Unlocked core question.

[Achiyan]

i have a Phenom II x3 720 BE and it'll be four years old in December. i used to have the fourth core unlocked for about a year and half or so OC'd to 3.5ghz from 2.8 on stock voltage as to keep it cooler. set it back to 3 cores on day and honestly forgot that i set it back until recently lol. but my question is, since the core was originally produced as a 4 core with one disabled to meet the demand, wouldn't the processor be perfectly fine running all four cores without shortening its life? it only makes sense....

[JoeDirt]

It will be fine. As long as you have proper cooling.

[Seanzy]

should be fine man. I used to run a 555 dualcore unlocked to tri overclocked to 4.2 and it lasted 6 months till i sold it

[phil21191]

Providing temperatures and Vcore are withing spec then it will be absolutely fine.

 

I had an Athlon x4 620 that unlocked the L3 Cache rather than a core to effectively become a phenom. It spent its entire life water cooled, but regularly had upto 1.8v pushed through it, and as far as I know its still going 2 years later

[Achiyan]

It will be fine. As long as you have proper cooling.

((wtf this is deja vu. the way im sitting and this post. the position of everything in my room to lol wow))

 

but cooling is fine. stock HSF was sh** and picked up another last year. instant 30 degrees c difference. two intake fans, one in front and a large, maybe about 8 inch, fan one the side casing. with an outtake in the rear.

 

Providing temperatures and Vcore are withing spec then it will be absolutely fine.

 

I had an Athlon x4 620 that unlocked the L3 Cache rather than a core to effectively become a phenom. It spent its entire life water cooled, but regularly had upto 1.8v pushed through it, and as far as I know its still going 2 years later

yeah, i dont abuse machinery as i dont have the funds to replace lol. temps and vcore are good. im making these numbers up from the top of my head so they are not accurate and this hangover has me too lazy to google lol but if i remember correctly, the stock vcore was around 1.35is and i dropped about .15 volts off to keep temps down. ran like a dream. that was before the new HSF and added fans however.

 

wonder what OC room i have now with improved cooling....hmm...got an Athlon X2 something on standby, its time to burn some sh** up lol

[phil21191]

It depends on the strength and reason for them locking that first core in the first place.

 

From experience if its purely because of heat then under good cooling it will clock very well.

 

I'd aim for 3.8Ghz with around 1.4-1.45vcore to start with, If temps are good then try 4ghz and possibly 4.2ghz which is probably about the best you will get on Deneb silicone without sub-zero cooling. Upto 1.55v is perfectly safe proving temperatures are good. As AMD chips dont have individual temperature sensros you need to monitor the package sensor. I aim to try and keep this below 55'c

[FinZeroX]

It's a four-core CPU. No difference. It's more cost-efficient producing 4-core and disabling one.

Pretty much little to none difference in wear/temps, the CPU is meant to be run 4-core.

[phil21191]

It's a four-core CPU. No difference. It's more cost-efficient producing 4-core and disabling one.

Pretty much little to none difference in wear/temps, the CPU is meant to be run 4-core.

 

Not necessarily there we're a lot of Quad core chips locked to dual and tri-core chips to meet demand.  Theres a hell of a lot of chips out that simply wont unlock a core or are usable even when they are unlockable.

 

Its nothing to do with cost efficiency, a four core cpu requires a larger die, meaning they get less dies per wafer than a tri or dual core-chip.

 

Its down to yields, the manufacturing process isn't efficient enough to produce a perfect product everytime so chips are speed and core binned so they aren't simply thrown in the bin

Edited September 10, 2013 by phil21191

[Seanzy]

Not necessarily there we're a lot of Quad core chips locked to dual and tri-core chips to meet demand.  Theres a hell of a lot of chips out that simply wont unlock a core or are usable even when they are unlockable.

 

Its nothing to do with cost efficiency, a four core cpu requires a larger die, meaning they get less dies per wafer than a tri or dual core-chip.

 

Its down to yields, the manufacturing process isn't efficient enough to produce a perfect product everytime so chips are speed and core binned so they aren't simply thrown in the bin

yes but so many people were buying dualcores and tricores that they couldnt keep up with yields so they started locking quads down to tri and dual. and the die isnt any bigger.... Ive had a 955 delided and my 555 was delided

Edited September 10, 2013 by Seanzy

[phil21191]

yes but so many people were buying dualcores and tricores that they couldnt keep up with yields so they started locking quads down to tri and dual. and the die isnt any bigger.... Ive had a 955 delided and my 555 was delided

 

Thats what I was saying, alot of chips we're locked purely to meet demand, but there we're also a lot locked as they simply didn't function correct as a dual/tri core.

 

I had an Athlon II x4 that unlocked the L3 Cache to become a low clocked phenom II, that was an example of being locked due to heat issues. It wouldn't even stay under the recommended temperatures with the cache unlocked at 2.6ghz. Under custom watercooling I could bench it a 4ghz.