Want to turn Athlon II X4 into low powered dual core

staknhalo

staknhalo

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I want to truly lock 2 cores (not just have Windows ignore 2 cores). I assume it's the same as unlocking cores....just the opposite? Google will only give me info on unlocking - can't seem to find anything (aside from getting Windows to ignore cores) about locking cores in BIOS. Then plan to underclock+undervolt. Machine isn't put together ATM - that's why I can't just jump in and try. Thanks.
 
You 'd have to look in your BIOS if there's an option. In Asrocks, there is "active core control" (or something like that), where you can choose which cores to disable.

But it's a real shame to cripple your CPU like that. Athlons are wonderful and they don't heat much. You could undervolt all 4 cores quite a bit. My Athlon 640 undervolts to about 1.23v at stock speed. If you want to underclock at all costs, you can do [email protected] (or in the worst case 1.1v) and you practically have a 4 core 45W CPU (basically an Athlon 605e). It's better to have a 45W quad than a low TDP dual core.

Anyway, get K10Stat for undervolting, it's the best. You can undervolt all P-States. The lowest P-State, put it [email protected]. It may go further down, but that's guaranteed it will work and the gains at that point are minimal.
 
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Hey guys, thanks for the replies.

@Faethon - So it is what I thought - do what you would to unlock cores (if MOBO has that feature) but just lock them (via Core Control). Thanks.

The reason I am doing this is I have a quad core that will run one of my HTPCs - it's overkill. If I can reduce cores+speed+voltage I can get lower temps = lower fan speed = less noise. The combination of doing them all will give me greater gains than just lowering clock speeds or voltage @ stock.

@450 I'd rather keep this chip and gimp it for HTPC duties, but if I ever want more power (whether for the HTPC still or something else) - it's there without needing to overclock; just go back or closer to stock.
 
Well, then look a bit around your BIOS. I m pretty sure you ll figure it out if it has an option to disable cores.

At any case, in the worst case that your mobo doesn't allow to shut down cores, try as i said. Go for [email protected]. Automatically, this is "HTPC" wattage CPU...

And i don't know what GPU you will use, but even with a humble HD5450, you ll see that the CPU most of the time will stay at 800Mhz. The GPU will accelerate the video for you. So, don't worry much about noise, cause the CPU will be sitting idle 95% of the time.
 
Yeah - I just wanted to know if I was looking for the same option whether I wanted to unlock/lock cores; seeing as I have messed around with unlocking AMD cores before (just not with the board/chip I'm about to use). Like I said, you try to find that info on Google and all it shows you is about unlocking cores.

If worse comes to worst and I can't do anything with cores, I will just underclock & undervolt. I will shoot for the low to mid 1.x GHz range and then obtain lowest voltage for whatever frequency I settle on.

GPU will be onboard.
 
You should be able to do it just as if you were overclocking, just disable cores instead of enabling cores in the BIOS.

As for underclocking you can do that just like you do overclocking, set the frequency to what you want and keep dropping the voltage until its unstable, then bump it back up to stable
 
staknhalo said:
Yeah - I just wanted to know if I was looking for the same option whether I wanted to unlock/lock cores; seeing as I have messed around with unlocking AMD cores before (just not with the board/chip I'm about to use). Like I said, you try to find that info on Google and all it shows you is about unlocking cores.

If worse comes to worst and I can't do anything with cores, I will just underclock & undervolt. I will shoot for the low to mid 1.x GHz range and then obtain lowest voltage for whatever frequency I settle on.

GPU will be onboard.
Click to expand...

OP, is it terribly bad that at first glance I read your username as "StankHo"?:p
 
Disabling cores would increass power usage. 4 cores at 25% load will use a lot less power then 1 core at 100% load or 2 cores at 50% load.

Instead of locking cores you will want to agressivly undervolt.

Although if you underclock too much the CPU will have to stay at load longer to do tasks.
 
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