CPU/Mobo Motherboard to unlock Phenom II 555BE?

[ShahJahan]

Hello.
I am planning to buy a PC with this configuration, though I'm not quite sure which Motherboard to choose. The mobo should be able to unlock the 4 cores and also Overclock to 3.6 - 3.8GHz. Perhaps it might require a BIOS update for that? I've read some unlocking/overclocking/stability change with a BIOS update? So it should be able to update the BIOS too? If the Mobo has USB 3.0 and SATA 3 6Gbps, then how much more will it cost? If the difference is a little, then I'll go for it. If its too costly, then I'll do without it.

Also, I'm confused about the RAM. There are different RAMs with 1333/1600MHz etc. Since I plan to Overclock to 3.6/3.8GHz which RAM should I get?

Also, if you think that something can be added/removed/changed from the configuration, then I'll appreciate your inputs

AMD Phenom II 555BE
4GB DDR3 (1333/1600?) RAM
1GB 5770 Graphics
500GB Samsung SpinPoint F3
24x SATA DVD Writer
How many Watts PSU will be required for OC?

Thanks for your replies

 

[G33kgod]

gigabytes GA-MA785GMT-UD2H ~ 6k

vx 450 will be enough for this setup

 

[comp@ddict]

Transcend 2*2=4GB DDR3 1333MHz C9 @ 4.4k

Corsair VX450W @ 4k

ECS 785GM-M @ 4.8k

 

[tosh79]

Go for Biostar 790GX A3+.

Full atx,Core unlocking option, Excellent overclocker.

 

[joyceanblue]

edited, wrong thread

 

[ShahJahan]

Thank you everyone for your replies.

So I guess I'm done with the PSU problem. 450W.

And almost coming to a conclusion with the RAM, that 1333 should suffice. Someone disagrees?

Am still learning about the Mobo. This link helped a lot, though could use some more help! I'd appreciate if people can please name specific board models, so that I can see what are people recommending the most. That would definitely help me with my decision. It must not have many bells and whistles, as long as it can unlock and OC to a little 3.6GHz, I'm fine with it. The lesser the cost, the better!

Thank you again everyone for your replies

Some of the quotes below are taken from different forums!

Most importantly, please remember there is no guarantee the chip you receive will have 4 functioning cores or will overclock to your expectations.

Thank You, I understand that. Though I'm willing to gamble!

the PSU requirement you can find out using this

eXtreme Power Supply Calculator

Thanks. I've used that and found that my Recommended Minimum PSU Wattage is 379W, so I think I'd go with a 450W PSU.

You'll want 1600mhz RAM and a 400w PSU will be fine, although I would probably stretch to 450/500w.

I'll go with 450W

I have the P2-550 running with all 4 cores unlocked @ 3.6 GHz on a Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H board using 1333 MHz memory, and got it to 3.6 GHz by upping the FSB to 220 MHz and upping the multiplier until CPU wouldn't go any further. ( HT clock increased as well to 2200 MHz). Memory is running at 1468 MHz effectively without lowering timings (Kingston HyperX) Vcore is increased a bit as well.

Higher clocked memorymodules are faster at a given speed but that does not translate in a lot of performance difference as CPU overclocking does.

So will a 1333MHz RAM be fine? I'll check the prices, if the difference is negligible, then I'll go with 1600MHz. But if there is difference in performance, then I'll go with 1600MHz only!

you just can't go with the latest bios since it disabled the ability to unlock cores, but second to last should work.

If a board has a BIOS that doesn't support unlocking, can I change the BIOS?

Personally, I'd go with an Asus because they allow independent unlocking, in case your chip only has 3 good cores and not 4. You can however, unlock with just an MSI 770.

Transcend 2*2=4GB DDR3 1333MHz C9 @ 4.4k

Corsair VX450W @ 4k

ECS 785GM-M @ 4.8k

Go for Biostar 790GX A3+.

Full atx,Core unlocking option, Excellent overclocker.

GA-790FXTA-UD5 <- Love this motherboard, its very stable while overclocking

Biostar TA785GE + BIO-unlocKING, AC Auras Wave, PII555 1002EPMW, Batch 1427

Test X4 4,0/4,1Ghz 1.472V Real - windows boot OK.

Stress Test X2 4,1Ghz ~1,39V and 4,0Ghz ~1,34V real

Room temp. 22°C

Motherboard with ACC support (SB710 or SB750 southbridge) or NCC (Nvidia’s answer to ACC) AND supports core unlocking.

My personal motherboard of choice is the Biostar TA790GX 128M with 78DEA113 BIOS. I have successfully unlocked my X2 550BE and X3 720BE with this board.

id go with the gigabyte 790FX or the MSI 790FX

The M4A79 series are very good boards, they were just out of my price range.

First change the EC Firmware Selection to HYBRID and then enable ACC ) and if the cores are good the system will still post and run windows - if not then you just go back into the BIOS after it resets itself when the boot doesn't work and disable them again

I hear good things about Gigabyte's boards

another thumbs up for Gigabyte mobos in general here.

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

 

[ani78]

On Overclock.net forums, these 2 are known to unlock well (GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P & Biostar TA790GX 128M with 78DEA113 BIOS). So I'm going with this and a 550 BE. Let's see in a week or 2 how it fares.

Keep writing folks. It helps the noobs like me.

 

[comp@ddict]

^^^No, get the X2 555 B.E. instead,it has much higher success rate(till now I guess 100%)

And board, the Gigabyte 770 is an excellent DDR3 high end mobo, grab it.

 

[DarkAngel]

Its a $70-75~ mobo. It also lacks IGP(though u wont be needing it). Its priced way too high in India(6.5-7k INR)
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

Better get a Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H @ 5.5k/ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO @ 6.5k/MSI 790GX-G65 AM3 @ 7.1k

 

[ani78]

Its a $70-75~ mobo. It also lacks IGP(though u wont be needing it). Its priced way too high in India(6.5-7k INR)
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

Better get a Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H @ 5.5k/ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO @ 6.5k/MSI 790GX-G65 AM3 @ 7.1k

GA-MA785GMT-UD2H doesn't have enough expansion, and I will need to put another NIC or some other things for a VMware/HyperV Setup (That is the primary use).

I have checked ASUS 785TD-EVO & is not upto my needs and I have had bad experience with MSI. Their reliability with people around me is most unreliable.

And BTW, that board is available for 4.5-5.5 in certain channels. I am looking for that for unlocking the core and getting a full ATX board.

 

[askids]

I have checked ASUS 785TD-EVO & is not upto my needs.

Not sure what you looked for :S The latest BIOS revision supports unlocking of BEs. It has been confirmed on many forums.

Anyway, Asus M4A785TD-V EVO has another version with support for USB3.0 and Sata-3. But its in the form of a PCI bolton card. Its around $30 if you buy it seperately.

So you could still go for any other MB which suits your need currently and later add on the card(when its released in India). I am not sure how USB3.0 and Sata-3 is going to matter much as of now as there aren't many devices which support this mode. But I am assuming that you can still get a better throughput with existing devices.

 

[ShahJahan]

Not sure what you looked for :S The latest BIOS revision supports unlocking of BEs. It has been confirmed on many forums.

From my second post above, I re-quote, "you just can't go with the latest bios since it disabled the ability to unlock cores, but second to last should work."

It seems that the latest BIOS is NOT unlocking cores!
And I second that we don't need USB3 / SATA3 as of now as there are not many devices that support it. And we can always use a PCIe card later, (IF) we ever need it. For now, it would be better to save some money and get a budget mobo, rather than a premium one. Unless you have money growing on trees.

 

[ani78]

Read on New Egg that newer mobos with USB3 and SATA3 are not onboard but an add-on card. So there is one more PCI/PCI-Express slot need.

BTW, I rechecked M4A785TD-V EVO and it looks like a good board. It also has a good success rate so far.

AMD Phenom II Core Unlocking Guide for X2 550BE / X3 710 & 720BE - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

@ ShahJahan. Where did you see it not having much success. Can you post a link. So far, on overclocker.net, almost all folks using this board have been able to do it well.

 

[ShahJahan]

Where did you see it not having much success. Can you post a link. So far, on overclocker.net, almost all folks using this board have been able to do it well.

That quote was not germane to any board in particular. It was said about BIOS in general and how the newer ones are disabling unlocking. You can read it here.

OK after going through all the suggestions (thanks for it), I think that Asus M4A785TD-V EVO $100 is the motherboard that will suit me. Since I'm not gaming, I've decided to save $200 by removing HD 5770 GPU. And since the mobo has IGP HD 4200 with 128MB shared, expandable to 512MB shared, so it should be able to play videos at 1920x1080 res(?) Anyone has experience with this mobo? And how are Asus mobos in general? Are they worth a buy?

The other contender here is Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H $95, the only difference I can see is that it has just one PCIe slot, which is why I'm giving Asus a preference. Rest its the same.

But I need a go-ahead from someone knowledgeable! Should I press the button for Asus M4A785TD-V EVO or does anyone has a better (in terms of price and/or features) mobo? It should be able to unlock cores, OC to 3.6GHz and have an onboard video.

1333 Mhz ram is fine, best "bang for the buck", can sometimes be overclocked nicely as well... I prefer 1333 over 1600 actually, due to its lower timings ... having super high memory bandwidth is all well and good, but not if you have to have super-loose ram timings to get there!! ( latency, eccch....)

How would I know if its having lower times, high mem bandwidth and tight timings? What do I look into to find it? I've seen something like 9-9-9-9

Is this how you identify it? So what digits should I look for? They must not be very costly! Best-bang-for-buck will be good enough for me.

 

[ShahJahan]

I'm buying tomorrow!

I placed this in an AMD setup and of course it downclocked to 1333. I bumped it back up with no problems. No crashes or errors, Memtest found nothing wrong with these two sticks.

How did you do that? Do we have to OC it? Do we have to OC the CPU and the RAM picks up automatically or is this accomplished some other way?

Does having a 1600 instead of a 1333 have any visible difference or just a difference in the benchmarking tests, invisible to the eye?!

 

[amitn18]

Get the M4A785TD-V EVO. It is a really good overclocker.

Pushed my Athlon II X2 240 to 3.4 ghz stable with 1.39V and stock heatsink.

I even overclocked the IGP at 700mhz with ease (afraid to push further).

Also, the sideport memory is an advantage.

 

[ShahJahan]

Get the M4A785TD-V EVO. It is a really good overclocker.
Pushed my Athlon II X2 240 to 3.4 ghz stable with 1.39V and stock heatsink.

Alright getting an M4A785TD-V EVO

I even overclocked the IGP at 700mhz with ease (afraid to push further).

How did you do that? And will it be safe or will it slow-poison the IGP with heat? is there a way to somehow cool the IGP like by strategically zip-tying a fan or something?