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

 

[SteelyKen]

Here is a guide on unlocking cores:
http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/535501-amd-phenom-ii-core-unlocking-guide.html

A very extensive guide on memory:
http://www.overclock.net/amd-memory/286688-list-ddr3-ddr2-ddr-ic-chips.html

Check out the AT power supply forum for any power concerns you may have.

Most importantly, please remember there is no guarantee the chip you receive will have 4 functioning cores or will overclock to your expectations.
Although the odds may appear to be good, be prepared to either live with what you get or look for another chip.

 

[Mir96TA]

ShahJahan or I should say Alam-Pana
Make sure you have 710 or 750 South bridge any Asus, Gigabyte, MSI or known MB should able to do it.
However as SteelyKen said it is mostly depend on your luck!
Good Luck

 

[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
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

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

 

[ShahJahan]

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.

 

[gen3d]

I bought two different motherboards to try and unlock a X2 555 BE this week. The first board I tried was a MSI 785GM-E51. I could not get it to boot at all when turning on all 4 cores. The same result when trying to turn on the 4th core on a X3 I was playing around with. The max stable overclock I could obtain on stock cooling was 3.9GHz with the MSI board. Then I tried a Gigabyte GA-MA785-GMT-UD2, and was able to post and load windows half way with all four cores unlocked. The max stable overclock on 2 cores was 4Ghz. I was able to load windows at 4.2Ghz, but it was not stable. Perhaps better cooling and it would be. I'm going to pick up another 555 and try my luck one more time.

 

[fffblackmage]

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.

Yes, the 9-9-9-24 number is the timings. Generally, lower is better.

However, "loose timings" does not always correspond to longer latencies.
I'll use DDR2-800 w/CAS 4 and DDR2-1066 w/CAS 5 as an example.

First, we convert frequency to time period:
1/800MHz = 1.25 ns
1/1066MHz = 0.94 ns

Then, multiply by number of clock cycles:
DDR2-800: 1.25 ns * 4 = 5.0 ns
DDR2-1066: 0.94 ns * 5 = 4.7 ns

In this case, DDR2-1066 w/CAS5 timing has a slightly lower latency period than the DDR2-800 w/CAS4 timing.

Comparing DDR3-1333 CAS 7 versus DDR3-1600 CAS 8 or 9... that's 5.25ns versus 5 or 5.6 ns, respectively.

Honestly, I don't think it matters too much what the timings are, as long as they are reasonable. Tighter timings don't increase framerates and I've never noticed any difference in performance in any way.

 

[gorbs]

i just used a gigabyte ga-790XTA-UD4 to unlock one this past weekend. ran prime for 8 hours no problems. a quad core for 87 dollars haha. you can't beat that.