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What wattage is my unlocked X2??

D

DigitalCancer

Diamond Member
I'm posting this for a friend. ^_^

He's got a PII X2 555 on a Gigabyte board and unlocked to (4) cores.

He used Harware monitor to check the temps and noticed its saying it's at 170w....is this possible?? The 555 unlocks to something like an X4 955? I think. Anyway...is this actually 170w or is it just jacked up? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!!
 
wattage aside (I don't know the answer) I was under the impression that when you unlock the cores that the temp readings would be unreadable?

(I have a PII X2 555 unlocked also and I get no temp readings)
 
It should become a 125W TDP part like the Phenom II X4 are, and I wouldn't trust the wattage ratting from Hardware monitor. Claims my Phenom 9850 idle 1.4Ghz 1.0V draws 85W, and full load 3.0Ghz 1.325V only consumes 115W, way bogus numbers. lol
 
My Phenom II BE555 is both unlocked to 4 cores and overclocked/overvolted, with Hardware Monitor also reporting 170W, so no, that alone indicates it is not an accurate estimation unless you happened to have the same vcore and o'c speed (can't remember, maybe 1.4V / 3.7GHz...)

Back of napkin calculation would put mine o'c at closer to 155W, unless my math fails me and this isn't considering vdroop which I don't recall the value for nor have I accurately measured it so it's probably closer to 145-150W.
 
DigitalCancer said:
I'm posting this for a friend. ^_^

He's got a PII X2 555 on a Gigabyte board and unlocked to (4) cores.

He used Harware monitor to check the temps and noticed its saying it's at 170w....is this possible?? The 555 unlocks to something like an X4 955? I think. Anyway...is this actually 170w or is it just jacked up? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!!
Click to expand...

The friend is me : ) thanks for the replys. i have my vcore set at 1.36V and have all cores unlocked (tested with prime95 for over 5 hours with no errors). just worried that my wattage went from 85 watts dual core to 170 watts quad core when unlocked.
 
Gambit808 said:
The friend is me : ) thanks for the replys. i have my vcore set at 1.36V and have all cores unlocked (tested with prime95 for over 5 hours with no errors). just worried that my wattage went from 85 watts dual core to 170 watts quad core when unlocked.
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It might not be 170, but it's not a bad bet that it's well above the 125W of the PhII 955.

Broken functionality isn't the only reason that cores get disabled. Some are because the CPU is too hot to make a quad. Yet others have cores disabled purely to meet demand. It's hard to know for sure, but it's something to keep in mind if you can't keep the temperatures under control.
 
^ At that voltage with a hyper 212 plus it is unlikely to run too hot to be a quad at stock speed (unlike with the stock BE555 'sink which could be a problem), mine o'c and higher vcore is wearing a hyper 212 also, and never gets more than 30C over ambient temps.
 
mindless1 said:
^ At that voltage with a hyper 212 plus it is unlikely to run too hot to be a quad at stock speed (unlike with the stock BE555 'sink which could be a problem), mine o'c and higher vcore is wearing a hyper 212 also, and never gets more than 30C over ambient temps.
Click to expand...

Thats good to know! thanks for the info. my temps right now with the hyper 212 on the chip is like 38c idle and gets around 50c with load. my comp sits under my desk and it is pretty warm in my room as im typeing this.
 
I would like to point out that even the 125W rating for it as 4X appears to be invalid/high. AMD rates per family of CPU not per individual. For example, their Phenom II X4 965 BE, Deneb 3.4GHz is also rated for 125W, which could only make the 3.2GHz 125W if it ran at a higher vCore which isn't the case with CPUs, faster models in same family run at same if not higher vCore.

This factor also makes my prior guesstimation of the wattage on mine o'c, higher than it would really be.
 
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At stock volts my unlocked 550BE rig pulls 187w at the wall on 100% load.

When unlocked and under-volted at 100% load: 127w

(on a Gigabyte 785g-u2sh)




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Gambit808 said:
How did you find out how many watts it was useing?
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Kill-A-Watt or similar, probably, since he said the rig (whole rig, not just the CPU) pulls 187w from the wall.

If you unlock your X2 to an X4, then it will have the same TDP as the X4 counterpart.

However, the TDP is not always specific to a processor. The TDP serves as a guideline for the power and cooling needed so that OEM/board makers know how to design and build their line of products. Keeping the TDP simple is then an obvious goal, so certain processors will have the same TDP in their spec, even when they obviously vary in actual power and heat output. This goes for both AMD and Intel procs, if you browse through the specs of their respective product lines.

Naturally, overclocking will change the picture dramatically, which is why aftermarket coolers are necessary in the first place. Once you overclock, TDP can shoot up dramatically, so forget about the specs, and forget about the stock cooler (designed strictly up to the rated TDP of the proc, overclocks that may push TDP over the official spec not taken into account) being adequate.

EDIT: Didn't see if you were using an aftermarket cooler, but if I remember right, the X2 555 BE is 95W and uses the bare "block of aluminum" cooler, correct? If you are still using that cooler, that's hardly adequate for any X4. The max rated TDP for the aluminum cooler is 95W, as opposed to 140W for the nicer AMD stock cooler from AVC that has four heatpipes (as far as I know, it comes stock only for all 125W and 140W product lines)
 
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If you overclock that thing (considerably) then it would pull 170W. But if you just unlocked the cores, then it should be similar to retail X4s.
 
jvroig said:
Kill-A-Watt or similar, probably, since he said the rig (whole rig, not just the CPU) pulls 187w from the wall.

If you unlock your X2 to an X4, then it will have the same TDP as the X4 counterpart.

However, the TDP is not always specific to a processor. The TDP serves as a guideline for the power and cooling needed so that OEM/board makers know how to design and build their line of products. Keeping the TDP simple is then an obvious goal, so certain processors will have the same TDP in their spec, even when they obviously vary in actual power and heat output. This goes for both AMD and Intel procs, if you browse through the specs of their respective product lines.

Naturally, overclocking will change the picture dramatically, which is why aftermarket coolers are necessary in the first place. Once you overclock, TDP can shoot up dramatically, so forget about the specs, and forget about the stock cooler (designed strictly up to the rated TDP of the proc, overclocks that may push TDP over the official spec not taken into account) being adequate.

EDIT: Didn't see if you were using an aftermarket cooler, but if I remember right, the X2 555 BE is 95W and uses the bare "block of aluminum" cooler, correct? If you are still using that cooler, that's hardly adequate for any X4. The max rated TDP for the aluminum cooler is 95W, as opposed to 140W for the nicer AMD stock cooler from AVC that has four heatpipes (as far as I know, it comes stock only for all 125W and 140W product lines)
Click to expand...

Ok, i dont have my rig overclocked at all. just unlocked the extra 2 cores. with cool n quiet enabled, hwmonitor says 57.40 watts at idle but with load it shoots up to 170 watts. thats with cpu voltage at 1.36V. no stock HS! I have a cooler master hyper 212 plus on my cpu
 
Is that 170 watts the CPU alone or the entire rig? If that's the entire rig, that's ok. Perhaps you can post a screenshot of hwmonitor saying 170 watts? I'm not really familiar with it and can't tell from your post what you are reading. And there's also the problem of it being software, so I can't possibly see how they could accurately be reading the power draw in watts.
 
jvroig said:
Is that 170 watts the CPU alone or the entire rig? If that's the entire rig, that's ok. Perhaps you can post a screenshot of hwmonitor saying 170 watts? I'm not really familiar with it and can't tell from your post what you are reading. And there's also the problem of it being software, so I can't possibly see how they could accurately be reading the power draw in watts.
Click to expand...

That's most likely the entire rig --- gotta be. I haven't updated my HWMonitor as of late and am not certain what his reading represents.

OP if you get on the Egg 'eBlast' newsletters you can snag a 'Kill-A-Watt' quite cheap from time-to-time. I could check the CPU with a volt meter but frankly, I'm old and easily forget where to 'probe' 😀

You could under-volt a bit and see if the 170w figure drops down. Try to keep your idle with C&Q above 0.88v and I suspect at load you may zoom along at 1.2v or so.

And that 170w may drop to 125w! The PhIIs tend to be a bit over-volted (which allows a nice OC at stock but kills the power efficiency).


edit: Be sure to test, and let the rig 'cycle'. IIRC, I went as low as a -.125v under-volt but would blue-screen out of sleep.



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