecting these downgrades, they can't just be throwing money away all the time.

That's probably true, but what happens is that when yields get good, they no longer have a crappy part bin and just use the same chip everywhere with something turned off. Think of the Celeron 300a, I don't think I ever heard of someone not being able to achieve a 450Mhz overclock with that chip.

 

[Fushigi]

AMD has had that success with yields before as well. A few years back you could get an Athlon XP 1700 that had passed QC as a 2600 or 2800. Yields were so good they had to stamp higher-speed chips as lower to satisfy market demand for entry systems. The 1700 was a $50ish CPU; the others were well over $100. It's a good problem to have from a manufacturing standpoint but it runs roughshod over profits when the word gets out as no one wants to pay more for the same performance.

 

[Mercutio]

I don't think I ever heard of someone not being able to achieve a 450Mhz overclock with that chip.

I bought at least two that wouldn't even hit 333MHz.

 

[MaxBurn]

My 300a needed extra cooling to do 450mhz and would not do the 501mhz like some would. On a Abit BX something if I recall correctly.

I am just saying ethically I wouldn't put my name on this and sell it. I wouldn't sell an overclock either. Screwing around in my home is one thing but for a business putting out product quite another.

 

[Stereodude]

If I recall correctly mine (slot 1) would do a little over 450 with reasonable cooling.

 

[ddrueding]

I've sold OC'd machines before. I only guaranteed them for stock speeds, but I would OC and test them upon request. I never shipped a non-stable OC, and it never bit me.

The last dual-CPU machine I had (before the new dual-Xeon) was a dual 300a @ 450 with the slotkit "magic fingers" things.

 

[MaxBurn]

I guess the equivalent would be BFG (or whoever) that sells overclocked video cards. But IMO they do the right thing and put a lifetime warranty behind it so if it has a reduced life you are still OK.

 

[Stereodude]

Usually their OC's are pretty mild though, like from 600mHz to 650mHz. They're not taking a 300mHz part and running it at 600mHz.

 

[ddrueding]

Has anyone here had a CPU die on its own? I've had a MB or PSU fail and take the CPU with it, and I've had a failure of the CPU cooling system cook it, but I've never had the CPU fail independently.

 

[CougTek]

Regarding the risk to my reputation : I will test the chips before I sell them like this. And about the lost of data, I doubt there's a risk. I'm not modifying the controller of a hard drive. I'm unlocking (and thoroughly testing) cores on a processor. AMD sells a lot more dual core chips than quad core chips. So many of the duals could be quads, but have two cores disabled. And I won't do this for business customers.

The one that got me all excited above is finally only good for a triple core. Core #3 ended up crashing after an hour and a half of Prime95. I still haven't test the second chip I have.

The procedure is explained here, middle of the page.

 

[Stereodude]

Has anyone here had a CPU die on its own? I've had a MB or PSU fail and take the CPU with it, and I've had a failure of the CPU cooling system cook it, but I've never had the CPU fail independently.

I had a watercooled 2.4gHz Pentium 4 (Northwood) that was OC'd to 3.0gHz go bad. It was very well cooled (obviously) and I didn't have the vcore cranked up anywhere near the levels that were reported to cause Sudden Northwood Death Syndrome. I'm not sure anymore, but I don't think it even made it two years. I replaced the CPU with a 3.06gHz HT P4 and that system ran for another 3+ years without changing any of the hardware, so it was just a CPU failure.

 

[P5-133XL]

I will test the chips before I sell them like this. And about the lost of data, I doubt there's a risk.

I'm sorry, but I can't conceivably see you testing it as throughly as AMD and they rejected two cores (It didn't even qualify as an X3). I think you are taking an unacceptable level of risk that I wouldn't take on a product I sold.

That being said, I would have no problem with you telling your customers how to do it and what the risk is. That way if they choose to do it and it goes badly they can only hold themselves as responsible.

 

[P5-133XL]

Has anyone here had a CPU die on its own? I've had a MB or PSU fail and take the CPU with it, and I've had a failure of the CPU cooling system cook it, but I've never had the CPU fail independently.

No CPU's, but I've had multiple sticks of RAM die from overclocking and more specifically the excess voltage needed to OC.

 

[Mercutio]

Has anyone here had a CPU die on its own?

Once, yeah. The server's hardware management told me it had stopped working right, anyway. All the fans and crap were OK so I'm not sure what happened there.

 

[LunarMist]

Has anyone here had a CPU die on its own? I've had a MB or PSU fail and take the CPU with it, and I've had a failure of the CPU cooling system cook it, but I've never had the CPU fail independently.

Yeah. One time my computer would not boot or even POST. That CPU was dead after less than 3 months for no reason.

 

[jusval]

I just built up an AMD 545 2 core Callisto on a Gigabyte- AMD 790X / SB750 chipset. I didn't plan on unlocking any cores, but the Mother board would not recognize the DDR2 memory as 1066. Instead it would recognize it as DDR2 800 (it is DDR2 1066 G.Skill memory, 2 sticks).

So I went ahead and unlocked the cores, to see if it would affect the Memory and when I rebooted, I got all 4 cores and DDR2 1066 recognized! I have done Prime95 and other stress testing for a day now with absolutley no errors.

I now have a Phenom II x4 B45 processor and feel happy and very lucky. I got one of the "good 4 core" processors that AMD locked 2 cores on, to sell it as a 2 core, to meet demand for 2 core processors. I know that they do this when demand exceeds supply and demand is always heavy on the lower price range.

From a production standpoint, it would "seem to" make more sense to just manufacture only 4 core processors and then just lock out 1 or 2 cores. That way production control and effeciency should be better and I doubt that there is any real big cost difference for producing 4 cores instead of two. That's only my personal feeling based on being in Produtcion Management for over 25 years.........

It's still a crap shoot, as some processors are going to be 4 core rejects and reduced to 3 core or 2 core, but this one is rock solid stable and I don't forsee any more issues than with any other normal processor.

As far as selling it, I wouldn't feel any worse selling it as selling any other PC. I would make sure the buyer knew the risks, but I would still guarantee it the same as I would any other PC that passed burn in testing. (If I were selling PC's).

 

[ddrueding]

Glad to hear you got a good deal. Welcome to StorageForum!