Perhaps many of you reading this have also read that the AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition dual-core CPU/processors have two locked cores. Mine has and I unlocked them to make it a quad-core AMD Phenom II x4 processor. Luck is involved and I will explain why. When AMD manufactures its Phenom CPUs/processors, they are all made quad-core (not including the new hexa-core (six-cores) models. These four cores are tested to make sure they work as they should. If that is the case, they are sold as quad-core processors.
If one or more of the cores fail or don't work as they should (too slow for example) then the dodgy core(s) is locked and they are sold as triple-core or dual-core CPUs. This is basic business practice and cuts down on wasting loads of working materials away. The other situation is when there is a huge demand/order for dual-core CPUs , AMD uses quad-cores and locks two of the cores and sells them as dual-cores. So, if you are lucky and none of the cores is defective, buying this processor is the same as buying a quad-core, but you need the correct BIOS setup program on the computer's motherboard to unlock the cores.
Note that the same situation applies to Intel quad-core processors. Just enter unlock before the make/model of the processor as the search query in a search engine to be presented with the available links. I used the search query unlock amd phenom II x2 550 to find the links provided above.
Now the question is are they defective cores, dodgy cores or good cores? The first sign you'll get if you have defective/dodgy cores is your computer will produce a blue screen as soon as you start it up. If it does you have one or more defective cores. Change back to dual-core next time you restart by entering the BIOS. If your computer boots and you're in Windows, the state of affairs is looking better, but you might still have one or more dodgy cores. The only way to find out for sure is to use your computer as you normally do and and hope it doesn't produce a blue screen. If after a couple of weeks running the unlocked cores with no problems then congratulations, you've got one of those quad-cores that had two cores intentionally locked. Note that unlocking the cores throws out any temperature readings. That is, the PC's motherboard will not or will incorrectly report processor and system temperatures. I know of one person whose processor temperature was reported as 276C, which no processor could survive.
If you've unlocked the cores and then overclock them, be prepared, not always but it has happened, to experience a burning smell. Yes, you've fried the processor.
I've been an AMD-user for 10 years. I never used Intel processors, motherboards or graphics cards because they are overpriced and no better than products made by AMD. This particular model -AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - has a superb specification. The 3.1GHz speed is faster than almost all of the quad-core processors available today and the 7MB cache ensures stability.
A note for people who are under the impression that more cores always means better performance. If you are a keen gamer, then forget about using 3 cores or 4 cores. Games (100% of current off-the-shelf games and 95% of older games) do not and cannot use parallel processing (more than a single core). Check anywhere on the Internet for confirmation of this. Games do not work well using parallel processing and not many game developers/programmers are willing to try using it because it is technically very difficult and unproductive. Games process software consecutively (one after the other) they don't pass code from core to core for processing. Without getting too technical, if you bought a quad-core (4-core) processor running at 2.4GHz and played a game on it you would be running that game at 2.4GHz on a single core; the other 3 cores would remain idle. So, multi-core processors are not beneficial for gaming. However, if you were running a photo-editing application, writing a report, surfing the web and playing MP3s all at the same time (called multitasking), then a multi-core processor is worth having, because each core would assume control of each program.
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