Why do they even lock it?

[AntiHeiss]

Let me get up on my soap box and start what I hope will be a good thread. Okay, why does AMD even bother to take such an aggressive approach to lock their CPUs? It just seems to me that if someone buys one and wants to overclock it and they fry thier CPU all they can do is buy another one. Which wouldn't that be more buisness for AMD or is it just me? Let me also say that I can understand why (for the lay-man) they don't come factory unlocked cause some joe-blow can fry his CPU and hold AMD accoutable. But why are the XPs so difficult? It just seems as though making it easier to unlock would be the nice thing to do as they have in the past. Cause if I fry my 1600+ I have to buy another 1600+...or am I just dumb?

Any opinions are appreciated, I just want to see if I'm the only one that feels this way.

[inkleoneaters]

i agree but am slightly confused has amd only recently started locking their chips? are all xp's locked, i am confused as i have a factory unlocked 1.4ghz athlon.

[Placid]

I think it's so if you overclock (not that you can't with a locked cpu) then they can refuse a rma since there will probably be evidence of the bridge unlocking.
But since you can fsb overclock a locked cpu it really doesn't make much sense.

[Christoph]

Originally posted by AntiHeiss
....

Any opinions are appreciated, I just want to see if I'm the only one that feels this way.

No stupidity here! My best guess is that they got too many RMAs.

Originally posted by inkleoneaters
i agree but am slightly confused has amd only recently started locking their chips? are all xp's locked, i am confused as i have a factory unlocked 1.4ghz athlon.

Yes, every last one of 'em (unless we get our grubby little hands on them).
All the TBirds above 1 gHz are factory unlocked. Now that you mention it, it does seem strange. I'll try sending them an email (I'm sooo sure that they'll respond. :rolleyes: )

Edit: messed up quote

[Fiz]

I think there are 2 reasons, first is the Bozo's who re-mark comps. The second was stated earlier in this thread, they probably want evidence on "user abuse" i.e overclocking when an RMA comes up. I think it is more the second than anything. Just my .02

Fiz

[Christoph]

I don't know about that remarking problem. The Tbirds above 1 gHz are all pre-unlocked and I haven't heard anything about remarked Tbirds.

[donny_paycheck]

I hear (doesn't everyone say that?) it's because 3rd party vendors sell premade PCs with an 1800+ chip at 1600mhz as a 1900+ or something like that. The RMA reason is a good one too, but I haven't it before.

[Tw00sh]

Hello, new to the boards. Hope I can contribute some knowledge. Need a sig though :)

I think they lock them because a large amount of businesses will sell the chips as a higher rated chip than it was intented to be sold as. By businesses, I mean the mass selling companies.

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by Tw00sh
Hello, new to the boards. Hope I can contribute some knowledge. Need a sig though :)

I think they lock them because a large amount of businesses will sell the chips as a higher rated chip than it was intented to be sold as. By businesses, I mean the mass selling companies.

1. Welcome to oc.com forums!
-and-
2. To the best of my limited knowledge you are correct...this makes the most sense to me.


<psst!> c'mere! hey, click on the folding link in my signature and join our team!

[Silver]

Donny, are you still playing with pelts? The more that I horse around with this xp1600 the more I think that a pelt might be the way to go on it. My temps are good but it seems to want lower yet. Maybe a 120w pelt with water cooling? Of course a 156 would allow you to about double the wattage on the core and with bong cooling should yield well.

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by Silver
Donny, are you still playing with pelts? The more that I horse around with this xp1600 the more I think that a pelt might be the way to go on it. My temps are good but it seems to want lower yet. Maybe a 120w pelt with water cooling? Of course a 156 would allow you to about double the wattage on the core and with bong cooling should yield well.

I can't claim to be messing around with them anymore, I just have this 80 watt module on my 1800+ w/a Swiftech MCX462/68CFM Delta. It's just about at the edge of it's envelope though....any more than 1.75vcore makes temps start to exponentially climb so I'm thinking about taking it out or going the distance w/a maze, cooling cube and parts for water cooling from DD. I think even a 110 would push air cooling too far. I'm actually surprised that I was able to do it with a palomino athlon.

[Silver]

Donny, look over in the amd cpu area, I posted some stock wattages on both the T-bird and XP processors. Notice the wattage moving up and the XP moving into the T-bird wattage area? I think that the pelt with the water on a dd type block, bong and the pelt whould operate real well. I agree with you on the 80w being on the low side but with the xp1600 a 120 might do the trick if it is water cooled. I would think that 2.0v on a xp1600 would be about max but don't know. The xps seem to be real temp sensitive and as a result real voltage sensitive. I think that even with the next generation of processors as the speed goes up so to does the wattage. I think that you were right on and found it very cool that you ran a air cooled pelt on that xp. A water cooled pelt under 24 volt could be the cheap way to go to get pretty high oc speeds. I think I pretty much have the water cooling thing down and you have some pelt experience. The pelt will allow going below temp. The water does not do this but does absorb more heat allowing the processor to stay closer to ambient and therefore get a better oc. Below ambient is of course the way to go to get to high oc. I don't believe that I will be able to use brute force on xp and future revisions but instead a little more finess (sp). This is of course better for my components as not as much voltage being used. I am not looking to go below ambient but in the area of 5 to 10c and then using voltage from there while holding at this temp range.

I surely would'nt give up on the pelts entirely and look to water, a combination of the two should work very well and give us room for growth as the setup should transfer well to the next setup. Digger has some cool ideas on cheap water blocks that could be adapted to pelt use on the cheap.

[Sonny]

Originally posted by IdeaMagnate
All the TBirds above 1 gHz are factory unlocked. Now that you mention it, it does seem strange.It's more like 1.2GHz 266FSB-1.4GHz 266FSB are the one unlocked. There are a few 1.4GHz 200FSB chips that are locked & there are suppose to be some 1.0GHz 266FSB (1000C AYHJAZY-R )that are unlocked but these are few.

PS - Wrong quote! It wasnt Placid but inkleoneaters that you quoted(2nd quote):beer:

[Thelemac]

Originally posted by donny_paycheck


...any more than 1.75vcore makes temps start to exponentially climb...

The reason that you get an exponential increase in temps is because you've pushed the pelt to far...you're putting out more heat with your cpu than the pelt can handle...it's not the cooling fault there. Though I would be rather surprised if you could get a much better pelt on there without overpowering your hsf.