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: $169.
That seems to be it until we get Zosma and Thuban in late Q2. See you then.
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AndrejM - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
I think there were very few unlockable Athlon II X4's out there. I ordered one only a week after it was announced, and I couldn't unlock the L3 cache (on a gigabyte mobo with all of those unlocking options available). The performance is still pretty kick-ass for a 100$ chip without L3 Cache, if you ask me.leexgx - Sunday, January 31, 2010 - link
i be very unhappy to get an binned Phenom II with its cache off been sold as an Athlon II X4, as the new Athlons II run so cool where as the Phenoms do not (the stock cooler is no good for the Phenoms it needs to be 2x bigger like the Blue Orb II works very well at keeping it at least warm)Jovec - Thursday, January 28, 2010 - link
Using any AMD chipset motherboard with the SB750 South Bridge and proper BIOS support you'll have support for a feature called Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC).710 sb too, no?
Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, January 28, 2010 - link
woops, you're right :) Fixed.Take care,
Anand
coolhardware - Sunday, January 31, 2010 - link
Thanks for the tip Anand! I enjoyed reading the article so much that I decided to build my own :-). It came out to less than $200 for the entire system, though I used old memory and storage.CPU: X2 550 $90.99 (+$5 for NewEgg bundled cooler special)
Motherboard: ASRock A785GMH/128M $69.99
Case: ASUS TM-211 $25.00 (used eBay bucks for $20 worth of the total)
Here's more info:
http://www.jdhodges.com/2010/01/quad-core-cheap/">http://www.jdhodges.com/2010/01/quad-core-cheap/
Any comments or build tips are appreciated!
Zebo - Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - link
Nice. But....Fry's regularly has Phenom X2 II 550 + some mobo for less than $100!
Just google "fry's Phenom X2 II 550"... you'll see. Some mobos support unlocking, some don't but many of us in CPU forums have known this is a greatest deal since November at least even without a Frys combo but with it it makes it insanely sweet.
blyndy - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
"Often times it's easier to just disable two cores and sell the chip for cheaper than you'd like"Wouldn't it be better to lower X4 prices slightly and dropping the X2s altogether?
MonkeyPaw - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
Yes and no. Not all X4s are likely to work, so there's still a reason to disable some cores and sell this product. The problem then is that they get more demand than they have CPU cores that need to be disabled, so they end up using lower quality functional quad cores to make X2s. Also, I think that AMD and Intel have strictest quality control. What they consider to be a bad core, we may never notice.It is still revenue either way, just not as much as they possibly could. Also, cheaper quads all around would only hurt AMD's total revenue. I'd guess that this X2 BE probably won't be around long as people start snatching them up. I do enjoy the little bones that AMD throws out there for the enthusiasts.
vyseus - Thursday, April 29, 2010 - link
I've got a new System unit, can detect if it can unlock the core?-AMD Phenom II X2 555 3.2 Ghz BE
-MSI 7599 770 - C45
-Kingston DDR1333 (CL9.0) 2+2Gb
-Gigabyte Superb 550w
-500GB/32MB WD
-Sapphire HD5670 1Gb ddr5
If can really wanna try, I'm going to upgrade the heat sink to corsair H50, also adding few fans to the radiator of H50 and the casing..
Can i try to unlock since I'm pretty new on overclocking, or i need a change of motherboard..Thanks in advance
talha - Saturday, May 22, 2010 - link
Hey, I've written article about this too: http://www.triple3online.com/?p=155Check it out and tell me if you like it...