45nm Athlon X2 5000+ which is based on Phenom II available in the UK!

[Terbinator]

Do you have access to the cache aswell ?

[Uriel]

Yep. 6MB L3 Cache.

Edit: http://www.cpu-world.com/step_codes/C/CACZC%20AC.html

Looks like there's another stepping of these in the wild: CACZC AC. By the look of it it's an AM3 core, used in the PII 810. 910, 710 and 720. No idea if it'll unlock.

(Mine's a CACVC AC - essentially an AM2+ 920 / 940 chip)

[scaryjim]

£36 for a 3GHz Phenom II ain't bad

(Mine's AM2+ 940)

ftfy

[Terbinator]

my motherboard's here tomorrow so i'll see if i can find time off BC2 beta to try some unlocking

[Uriel]

Think I've run into a FSB wall at around 286MHz. Go over that and I start getting prime errors. Dropping RAM, NB and HT doesn't help. Dropping CPU multi in overdrive doesn't help. A bump to CPU-NB voltage really seems to have settled it down and made it reliable/usable.

Managed to drop my VCore to under 1.5 volts again. Just stress testing FSB @ 282 for 3.1GHz. HT and NB @ 2256mhz. Prime's been running for half an hour and CPU temps are 58 - 59 °C on a cheap and cheerful Freezer Pro 64. With the 5.25" bays open I can knock another 8°C off that so I'm planning to make a vent grille for them.

Amazing really - I think with a different motherboard someone else could squeeze more out of this chip. That 11x multi is going to prove awkward for some.

I may go quiet for a while once I get down to some gaming on this thing.

Edit: From one Athlon X2 5000+ to another, that was one heck of an upgrade...

Further Edit:
I'd say it's going jolly well:

[Terbinator]

I 'succesfully' unlocked my Sempron 140 to a X2 4400e, however stability seems to be an issue. Windows 7 drops the Aero theme when im in 'unlock' mode and Google Chrome or Cinebench dont run. Im using the MSI E51 and there are newer BIOS versions than the one im using so I'll update later and let you know how it goes.

Other than that, any tips for a stable unlock ?

[Uriel]

The key for me to get it stable seemed to be CPU-NB (memory controller etc) voltage and adjusting CPU-NB / HT frequency. Not all motherboards have the option to change them though and without it I think it would be impossible to get some unlocked chips stable.

I found S&M (CPU stability test) wouldn't run until I'd got it sorted.

[Terbinator]

In my attempts to update my bios it appears ive 'bricked' the board - help guys ?

[Uriel]

What stage exactly have you got to with it. Have you turned it off after the update yet?

[Terbinator]

What stage exactly have you got to with it. Have you turned it off after the update yet?

It updated then said rebooting. It rebooted and now Im greeted with a blank screen - CPU fan spins up and thats it.

[Uriel]

Did you clear your CMOS?

Worst case you may need to get hold of a new BIOS chip.

Edit: this may also be useful: http://www.bios-mods.com/recovery.html

[Terbinator]

I tried clearing with jumper which didn't make a difference. I've removed the battery now and il pop it back in later to see where that gets me.

[Uriel]

Don't forget the floppy drive trick in the link I posted. Sounds less hassle than getting another chip.

[Terbinator]

Don't forget the floppy drive trick in the link I posted. Sounds less hassle than getting another chip.

Yeah I've been looking over that, the same technique is also mentioned on the MSI website. I just need a (blank ?) floppy disc and a hard-wired keyboard to try it. After clearing the CMOS the hard drive has started spinning up again, initially it didn't do anything - a sign I hope

[Uriel]

Any progress Terbinator?

I'm having a mixed bag. Getting this in event viewer

A corrected hardware error has occurred.

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Corrected Machine Check
Error Type: Cache Hierarchy Error
Processor ID: 0

The details view of this entry contains further information.

- which means I actually do have a faulty core that's I've pummelled into a state that's just stable enough to run games, stability tests and benchmarks without errors. The error happens with the CPU unlocked at any speed. Strangely I've not yet managed to get it stable at stock speed - only overclocked.

In trying to fix the problem I did manage to squeeze a bit extra out speed wise though:

I think long term I'm going to run the CPU as an Athlon X2 for day to day and just unlock to quad for multithreaded stuff. Never know when that cache error could cause an issue otherwise eh?

[Terbinator]

No pal, thanks for asking though. Seems I'm going to have to pip for a new board, maybe go Asus this time as that the only other major manufacturer I've yet to buy from