Unlocking the fourth core

[jeffinak]

after prchasing my girlfriend a new cpu phenom 2x3 720 be to replace her old pentium d weve found that her asus m4a78-plus doesnt have the chipset to attempt to unlock the fourth core.
My Question is were I to put her proccessor in my MoBo and succesfully open the core, does it then become a hardware or software issue? Meaning if i unlock it and then put it back in her rig did we physically unlock the core so she has a quad? or is it software and only unlocked in my rig?

either way its quite the upgrade for her, I just liked the thought of an extra core for a bonus

 

[Frizzo]

that wont do you any good. are you sure the motherboard doesnt have the means to unlock it? i know there are two methods. the straight forward bios method that just says "attempt to unlock cores", but there is an older method that many used on the 700 series boards which i never owned , but the information is available im sure.

 

[Stardude82]

But to answer your main question, no, a locked core does not become unlocked for any motherboard, it is dependent on the motherboard it is installed in. It isn't really a "software" thing, but yeah it is dependent on states in motherboard's BIOS.

Anyway, a good overclock is better than an extra core with an x3 for most applications anyway.

 

[dafunklull]

i have the p2720be and a msi dka790gx motherboard with the help of a bios update i was able to further attempt the forth core unlocking for the 720.

even dispite down clocking the cpu and adding a tad more voltage the cpus 4th core would not respond properly leaving me dead at windows loading sequence with a black screen and no budging.

however xubuntu would boot but my knowledge of xubuntu tells me its only using a dual core setup for some reason and ignoring the other 2 cores all togather.

my 720 is a heka design core and it would not unlock.