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Phenom II X2 550 BE Cheap Quad Core

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  • Jun 1st, 2009 6:58 pm
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Phenom II X2 550 BE Cheap Quad Core

About 10 hours ago, there was news that the new yet-to-be-released AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition dual core CPU clocked at 3.1GHz can be unlocked to four cores with the ACC trick. Oddly, sources from the Inq and XtremeSystems have been removed.

Some talk and screenshots over at Techjamaica.

[IMG]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t227 ... verest.jpg[/IMG]

Fudzilla posted the CPU is based on the Calisto core and will be listed for $102 USD. If this is true, it can possibly be one hell of a cheap and fast quad core for the masses!

Edit: The Inq one is back. Here's the picks and text in case it disappears again!


[quote="Paul Taylor, The Inquirer"]Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition is a big surprise
Updated Extreme unlocking with AMD Overdrive
By Paul Taylor
Sunday, 31 May 2009, 15:15

THE PHENOM II X2 550 Black Edition chip is much more than a simple "low-end" Phenom II. First tests show that not only is it a joy to overclock, but if you hook it up to the right mainboard, you can activate all four cores on the processor.

Yes, that's right. The cheapest Phenom II around can have all four cores activated... for free. Using AMD's OverDrive we were able to switch on all four cores through the ACC. Unexpected to say the least.

[IMG]http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1720 ... dafter.jpg[/IMG]

This means four 3.1GHz cores, all with 512KB of active L2 cache and sharing 6MB of L3, just like a high end Phenom II X4 950.

Now, with four cores in hand we've set off to see precisely how far this can take us.

So far, we've had some trouble running 3D graphics benchmarks to the end, but pure arithmetical and multimedia benchmarks have run without a glitch, which leads us to believe our graphics card isn't quite up to spec. On the other hand, purely CPU benchmarks like Sandra CPU Arithmetic, Cinebench R10 and wPrime yielded almost linear gains with the two additional cores active.

Granted, your mileage may vary, but there is something uniquely rewarding about turning on the four cores with a simple "flip of the switch". That serious look on your face is followed by a narrowing of the eyes, and then you break out in a rather silly large grin.

We'll put up our benchmark results as soon as possible.
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This sounds like a very promising chip - I might just buy one and keep it :P.

This might just be one batch though (like the unlockable fourth core on the X3 720).
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Its definatly a promising chip, but I think if peaple are looking at them for "hidden" unlockable cores there buying it for the wrong reason.

BUT that being said .... IF you can get the 3rd &/or 4th core enabled & there even stable at the stock 3.1 ghz clock it will be a great chip for the price. :D
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terrybear wrote: Its definatly a promising chip, but I think if peaple are looking at them for "hidden" unlockable cores there buying it for the wrong reason.

BUT that being said .... IF you can get the 3rd &/or 4th core enabled & there even stable at the stock 3.1 ghz clock it will be a great chip for the price. :D
I agree with you there. Don't buy this thinking you will be able to do this, most of the time, those cores are locked for a reason(dead cores, or cores are not even stable at stock speeds), if it works its nice, but if you buy this with the intention of getting a cheap quadcore, most people will be in for a nasty surprise.

E.g if you go to the original 3x to 4x phenom II thread, most people didn't get it to work, and its going to be even worse with this 2x to 4x.

Reason why original thread was removed is that the chip is still under NDA. Also if you look later on, the chip fails, OCCT, prime and orthos stability testing in the xtremesystems thread.
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It would be still be the fastest dual core AMD around. A good choice for gamers on the cheap.
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I am interested in seeing what the Athlon II's will bring to the game. I might upgrade at that point in time.

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