[Q]: Phenom II x4 960T

Hi everyone, I have questions regarding safety margins in my setup:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 960T BE
HS: Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
MOBO: MSI 770-C45 (latest BIOS)
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 7850 (1GB DDR5/256bit)
Mem: 2x4GB Patriot 1866MHz CL10
PSU: Corsair 750W Gold+

I have tried to unlock 2 disabled Thuban cores with their L2 cache. After unlocking, everything seems to work well and stable (OCCT and hyperpi tests passes), but the BIOS are showing CPU model unknown and CPU trmperatures are non readable.

My question is, is it safe to use this CPU in this MOBO unlocked, because this MOBO has max CPU TDP profile up to 125W (4+1 VRM phases), and I have heard that this Phenom II may consume up to 125W in stock setup (w/o unlocked cores and at stock Freq). I have no intentions to OC unlocked CPU.

A 1090T(six core) thuban is 125W at normal(stock) use which is essentially what you have. You should be OK
That being said finding a slightly better 790 board wouldn't be a bad idea. MSI has always been questionable , you don't have any heatsinks for VRM cooling either so at least mount a fan to cool them.

Thanks for an answer. So readings from HWMonitor/CPU-Z can be ignored as they report ~160W? I forgot to say that my CPU Cooler (Arctic Freezer 7 Pro) have last few aluminium sheets curved towards VRMs, so they direct some of airflow at top of VRMs.

Should Turbo Core be disabled if I unlock additional cores?

Bios will always show unknown CPU with cores unlocked. Temp sensor does not work with cores unlocked. Both are well known side effects of unlocking.

Mr.Scott said:

Bios will always show unknown CPU with cores unlocked. Temp sensor does not work with cores unlocked. Both are well known side effects of unlocking.

Click to expand...

Is there a way to make an estimation for CPU Temps using known values for stock setup?

Not anything factual. I add 10c for 2 unlocked cores.

Mr.Scott said:

Not anything factual. I add 10c for 2 unlocked cores.

Click to expand...

My experience supports that figure as well.

Stress test with the CPU locked and figure out the difference between core temp and socket temp. Then use that difference to estimate core temp based off of the socket temp reading with the other cores unlocked.
I believe mine was about a 10 degree difference.

This is all good info, I have a 990fx board that apparently dose core unlocking and a 960t, so I'll be experimenting with this as well.