Sempron 140 Unlocks to Athlon II X2

[btarunr]

It has been done over and over again, and each time new AMD processors successfully unlock disabled cores (dubbed "defective"), it only makes us wonder if it is a deliberate attempt by the company to make buying its cheaper processors potentially rewarding. It has been discovered that AMD's recently announced Sempron 140 single-core processor can be transformed into a dual-core Athlon II X2 series processor with a simple, well-known trick. This comes as no surprise, as the "Sargas" core the processor is based on, is made by disabling one core on the Regor dual-core die.

The trick requires a motherboard with AMD SB710 or SB750 southbridge that supports the Advanced Clock Calibration feature. Not all motherboards, however, support this mod. By simply enabling the feature in the BIOS setup program, the system will be able to address both processor cores, with the complete feature-set of Athlon II X2. The staff behind the feat over at Thai techsite VModTech tested for the unlocked core's stability with much success. At 3.71 GHz (13.5 x 275 MHz @ 1.536 V), the processor stood SuperPi, WPrime, and WinRAR bandwidth tests. Validation can be found here. At around $40, here's the cheapest ticket to a dual-core processor that looks $80 Intel processors in the eye.



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[DanishDevil]

I think they're doing what they're doing with ATi. They're flooding the market with news on purpose so they get all the hype compared to Intel. It very well may work. Still pretty frickin' cool that you can get a dualie for $40 with the right board.

 

[Mussels]

niiiice.

we were discussing this in another thread here on TPU, and it made me all sad that my media PC's board only has SB700

 

[btarunr]

I think they're doing what they're doing with ATi. They're flooding the market with news on purpose so they get all the hype compared to Intel. It very well may work. Still pretty frickin' cool that you can get a dualie for $40 with the right board.

Looking at the past 2 months, Intel is news-whoring more.

 

[DanishDevil]

But then again they're about to release a wholly revamped processor class and a brand new one. I do agree though, they have been quite prominent, and I think AMD got jealous. Just my completely irrational guess

 

[Easo]

I doubt they will use laser to make it imposible to unlock cores, it just gives them more sales. There is reasn why those cores are locked, even if the flaw is minimal. But who cares, it if works.

 

[iStink]

I love little stories like this.

 

[MilkyWay]

lol every AMD CPU transforms into another one its "more than meets the eye..."

for basic stuff this would be good is is guaranteed an unlock tho?

 

[suraswami]

so what batch does this belong to?

Have an Phenom II X2 BE + Biostar 790GX board unopened sitting on my desk. Not sure if the BE will unlock to 4 cores, what batch should it belong to?

may be I should try this sempron lol.

 

[Cheeseball]

niiiice.

we were discussing this in another thread here on TPU, and it made me all sad that my media PC's board only has SB700

LOL, yeah, I brought it up in the othe thread in General Hardware. I think I'm gonna go buy one just to test.

 

[ShadowFold]

lol every AMD CPU transforms into another one its "more than meets the eye..."

for basic stuff this would be good is is guaranteed an unlock tho?

No CPU is guaranteed an unlock. It's nice to see that these unlock, tho. I bet this stuff is really helping AMD sales too.

 

[phanbuey]

Lol... Intel is news whoring by releasing a confusing amount of chips and boards, and AMD is releasing unlock-able ones.

hmm... I think I might be going AMD next time around .

 

[FreedomEclipse]

1.536v just to get to 3.7Ghz seem a little high - isnt that also above the 45nm 'safety' levels? it just shows how inefficient at handling voltage the processor is.

 

[a_ump]

just curious, does ACC actually have any other purpose besides unlocking cores? i built my friend's PC with an Athlon II 250. the mobo is Biostar 790GX which has ACC as i looked at his bios yesterday. I thought regor was actually a true dual-core chip, it can't be unlocked to 3 or 4 cores can it?

1.536v just to get to 3.7Ghz seem a little high - isnt that also above the 45nm 'safety' levels? it just shows how inefficient at handling voltage the processor is.

very true, the build that i put together for my buddy yesterday has his athlon II 250 running 1.31v i think at stock...i was like

 

[Cheeseball]

Regor is a true dual-core, but Sargas (Sempron X1) is a halved Regor.

 

[ShadowFold]

1.536v just to get to 3.7Ghz seem a little high - isnt that also above the 45nm 'safety' levels? it just shows how inefficient at handling voltage the processor is.

AMD's 45nm can do 1.55v safely. These aren't really built for overclocking tho, pretty sure it's just a modified Athlon X2 core. AMD's handle voltages a lot differently than Intel's stuff.

 

[thezorro]

wow intel is being left behind.

 

[btarunr]

so what batch does this belong to?

Have an Phenom II X2 BE + Biostar 790GX board unopened sitting on my desk. Not sure if the BE will unlock to 4 cores, what batch should it belong to?

may be I should try this sempron lol.

Phenom II X2 BE does unlock to 4 cores in some cases.

 

[jamesrt2004]

so what batch does this belong to?

Have an Phenom II X2 BE + Biostar 790GX board unopened sitting on my desk. Not sure if the BE will unlock to 4 cores, what batch should it belong to?

may be I should try this sempron lol.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=227004

here = a good list of batches, and people successes and failures with unlocking boards/chips/batch

 

[BobBarr]

oh wth screw it i just ordered one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103698&Tpk=Sempron 140

 

[suraswami]

Phenom II X2 BE does unlock to 4 cores in some cases.

but which batch/date?

 

[btarunr]

but which batch/date?

No specifics, it unlocks to four cores when it does.

 

[newtekie1]

AMD's 45nm can do 1.55v safely. These aren't really built for overclocking tho, pretty sure it's just a modified Athlon X2 core. AMD's handle voltages a lot differently than Intel's stuff.

Modified Phenom II core. Regor is a Deneb with two cores and the L3 Cache removed, and the L2 cache on the remaining two cores increased to 1MB each.

 

[mdm-adph]

This is hilarious. That is all.

 

[largon]

I want one that unlocks to a 32nm Orochi Bulldozer.