phenom II 555 BE Vs Athlon II X4 630

[spm]

I have seen many of the forum members recommending the Athlon II X4 630 to the members in this forum and i think its a fantastic VFM proccy. I am a new AMD enthusiast and have been doing my part to understand there products better. just browsing through these pages i got two AMD proccy with same price(as per smc international)
So which of this is better and for what purposes.
1. phenom II 555 BE (AMD Phenom II 555 BE)
2. Athlon II X4 630(AMD Athlon II X4 630)

[Sam]

Originally Posted by spm

I have seen many of the forum members recommending the Athlon II X4 630 to the members in this forum and i think its a fantastic VFM proccy. I am a new AMD enthusiast and have been doing my part to understand there products better. just browsing through these pages i got two AMD proccy with same price(as per smc international)
So which of this is better and for what purposes.
1. phenom II 555 BE (AMD Phenom II 555 BE)
2. Athlon II X4 630(AMD Athlon II X4 630)

i think i replied you on this topic before.

X2 555 ---> high clock so best in gaming.
X4 630 ---> 4 cores & moderate clock rate. good in everything.

both got its own pros & cons. X4 630 doesn't trail X2 555 a long way. so X4 630 good in gaming too. it runs cool. you got 4 cores. so as many games slowly support 4 cores, so you on right track.

X2 555 is a BE processor. so OC is fun. on stock heatsnk you may try OC it a bit. will fo past 3.5Ghz easily. X4 630 goes til 3.3Ghz+. also X2 555 can be unlocked to a quad core (or tri core) but will generate lots of heat (as a result fan will run at 100%. NOISY). but once unlocked, X4 got no chance. neither in games, nor in any apps.

so its your call buddy which you want.

[spm]

can you tell me more about the unlocking thing.
Which all proccy can be unlocked and can this phenom dual core be unlocked to a quad. is it safe to do this as many in this forum say they are locked for a reason. and can they always be unlocked and will it damage the proccy...
I know this is a lot of questions. just had all this doubt about this thing
anyway thanks sam

[Sam]

Originally Posted by spm

can you tell me more about the unlocking thing.
Which all proccy can be unlocked and can this phenom dual core be unlocked to a quad. is it safe to do this as many in this forum say they are locked for a reason. and can they always be unlocked and will it damage the proccy...
I know this is a lot of questions. just had all this doubt about this thing
anyway thanks sam

well unlocking is a simple mechanism. turn ACC on in Bios (provided mother supports ACC) and voila, you'll either get 1 or 2 more cores for free or BSOD. cause these locked cores are damaged. sometimes what happens is in some of the locked cores something is damaged. maybe the L2 cache got error. or the core material itself (transistors) are damaged. so unlocking is simply allowing these damaged cores to work. if they are still functional, they will. else BSOD.

now problem is, i not sure but Phenom II X2s, maybe ship with stock Athlon II coolers (not phenom II coolers). so they good for 2 core + L3 cache or 4 cores without L3 cache. when you turn all 4 cores + L3 cache. the coolers is found ineffective to cool the extra cores, resulting in higher temperature. it isn't dangerous. but not good in long run. if you able cool the processor, its good.

now many times if cores doesn't unlock you can try adding .1V extra. or maybe 0.05V extra. this may result in stable unlock (unlock is guarantee, stability is the issue).

hope all your questions were answered. if not, don't hesitate to ask

[ajai5777]

Main issue is that you wont be able to monitor temperature in the unlocked state.Because the sensors wont work correctly after the unlock.
According to me its a gamble.They have locked it for a reason.

[spm]

so if the cores are unlocked and they are stable then we can add extra cooling so that they don't overheat and all is well and good.....
but if the cores unlock (which is guarantee) and they are unstable can we disable the cores again...
and u said sometimes the cores are damaged so is there a chance that the cores are not damaged...

[Jaskanwar Singh]

nooo, its not a guarantee that cores will unlock. it only has a high chance of unlocking.
but in my personal opinion, depending on this unlocking thing should be avoided. you know manufacturers must have disabled them due to some reason. ITS MY PERSONAL OPINION ONLY. else wait for sammy to reply.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by spm

so if the cores are unlocked and they are stable then we can add extra cooling so that they don't overheat and all is well and good.....
but if the cores unlock (which is guarantee) and they are unstable can we disable the cores again...
and u said sometimes the cores are damaged so is there a chance that the cores are not damaged...

yes. that can be done. and thats the technique mostly used in the Phenom II X2 & X3. also Athlon II X3s.

all the locked cores got errors. means some transistors are bad ones. but stability depends on the amount of damage. high amount of damage means, how much you try, you'll end up with BSOD or unstable system. so end result, you get 2 cores or 3 cores.

Originally Posted by Jaskanwar Singh

nooo, its not a guarantee that cores will unlock. it only has a high chance of unlocking.
but in my personal opinion, depending on this unlocking thing should be avoided. you know manufacturers must have disabled them due to some reason. ITS MY PERSONAL OPINION ONLY. else wait for sammy to reply.

WRONG. cores will unlock. its about stability. other than Athlon II X2's, all other X2s & X3s are native quad cores. so if you turn ACC on, cores will unlock. but than you must try & get it stable. in most cases the core unlocked in stable. but in remaining case either you'll get a proccy with damaged cores or struggle to pass stability tests (else in between games, PC will crash. encoding, pc crash. play HD movie, PC crashes ). its like a toss. either success or stuck with 2 cores.

[Jaskanwar Singh]

thanks for the info sam
and so to avoid those crashes(all depends on luck) we should stay away for unlocking. shouldn't we???

[spm]

yah its better to stay away from unlocking. thanks sam.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Jaskanwar Singh

thanks for the info sam
and so to avoid those crashes(all depends on luck) we should stay away for unlocking. shouldn't we???

Originally Posted by spm

yah its better to stay away from unlocking. thanks sam.

my pleasure buddies.

@Jaskanwar, actually i feel its better go with a X4 945 or 955 rather than playing with ones luck. cause see the price difference. just 2k or 3k more. for 2k extra, you getting 2 extra cores. than why take those risks? also with X4 955, you getting 100Mhz extra along with 2 fully fit cores :-P ready to jump past 3.5Ghz

[evewin89]

ajai5777

last week i also bought the similar type of config lik u.

Athlon II X4 630
Biostar TA785G3 HD|
samsung 23inch monitor.

but my corsair 2GB DDR3 1333 turned out to be a faulty one so i sent it to bangalore for replacement .i wanna ask howz ur computer runs. actually from the 1st day while working on my new Pc i was getting BSOD.so i checked the ram through the win7 memory testing tool. n it detected a memory fault.is this config good.?