LeetPirate Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Sempron 140 Unlocks to Athlon II X2 [source: http://www.techpowerup.com/index.php?101389]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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizarre™ Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Nice find :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SokraT Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 you can't buy a sempron and be sure it will transform to the higher ATHLON and ensure a stable system even if the motherboard supports the trick because every chip is different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizarre™ Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Then buy directly from AMD :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeetPirate Posted August 13, 2009 Author Share Posted August 13, 2009 you can't buy a sempron and be sure it will transform to the higher ATHLON and ensure a stable system even if the motherboard supports the trick because every chip is different.I think it could be a legitimate trick by AMD to boost popularity of the product. Think about it, this trick isn't possible on any other motherboards other than those with one of two specific AMD southbridges. So they made a cheap sempron, it will then encourage people who know the trick to buy an AMD motherboard just to try out this trick, and in return AMD allows a perfectly working extra core to become usable. Normally you would find they disable a defective core of a more powerful cpu and sell it cheaper but in this case it could very well be that the disabled core is legitimate. I remember when nvidia had some tricks too and I modified my card BIOS and enabled an additional vertex shader and a pixel pipeline, it worked fine. It could also be that they just don't have many chips with a flawed core :D so they resorted to disabling legitimate cores to fill the market gap.The important thing is that if it works for you then you should stress test it with super pi and others and make sure it is stable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted August 13, 2009 Administrator Share Posted August 13, 2009 I agree with you. It must me AMD's trick. Even is your system fails after doing this, they also have chance to say that you have not been given any rights to unlock it. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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