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Is my Duron 700 really a Duron 700?

D

deadlock

Member
Hi guys,

I've just gotten a Duron 700 a couple of weeks ago. I've had problems in the past with remarked processors and silly cheap tricks that vendors try to pull off to sell processors at a higher clock speed than they actually are. So I'm a little bit paranoid now.

When I turn on my PC, by BIOS reports that my chip is indeed a Duron 700 and all of my diagnostic software does say it's a Duron 700. Without overclocking, the temparature with a standard issue fan+heatsink never runs above 130 degrees (55 Celcius).

And if indeed it is a Duron 700, is there any way I can confirm that it's a proper legal chip that wasn't smuggled out of one of AMD's bad stocks or something like that?

Just trying to be safe.
 
Is there some reason why you can't just look at the physical core. Its kinda tough to remark laser etching.
 
i agree, rip off the hsf and check out whats on the core....but if your bios is reporting 700mhz, then it has to be unlesss your retailer decided to unlock and overclock, but then you should thank him.
 
I bought the all the components individually (I built the system myself) and I saw the CPU etching itself and it looked fine. What was suspicious though was a sort of a bluish green super hard plastic coat, a sort of a transparent laquer, that surrounded the CPU core itself. It wasn't on the core, but on just beside it expanding about a fifth of an inch around the whole core.

If you surf over here and take a look at a photo of a Socket A Athlon processor, I can explain it better. You see the to the right of the core, there are some thin gold diagonal lines that extend outwards? My chip had a hard transparent bluish green substance covering all those lines, and surrounding the core everywhere else, but on the other three sides it was not as wide as it was to the right of the chip.

And on the core itself, the topmost line, i.e. part that reads "AMD Duron 700" was initially covered by this tacky sticky thing - much like the remnants of price tags when you take them off. After scratching away the substance, it did indeed read AMD Duron 700 - but why was that sticky thing there in the first place? It was covering only the top line - nowhere else. And it seemed to have been done on purpose, because it was a clean job that covered the whole top line. With reference to the photo again, the nice bold "AMD Athlon" is the line I'm talking about that was concealed. But as I mentioned earlier, when I scratched off the substance, it did indeed read Duron 700. So why was it there?

BTW - the chip was an OEM chip, not a retail boxed version.

Insights, anybody?
 
a lot of AMD chips are being sent with big stickers saying that overclocking voids the warranty. maybe this is remnants of one of those stickers.
 
is it the same type of film that usually covers the actual die?
well i will admit that i wouldnt have had the balls to "scratch " that substance off before finding out what it was.
you might consider contacting your vendor if you question the chips integrity, the bottom line is that if you had to remove something bonded to your chip, have it replaced.
 
here is a link with a pic of a duron with what looks like what you have described so maybe what ever was on there was ok....they dont make mention of any problems with that goop
 
your temp seems VERY high for a 700mhz!

what are the reported voltages (in bios) for cpu core?
and r u using an AMD approved HS+fan with thermal grease?

 
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