From Overclocking to Core Unlocking!

It has been a long time since Processor overclocking became a selling point for manufacturers. Enthusiasts wanted more out of their hardware and motherboards allowed them to play with the clock settings. Nowadays, most of the processors overclock well and a new thing is emerging known as "Disabled Cores".

So, why disable core? The answer is simple, to save engineering costs. Don't get startled! It is cheaper for a company to disable two cores of a Quad Core processor and sell it at a lower price as a Dual core than designing a whole new processor. The profit comes only when the demand is low and therefore, such models are often not listed in the online lists put up by the manufacturers.

This is now common in AMD processors however, Intel is yet to step in this segment. What makes it interesting is the fact that you may or, may not get a successful unlock which means it is like gambling just the way overclocking was in the beginning. You won't be able to unlock in case the disabled cores are physically damaged or, malfunctioning due to some reason. Your system will be really unstable in that case. If you successfully unlock those cores the gains are unbelievably high!

Manufactures have really picked this up as a marketing strategy. While a few months back you had to look for 'EC Firmware Selection' and 'Advanced Clock Calibration' in the BIOS now you have 'Unlock Cores' options and buttons! Look at what was mentioned in the MSI 880G-E41 specifications:

It is always worth a try, I have done it once and you can read how I did it at the following link: http://triple3online.blogspot.com/2010/05/four-cores-at-price-of-two-unlock-amd.html

This may very well be the most exciting thing in this segment but it sounds fishy and hard to believe. Give it a try and if it works for you, you'll surely believe!

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