unleash The Beast

I bought my CPU, the AMD Phenom II X2 550, a dual core processor last year based on the multiple reviews that it could be unlocked to a quad core. To simplify things, the Phenom II X2 (dual core) is nothing more than a Phenom II X4 (quad core) with two cores disabled. Originally these cores were disabled because of low yields, but over time yields on quad-core Phenom IIs should be high enough to negate the need for a Phenom II X2. There in lies the simplicity of this unlock. However, when I first got my motherboard and processor, it didn't work and I was disheartened. Yet, it was definitely powerful enough to support / run whatever I had to throw at it and I was happy.

Just last night, I was checking out the price of a new quad core as I was looking at the pricelists to set up a new computer for my cousin. I am not sure why, but was suddenly tempted to try the unlocking again. This morning, I downloaded a new bios, played around with the settings and lo and behold :) it was done! I got my 4 processors working and everything else is working great.