PHENOM II X3(tri-core) CAN BE MADE an X4(quad-core)

According to the post at Korean website Playwares.com, the fourth core which is disabled isn't locked and can be enabled in BIOS, thus making it a quad-core CPU.

Screenshots look quite real, and we can't think of any reason why they shouldn't be, but you still might want to take this one with a grain of salt as this might be an isolated case, or some weird kind of Photoshop prank.

Guys tried this with Biostar's TA790GX motherboard, but according to the post, the same thing can be done with any other 790GX + SB700 motherboard. According to the screenshots, all you have to do is to modify "Advanced Clock Calibration" to Auto and your tri-core should become a quad-core. Guys at Playwares.com tried it with AMD's Phenom II X3 710 processors, that has for some weird reason became the AMD Phenom II X4 10 processor, at least according to BIOS post screen.

CPU-Z and Windows both recognized the fourth core, and these guys even managed to do a Prime95 and 3DMark06 CPU tests. The fourth core brings additional 1000 points in 3DMark06 CPU test which is a really nice score considering that you only payed for a tri-core CPU.

The only problem is that this might not be possible on all AMD's X3 processors as in some cases it might not be so stable. After all, AMD does make these X3's by disabling one core that is unstable.

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Yesterday's big news was that the disabled fourth core on AMD's X3 processor can be easily enabled in BIOS. The hack has been tried out by many users around the net and they managed to confirm it works, at least in some cases.

As previously noted, all you have to do is set the ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) in BIOS to Auto and if you are one of the lucky ones, the X3 could become a X4 CPU. According to some info around the net, some of the X3's aren't stable when working with all four cores, but apparently AMD did deliberately cut some good X4's into X3's so it's a lottery.

One of our readers, Steve, has sent us an email claiming that it worked for him, and he was using Biostar's TA790GX A2+ motherboard and AMD's X3 720 BE CPU. We can wish him good luck with his new, budget quad-core CPU, and we will surely keep an eye out for additional details on this situation.

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The ability to unlock the disabled core on Phenom II X3 processor draws parallels with the days when one could soft-mod a NV40-based GeForce 6800 XT to higher models. An article by Korean website Playwares made waves on the internet yesterday, which suggested a very easy method to unlock the disabled core on Phenom II X3. Several users have been able to verify and confirm the method works. While Playwares used a Biostar-made motherboard, people with ACC-supportive motherboards from several makes have been able to get the mod to work. Motherboard vendors performed their own testing to confirm this method, and have had some success so far.

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The success of this mod however, depends on a few factors:

• The disabled core AMD notes to be "unstable", should be fit-enough to be at least enabled and working
• The motherboard should support the Advanced Clock Calibration feature, which currently only motherboards with AMD's SB750 southbridge chip support
• The Phenom II X3 processor should belong to the 0904 manufacturing batch, these should be some of the initial batches of the processor, and may still be found with retailers

Considering AMD doesn't have an AM3-socket CPU featuring 6 MB of L3 cache out in the market yet, this opens up a good opportunity to get a taste of Phenom II X4 AM3 chips at a lesser price, but then again, you might need some luck to get the chip belonging to the right batch.

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It's top three-core CPU, the multiplier-unlocked Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition, clocked at 2.8GHz, now costs just $144, and this is a pretty good deal. Mind you, unlike the old 65nm parts, the new 45nm Hekas are very overclockable, and even a good motherboard which will let you play around with it comes quite cheap. Phenom II X3 720 can overclock to over 4GHz and you can even enable the forth core with a touch of a bios.

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Following fourth core unlock reports



Demand for AMD three-core Phenom II chips is on the rise, following reports that the fourth core on many units can be activated after fiddling with some bios settings.

Of course, the hack doesn't work on all CPUs, but only certain batches, so consumers can't really expect a 100 percent success rate, but nevertheless, the prospect of a free fourth core seems quite appealing to some.

Of course, AMD refuses to officially comment the three-core to quad-core five-finger discount hack.

Several readers have already contacted us to confirm they managed to succesfully enable the fourth core, and in case you have a three-core Phenom II, and you've tried enabling the disabled core, we would like to hear from you.

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