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Can anyone recommend some AM2+ board that support core unlocking?

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chrisjames61

Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2013
Location
Holed up in Branford, CT
Someone gave me a few old AM2+ processors and I want to putz around with them. Specifically to see if I can unlock any cores. I know its a waste of money. Lol! Newegg has a couple of new Asrock boards. I am willing to do eBay too. I just don't want to get a board that is useless to me for tinkering. Thanks in advance.

ASRock A785GM-LE AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G + SB710

ASRock 960GC-GS FX AM3+/AM3/AM2+ AMD 760G
 
well i know some MSI and ASUS boards provide core unlock tech in there bios and if not a great deal of MSI boards support a program called core unlock from MSI , but none of thats going to matter unless your AM2's have the proper stepping code you may wanna check out the stepping in those before you invest into a motherboard
 
I know of no AM2+ CPUs that had locked cores. A number of AM2+ plus boards came out with core unlocking ability towards the end of that generation of motherboard technology when the core locked AM3 CPUs started showing up on the market. Those boards were compatible with the AM3 CPUs so the core unlocking was done on AM3 CPUs, not AM2+ CPUs. Core unlocking ability is usually found in conjunction with the 710 and higher SB motherboard chipset. However, not every board that has the 710 SB will have core unlocking features in bios. Generally, they will however, unless it is a very low end board.
 
yeah now that you mention it i didnt see any till about anthlon II x2 and x4 and you usually had to have the right stepping i know they did it with some of the phenon cpu's
 
Since he did not post what cpu/s he was trying to unlock, I did not bother to post. There are any number of mobos listed as AM2+ that claim unlocking. He even posted two in his first post. There are others as well. But if he has DDR2 only cpus then he cannot use AM3 mobo whether it unlocks or not. Much as "trrents" was referring to.

He got a few hits on his threads with the same question elsewhere, so maybe he has already gotten his answer.
RGone...
 
Since he did not post what cpu/s he was trying to unlock, I did not bother to post. There are any number of mobos listed as AM2+ that claim unlocking. He even posted two in his first post. There are others as well. But if he has DDR2 only cpus then he cannot use AM3 mobo whether it unlocks or not. Much as "trrents" was referring to.

He got a few hits on his threads with the same question elsewhere, so maybe he has already gotten his answer.
RGone...

Hey RGone, I didn't name the processors because I was given over 50. Athlons, Athlon II's, Phenoms, Phenom II's. I bought a bunch of boards off eBay. AM2+ with ACC. I already have some AM3 and AM3+ plus boards kicking around unused.
 
The first gen Phenom CPUs had a couple locked/disabled/dead core versions. I don't know if they were unlockable or not though.
 
I have a last gen. M4A785-M Asus board that has a core unlocking feature in the BIOS. Definitely a budget board , but mine held up to some abusive OC attempts on a Phenom X4. I replaced it once under warranty , and it works fine. They should be cheap on the used market. I would give you mine but it's being used in a build to teach my daughter about overeclocking (with the same CPU) and patience. LOL
 
I have a last gen. M4A785-M Asus board that has a core unlocking feature in the BIOS. Definitely a budget board , but mine held up to some abusive OC attempts on a Phenom X4. I replaced it once under warranty , and it works fine. They should be cheap on the used market. I would give you mine but it's being used in a build to teach my daughter about overeclocking (with the same CPU) and patience. LOL

I appreciate that. I have since probably bought up about 8 old Gigabyte and ASUS boards that unlock. I recently got a Thuban Athlon II 640 that unlocked to a six core 1600T with 6 megs of L3.
 
Nice! Sounds like you'll be needing a bunch of thermal paste, as well ! I was looking for a used II for so long I ended up getting a FX 6350 for half the price of a used Phenom II X6.
 
Someone gave me a few old AM2+ processors and I want to putz around with them. Specifically to see if I can unlock any cores. I know its a waste of money. Lol! Newegg has a couple of new Asrock boards. I am willing to do eBay too. I just don't want to get a board that is useless to me for tinkering. Thanks in advance.

ASRock A785GM-LE AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G + SB710

ASRock 960GC-GS FX AM3+/AM3/AM2+ AMD 760G

There's a list see. I mainly use Asus with AMD 7 series and up chipsets with the exceptions of highest end DFI, Gigabyte and then AsRock for those time periods of boards.

No particular order. Suggestions also from multiple people.

Gigabyte 790XUD3P
DFI LANparty DK 790FXB-M2RSH

Asus M4A79T Deluxe
Asus M3A32 MVP

Asus with 760G. The one I played with runs Any cpu but not 9 sreies FX Also unlockes Phenom II processors that run with DDR3 IMC. There are a couple of makes such as the FX-5000 that does not have a DDR3 memory controller onboard, so it won't even post.

Asus M785G which is DDR2 only, is a decent board, runs my Phenom 955BE quite well. Has unlocked cores, can run all A64 90nm 65nm Athlons and semprons too.

Honestly with a 790FX chipset, you would be able to run 90nm 65nm and 45nm processors. All the Phenom II's have DDR2 IMC. would be a good platform for a starting AMD bencher imo.

Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7

I've played with most of all of the boards listed here. DFI is just a stout product. The Asus are going to be more common to find.
 
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