Unlocked 775 Intel Processors

[Jonsey]

I didn't see this posted before, so here it goes:

The new ASUS 915 and 925 mobos can unlock the multi on certain intel prescott processors. Sorry for the toms' link:

http://www20.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040916/index.html


Here's the cliff note version:

So far, Asus' CPU Lock Free feature is not cheap. It requires a PRB1 processor or, in other words, the 550 or 560 model combined with a powerful cooling solution, decent DDR2 memory that should be able to operate at 350 MHz, a fast PCI Express graphics cards for gaming and an Asus Socket 775 motherboard. Don't worry if you prefer other motherboards brands: We expect other manufacturers to add this feature in a few weeks.

The benchmarks are self-explanatory. With DDR2-710, FSB1066 and a 3.72-GHz CPU clock speed, the P4 without a doubt becomes very powerful again.

Does this make the new P4 platform more desirable? Do you think Intel will move to stop this?

 

[Sc0rched]

It was posted in the MB forum, but I think its fine to elaborate on it here too.

 

[Lord of Shadows]

Very nice, I wonder how intel will react, werent they already mad at asus for their bypassing of chipset overclock limit?

Leave it to tom's hardware to not include doom3 as a benchmark =P

 

[EnchainedBlade]

Very nice, I wonder how intel will react, werent they already mad at asus for their bypassing of chipset overclock limit?

Leave it to tom's hardware to not include doom3 as a benchmark =P

What would be the point, when he's using such a craptastic video card

He did this during the last 1066 FSB review. He used an X600, which totally fucked everything up..

It would have been nice if he had a high end video card, and then had compares against the fastest AMD platforms..

I'm anxious to see how the P4 competes against the A64 on 1066 FSB and with DDR2-667..

I'd expect that 3.7ghz setup that Toms tested to be able to beat the FX-53 at stock quite easily..

 

[W1zzard]

if i understand correctly you can only switch between 14x multi and the one your cpu came with .. still nice for overclockers...

 

[AMDXP]

damn amd is in for a run.

 

[Duke3d87]

I think it was a good thing to to. I wonder how Abit will react. My guess is that they will come out with a more extreme form of it so that people will buy Abit and overclock their Pentium 4's really high

 

[Synful Serenity]

With all the ground Intel has been losing to AMD due to performance concerns, I'm sort of surprised that they haven't done this themselves (unless they already knew this feature could be exploited in such a way?). By maintaining the uptight company line on multiplier locks, all it is really accomplishing in this day and age is sending droves of enthusiasts (albeit a small percentage of the PC-going population) to AMD alternatives, and this stance seems a bit short-sighted and naive, especially considering how this new discovery will surely send at least a certain number of people back to Intel. A good compromise would be a pin mod like the Athlons had or something like it, so as to not make it so easy that anyone at home can enjoy the benefits with just a few keypresses, but a sufficently motivated and knowledgeable hobbyist will be able to unlock the multipliers, thus keeping the statistically small but significant performance crowd in the Intel stable, while the general public gets fleeced with exorbitant premiums if they want the fastest processors.

I would still rather they drop the lock altogether. In years past when Intel was the only game in town, maybe it was better business sense to keep people from ocing chips to push the expensive newest release at the time, but with the challenge of AMD, faced with losing money from selling less high-margin chips because of ocing or losing market share to AMD, the less attractive option is obvious.

Interesting how in both cases, only the flagship products are able to be unlocked. Maybe Intel really did know what it was doing with this after all?