Unlocking the Phenom II X2 555: 3.2GHz Quad-Core for $99
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 28, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
More Detail on the Phenom II X4 910e
I was actually surprised by the number of folks who were interested in the Phenom II X4 910e. It's a voltage binned Phenom II X4 running at 2.6GHz that falls in a 65W TDP envelope.
The performance is no different than the regular 95W Phenom II X4 910, it just uses a lot less power since it runs at a much lower voltage. Some of you wanted to know exactly what that voltage was. The table below gives you more detail on our CPU as well as a standard 125W Phenom II X4 965 BE (unfortunately I don't have any 95W X4s to compare it to):
| Processor | Idle Voltage | Load Voltage |
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 (125W) | 0.992V | 1.392V |
| AMD Phenom II X4 910e (65W) | 0.976V | 1.168V |
It's a pretty significant difference in voltage (and power consumption) but you do pay handsomely for the privilege. The 910e costs as much as a Phenom II X4 955: $169.
That seems to be it until we get Zosma and Thuban in late Q2. See you then.
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LucasBR - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
Hey, i have an X3 720BE and i works fine at 0.75V idle and 1.15V burn. I think that now it's an 65W part... xDUnfortunately my chipset is 8200, so i can't unlock 4th core. At least it works fine at 3,6GHz with stock Vcore.
BernardP - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
For those who don't want to gamble with unlocking, there is a proper Phenom II X4 955 (not BE though) @ 3.2 Ghz and 95 W TDP in the pipeline. The part number is HDZ955FBGIBOXhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_future_AMD_mi...">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_future_AMD_mi...
The performance should be very close to the i5 750
blowfish - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
Thanks Anand for a great follow-up article - exactly what I was waiting for.Looking at the AMD chips, however, it amazes me how much die area is taken up with the L3 cache - and it makes me wonder if it wouldn't be worth AMD making a 6 core cpu without L3, along the lines of the Athlon II X4. It would surely make a killer video encoding cpu - if you compare the Athlon II X4 with the Phenom II X4, video encoding speed is virtually identical clock-for-clock.
Eeqmcsq - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
"The performance is no different than the regular 125W Phenom II X4 910"Did you mean to say that the performance is no different than the 95w Phenom II X4 910? Also, I don't think the voltage table should compare the 910e to the 965, but instead, the 910e to the 910, since they are identical CPUs otherwise.
zarkness - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
Does anyone know the chances of getting Phenom II X 4 unlocking to quad core?? Because i wish to buy one for my new comp build.zarkness - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
oppss..i mean Phenom II X 2Smell This - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
It would be 'unofficial' but there is a thread at XS about the PhII unlocking that shows a success rate >70%. They keep a list of batch numbers with the success rates.I got one that unlocked and under-volted -.01v. At 100% my total draw at the wall dropped by 1/3 to 127w.
buzznut - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
I would like that link as well.Smell This - Saturday, January 30, 2010 - link
Here are 32 pages in the 'X2 550 Unlocking & Overclocking Consolidated' thread.Includes everything from motherboards with preferable BIOS versions, ACC settings to help pesky unlocks, to NB/IMC overclocking.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php...">http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php...
zarkness - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
Can u give me the link to the site? thx alot ya