Help Unlocking Phenom II X3 720

scirishman76

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Mar 20, 2009
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Hi everyone Just got My Phenom II X3 720 and I have read that you can unlock the 4th core with most amd 7series boards,I however prefer running Nvidia cards and have a Biostar Nforce 720a board.Anyone know of either another way to unlock that 4 core or a way to do it with an Nforce board.

By the way this CPU Rocks I began OCing it as soon as I got it.I moved the voltage up (barely) from 1.33 to 1.39 OCed all the way to 3.7 with that voltage setting 3.75 became unstable Im sure it will go a little farther with another bump in voltage.But I dont like overvolting so I kept the 1.39 and backed the CPU down to 3.55 to ensure maximum stability.Old 3Dmark06 with 6400X2 windsor @3.4 and single 8800gts 512 (11667 with 2469cpu) New score with the same system and the Phenom 720X3 @ 3.55 (15383 with 4417cpu).4000 points on mark06 in huge I am ;}
 

misry

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You need a 690F or GX chipset that has ACC. You then set that to either AUTO or ALL CORES, both work for me, and test for stability. You'll get anything from a POST fail to a 4th core. I have an impression I read somewhere it having been done with a 680 but not a glimmer from Nvidia.
 

dragonsprayer

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Jan 3, 2007
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get an i7?

pull the battery as a last resort

flash the cmos chip over and over - by moving the jumper and hold the power botton and moving the jumper back and starting it - some times you need to power down between some times not (full power down no lights on the mobo)

turn the power on and off with jumper on both postions repeat over and over

it can take 30-40 tries this is common with nvidia chipsets
 

scirishman76

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Now I know why this guys system is warped. Why would I want to pay $200 more for an I7 920 and $75 more for the board to get about a 4% increase in gaming power.
 

jimmysmitty

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Because if you ever plan on going SLI a Core i7 is the best investment.......

Anywho. I haven't heard of it being done on a nVidia chipset yet. Plus there is no gurantee that your specific Phenom II chip is able to even be unlocked (4th core that is) even with the right mobo since it has been shown to vary on the batch number as well.

So for now it looks like you might just be stuck with what the chip was meant to be. A tri core.
 

The_Blood_Raven

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Jan 2, 2008
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Yeah Ok, so this guy doesn't even buy a QUADCORE and you are shoving i7 down his throat, hey dude go spend $400 more because you will get a lot of extra performance you will never use, common we know you have it! Both of you GTFO!
 

jimmysmitty

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What crawled up your butt? I never said for him to get it. Just put logic to why it would be a good idea in the future. If you have a problem with that then you can GTFO.

Either way, we never thought we would use the power of a Pentium or what a Pentium 2 or III offered. Hell Pentium 4 seemed to provied plenty of power (as did the AMD equivalents). And then we never thought anything more than a dual core would be needed for much. But now most AMD gaming rigs are either a Tri core or Quad core and Intel systems are either Quad or Dual since Intel has no Tri.

So don't get all bitchy because I just said why a Core i7 is a good chip. And don't put words in my mouth as all I said is its a decent chip IF you plan to SLI especially since he prefers nVidia. And then I went on to answer his question with what knowledge I have found on this tri to quad core and told him that the chances are never 100% in this situation.

So once again, you GTFO and stop being a prick.
 

pr2thej

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Sep 25, 2008
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i7 drama threads are fun.
OP ask yourself if you really need the hassle of unlocking the 4th core when it is clocking so high...id just roll with what you got already mate.
 

Helloworld_98

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Feb 9, 2009
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^ Core 2 = even better, sometimes.

to unlock the 4th core you need either a biostar or asrock 790 chipset motherboard, any other and it won't work.