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Phenom II x3 B73

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Dermen

Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2001
Location
Florida
I picked one of these up at Microcenter for $39.99. It unlocks, but I haven't done much stability testing. I'm going to see if I can get it stable and OC it, then I'll have to decide if I want to keep it or my Phenom II 840 (no L3).

I also picked up a Gigabyte 970A-UD3. Better suited for overclocking than my current board, plus sata 6gb and usb3.

LLC seems weird. You can set it Auto, Regular, or Extreme. Auto and Regular seem to be the same, the vcore drops around .025 under load. On Extreme it goes up .025 under load. Only other board I've had with LLC was an Asus P35 board and it would keep vcore steady.
 
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Looks like core 4 is a dud, instantly failed prime blend even with more voltage. That puts me 0-3 for unlock attempts. Looks like I'll be keeping the 840, hopefully this new motherboard will get me a little high overclock than the old free one.
 
I'd just seen this a couple of days ago... heck of a deal for $40! Specs look awfully similar to the old X3 720. Must be the OEM version that HP and others would have used...
 
Yeah it is OEM, no heatsink. It is great if you are on a tight budget.

I seem to be having problems with the new motherboard now. I changed the CPU to the 840 and it wouldn't post, or it would freeze on post. After a lot of testing it appears it won't post any time there is memory in slots 2 or 4. Slots 1 & 3 are fine. I tried 1 stick at a time in every slot.

When I had the B73 in it with memory in slots 3 & 4 it worked fine. Going to swap CPUs back and see what the deal is.
 
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Very odd, put the B73 back in and I can use any and all combinations of dimm slots. Put the 840 in again and can't use dimm slots 2 & 4.

Tried increasing memory voltage, cpu voltage, cpu-nb voltage. Decided to call it a night. I've got another set of ram coming tomorrow maybe it will work. I see there is a newer bios out as well.

In my old motherboard with only 2 slots the 840 and this ram worked fine. I'm just stumped at this point if it is the 840 cpu or the 970 mb.
 
Exchanged the motherboard today and the memory problem is gone. Only odd thing is both motherboards didn't have the i/o ports line up right with the i/o plate.
 
Odd; I have a 78LMT-S2P as well, and I don't have any issues with the slots lining up, nor RAM problems with either an FX-4100 or a Sempron 140 in it... what sort of enclosure are you using?
 
It's the OEM business version similar to a 720.

A member at XS bought one of these too in Cincinnati, his unlocked but it was something like 3.1 GHz at 1.34v. Not too impressive but okay for $40 :)
 
Odd; I have a 78LMT-S2P as well, and I don't have any issues with the slots lining up, nor RAM problems with either an FX-4100 or a Sempron 140 in it... what sort of enclosure are you using?

I didn't update my sig yet, the 78LMT is my old board and it worked without issue. The new board is a 970a-ud3. The case is a Cooler Master CM690, I've had 4 other boards in it with zero i/o port/plate problems, but both 970a-ud3 boards don't line up at the top.

It's the OEM business version similar to a 720.

A member at XS bought one of these too in Cincinnati, his unlocked but it was something like 3.1 GHz at 1.34v. Not too impressive but okay for $40 :)

It is actually for a budget build for somebody else who will run it at stock. If it unlocked and clocked decently I would have kept it and given them the 840.
 
I didn't update my sig yet, the 78LMT is my old board and it worked without issue. The new board is a 970a-ud3. The case is a Cooler Master CM690, I've had 4 other boards in it with zero i/o port/plate problems, but both 970a-ud3 boards don't line up at the top.



It is actually for a budget build for somebody else who will run it at stock. If it unlocked and clocked decently I would have kept it and given them the 840.

I am contemplating one of these B73's to replace my wifes BE550 which does not unlock on her GB 785matx board U2SH. I am curious if it will offer a boost in performance running the 3rd core for some light video editing i do occasionally on her pc or when she uses photoshop every once in a while. I have a new 960T and was gonna return it for the B73 and buy a friends used VERTEX 2 and spend the equal in total. I am leaning that the ssd and a 3 core would be better than just a 960T evwn if it unlocks to 6 core if both are overclocked similarly.

However it looks that i have a better chance w overclockig a 960T vs this B73. Go w ssd and the B73 or keep the 960T and spwnd a bit more and still buy the ssd?. I want this AM2 platform to get her another year at least as it rarely games and when so it is to 1680x1050 w a 4350 512mb. No insane overcloxking either as it is matx in a confined space.
Thoughts?
 
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