aII 435 x3 2.9 or 550 pII x2 BE

[johnnyblazzwa]

what do you guys think the odd's are of unlocking a 550? Is amd doing anything with newer built 550's to disable this?

juggling between a rana aII x3 435 or the 550 x2be which is a little more expensive. With many newer games getting use out of multple cores(gta4, x3 tested better then 550BE http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2....0.3,1402.html i'm wondering if i should go with the cheaper 3 cores and just over clock them a bit?(just for 720 gaming)

is a l3 cache really important for games?

is the Black edition gonna be easier to overclock? this will be my first

what do you guys think, save the 15 bucks and go athlon 3 which can aslo unlock fourth core , orrr... do i go phenom BE with that hightech name and hope for 4 cores of badness??

for 720 gaming

getting Asus M4A78T-E with sb750

opinion's? kind of leaning toward's the BE but i could put more money toward a gpu if i go with the rana (getting Asus M4A78T-E with sb750 if i)

[GregH]

I have two 550's & they both unlocked to quads. Both on Gigabyte 770 boards.
Haven't tried overclocking yet as I'm only running stock cooling (for now)

Batch numbers were 0926CPMW & 0925CPMW (I think)

[johnnyblazzwa]

nice, how long ago did you purchase

best case scenario i buy the BE with similar results. would then try to overclock though i doubt i would even need to with 4 cores

[jcmaz]

720BE coz you have the unlocked multiplier and you might be able to unlock it

[johnnyblazzwa]

Originally Posted by jcmaz

720BE coz you have the unlocked multiplier and you might be able to unlock it

not an option, 435 or 550 BE for 15 bucks extra


plan on buying ax4 BE 3.6 when they come out in 2010, hopefully by then i can successfully install a cpu he he he:(

[GregH]

Originally Posted by johnnyblazzwa

nice, how long ago did you purchase

best case scenario i buy the BE with similar results. would then try to overclock though i doubt i would even need to with 4 cores

Purchased one early Nov and another late Nov. First from DC, second from NCIX

[jay51]

i bought mine approx. 1 month ago from NCIX..all cores unlocked and the chip OC's well..
i have another on the way and im hoping it unlocks too. if not no loss really as the cpu OC's well as a x2.
with the new ASUS board there is a option to pick the cores to enable,so it may even run well as a x3 if not x4

[johnnyblazzwa]

awesome guys, i'm going with the black edition 550, hoping to get an x4 out of the deal

thanks for all the insight

[Perineum]

Bit late to the party but all the 550's I've bought unlocked to quad and OC'd to 3.8ghz. Good for almost 6K of PPD

Make sure to add voltage before you unlock or you'll likely not be successful.

I'd say 1.475 to 1.525 unlocked to quad @ 3.8ghz seems to be the sweet spot. Use the Hyper212+ HSF.

Personally, I do 1.475 unlocked and at 3.8 then test with 2 copies of Orthos (each with proper affinity) for 24hrs for stability. If it's stable I record that and try to lower the voltage. Once I find the highest clock at lowest voltage I'll set up CPU folding via VM on it and run that for 24hours. For some reason that seems to push it harder and on some 550's will cause spontaneous resets. I just add voltage one step at a time until it'll do 24 hours folding.

It takes a while, but the overclocks so far have been stable and are all working fine.

[johnnyblazzwa]

bought a 550 installed on my asus evo MB, definitely has me horned up


can't fire here up untlil i get a case and psu though



thanks for the reply's