what does locked mean? cough* lamer *cough

[smp]

sorry.. I'm lame.. I know.. I dont' care. Anyways, I keep hearing about locked cores.. What's up with that? If it's locked, you can't o/c it? I haven't ever done any overclocking.. but I'm curious.. and I might try it.. I just need to understand what a locked cpu is.. and why they lock em.. thanks.

 

[cbwolf]

In AMD cpu's, they lock the processor by leaving gaps between the L1 bridges. To unlock it, all you have to do is get a sharp pencil and connect the L1 bridges.

They lock them, to discourage overclocking.

 

[smp]

so if I took the heatsink off of my tbird.. I could see if my supplier o/c'd it on me.. ?

 

[joeyd]

yes look for marks on the l1 bridges you can also tell from your mother board either in the bios or on the board by jumpers ... oh and there is no such thing as a lame question ... only lame posters j/p

 

[Zephyr]

...if you take off the heatsink remember to be careful not to chip the core

 

[TravisBickle]

intel chips are multiplier locked in general. so you have to increase the fsb speed to get more out of them. but by unlocking an AMD socket A chip you can change the multiplier. the multiplier is a number which you multiply by the fsb to get the core chip speed e.g. 100fsbx 8.5 multiplier=850mhz

 

[smp]

Thanks pps.. I'm more and more worried about the temp of this cpu every day. The asus PC probe software (that I got with the A7V) reports temps of 57C.. this is not an overclocked chip.. I hear ppl saying stuff like "I don't let my duron 600@800 get into the fifties.. way to hot for me" and stuff.. so I'm totally worried now. I check what the bios had to say, and it's reporting 47. I don't know what's up with this chip. I'm guessing that it's one of these things. The cooler master fan/heatsink that's on there is welfare (for sure).. it's not seated well, no grease or tape was used... or the cpu was overclocked.. I really hope that the retailer I got this from wouldn't do that.. I couldn't see it being to profitable anyways.. the price differences between the different tbirds aren't that great, and why risk it for fifty to a hundred dollars..?? I mean, I have an invoice that says 900 mhz on it.. if I could prove that it's oc'd, then I could get them in sh!t.. I dont' know..

 

[RLX7]

T-bird generally run hotter than Durons and also if the HSF and no grease are used it will get really hot. I'd recomend getting a GlobalWin FOP 38 and some artic silver. That will bring it way down! Hope that helps!

 

[smp]

yeah.. that's what I'm hoping for too.. it's expensive though.. but I'm doin it.. just got to get some money.. stupid student loan (osap) ass(_O_)'s.. won't give me any money... is it hard to take off the heatsink and put a new one on?

 

[Zephyr]

IT is my experience that a lot of socket-A heatsinks out there, can be a real pain to get off without damaging the core. Just remember be really careful you don't rock the heatsink from side to side when trying to get it off since this can be very hurtful to the chip.

 

[smp]

So how do I get it off? please.. thanks. I think I'm gonna get the 38.. what is it again.. the pal or the fop or something.. they got it at www.pccanada.com .. I can drive there and pick it up.. no wiating for mail.