Just got my X3 720 BE and it's a 0904 batch!

Agricola1

Wasn't planning to unlock the fourth core but still read up on it. Seemed that the week 4 2009 batch is the best for unlocking the fourth core, confirmed by AMD. I bought an X3 for other reasons, not for a cheap quad core. If I wanted a Quad core I'd have paid the extra £30, but I liked the idea of extra L3 cache and less heat for overclocking.

So just got my brand new CPU through the post and it's a batch 0904 CPU! I'm considering unlocking the fourth core later on but probably won't. I'll probably overclock the CPU to about 3.5 GHZ and overclock the motherboard to use some OCZ 1600 MHZ Ram.

Anyone else with an X3 that's unlocked the fourth core?

Techleo

  Yup, I got a batch 0940. With the proper ACC tools and some work it wasnt to hard to unlock the fourth core. I ended up locking mine back up though because frankly... its to scary for me The last thing I want is a melted cpu from bad components. On a interesting note my graphics card wasnt what it was supposed to be! I was playing my games and none of the Fps benchmarks were adding up. In fact they were quite a lot faster then I was expecting. Even with overclocked ram and a good cpu it didnt make sense. So I looked at the graphics card closer and realized they mispackaged my GPU! Instead of packing a 512mb model in the box, I got a 1gb model! Talk about a steal! The only thing slowing my system down now is a old hard drive. Im considering going the windows seven route since I have the commercial version available to me but meh, not sure yet. Most of friends are using the beta version and love it. No driver issues like they were expecting. 

astrob0y

Glad to hear that you got that batch. It seems to me that AMD is doing the right thing for future customer when they are making it so easy to unlock the last and less stable core. Good will when its applyed really good Please tell us how your clocking is doing and if you are getting your last core stable.

To techleo. Please dont be scared to stress your processor. The modern processor is really hard to destory and it takes alot of wrong to burn a processor. For example a friend of mine did forget to put on the air cooler propaly and it did turn out well.  But as anything else when it comes to comptures- read the manual  

 

 

ps. im kicking at 4ghz atm with my i7 920.   

Cleffy

I already burned a processor a little where there was an occasional load error.  Its not that hard to burn one if you take things too far.  This was an AMD 5000+ I was trying to push to 3.6 ghz.  It didn't like the extra voltage.

astrob0y

Originally posted by Cleffy


I already burned a processor a little where there was an occasional load error.  Its not that hard to burn one if you take things too far.  This was an AMD 5000+ I was trying to push to 3.6 ghz.  It didn't like the extra voltage.

If you push things to its extreme really fast then you can destory the hardware. I know about a guy in a swedish OC forum that tried to push his old and grumpy core 2 duo to 5ghz from its original clock. Guess what happend to his processor. And that is why  you should follow the instructions given by an overclock guide, that has been tested by some pepole, or the manufactures recomendations  

And what I know you cant burn a processor "a little". If you burn a processor, or any hardware, then its dead. Or its just an expression Ive missunderstood.

astrob0y

Originally posted by Techleo


  Yup, I got a batch 0940. With the proper ACC tools and some work it wasnt to hard to unlock the fourth core. I ended up locking mine back up though because frankly... its to scary for me The last thing I want is a melted cpu from bad components.

If you unlock your 4th core you wont kill your system. You will at most get an unstable compture.

The x3 processor is an quad processor that failed AMDs controll. Insteed of throwing it to the dump they lock the malfunction part and sells it as an x2 or x3 processor.

Agricola1

Rumour has it that AMD used some good Quads in some batches of triple cores as there weren't enough faulty ones to fill orders. Either that or they deliberately put some good quads in there knowing that someone would unlock with the new AM3 boards, resulting in elevated sales of X3's and AM3 boards.

All AMD seems to be doing is asking the motherboard manufacturers to change the BIOS with the AM3 motherboards, which wouldn't prevent people unlocking the core anyway. Whatever happened AMD can't produce X3's quick enough now, I had to wait for Amazon to get more stock as they were sold out for a while! I see the fourth core as an option later on if I really need an upgrade but want to wait for prices to drop, I can enable that core and hope I won the core lottery!

I'm buying my new system piece by piece and will assemble it probably around late may, the only downside is that windows 7 won't be ready as I'm going to purchase a new OS (Vista). Although with the whole faulty core debate one person pointed out they may all be faulty, it depends on what AMD's definition of faulty is. Some cores may not be up to their standards to sell as a quad, but probably is still good enough for users.

Techleo

After a few experiments and a ton of looking over specs , it seems I have one of the good quad cores they just made into a three core. Sure seems to be screaming along with the 4th unlocked. I couldnt resist trying I guess.

Now all Im missing is a good Harddrive. For the first time in ages, my PC is out specing my HD. NOT a good thing!

P.S. You dont have any friends at Microsoft? If you did you could get a license for Windows 7. Mind you youd pay for a beta but you get to keep the software and the license when it goes gold.