They just merged with ECS in 2005

The three core version exists so that MB Makers can use crappy 3phase supplies on their budget motherboards without the PS cooking.

Is PC-Chips still in business? Their boards were great when you wanted to find out if increased power demands would cook a MB.

Peter, there's a neat tool called "Prime95" that will find any problems in the newly-active core. Prime95 is really new and only just came out in 1996 which is why you may not have heard of it yet.

If all you're running is games, and you don't care about your e-mail and documents potentially being corrupted/incorrect/who knows what then play the unlocking game.

Until then, it's bullshit - your data should be more important than saving 50 quid. Unless, of course, Charlie has cast iron proof core disabling is due to something as (relatively) harmless as out of spec power consumption.

When people played the graphics card unlocking game they found some cards were unlockable, whilst others were genuinely broken. CPUs are working on real data, and not just images on a screen.. (ok, now CUDA et al is around, you shouldn't unlock graphics cards for the same reason..)

One more thing, and question dedicating to INQ. How about keeping Core disabled but enabling only Cache of fourth core, is it possible!?!, New FAT Cache AMD!!! which is in rumors.

Smart move to escape from "over cheap" a.k.a unfair business competition lawsuit. It was deliberate.

...I can see AMD phasing out the 3core chips pretty soon dual and quad is all you'll get.

Shame as I was quite set on a new 3core before all this came out. A mate asked why I didnt want to go i7, when I told hime I dont like paying over £200 for a motherboard he had to agree.

When they lock things up, I don't think they are worrying about enthusiasts but more about low-level white box seller misrepresenting their product. When it's a one time thing like this 3-4 unlock, it's probably ok but not so good when people just keep selling lower bin chip overclocked as if it's normal.

The same logical argument applies to multiplier locking. The vast majority of CPUs will end up used by ordinary punters in OEM machines with an OEM BIOS with no way to change the multi anyway, and the crazy overclockers are the best PR money can't buy. So quit locking the chips like a bunch of selfish crybabies!

this 4th core unlock is an accident on purpose! if y'know what it means!

Using Prime95 ought to test the CPU to it's limits. It will stress all 4 cores of the CPU to their maximum, if it falls over after a few runs, just go back into the BIOS and disable the 'hack'. If you want to be captain cautious, you can always set Prime95 to run for a number of hours and leave it running over night. It's used by benchmark-ers and overclockers the world over to see if their systems will stay stable, I can't see this instance being any different.

I'd be surprised if this "hack" wasn't a deliberatly left open back door in the first place.....seems way too easy to enable this feature and it's the first really positive AMD publicity I've heard since core 2 debuted. Maybe that's just coincidence and i'm way too cynical! Anyway don't these guys have tons of experience in irreversabily crippling graphics chips to create tiered markets to make an "error" like this?

Charlie this is about the best article I've EVER seen you write.

AMD listen up...this is some great advice.

This is not the time to screw ur customers...not now..not....now..

Any one know how you should check the 'enabled' cache of your CPU for errors?
and to test a CPU core for errors?

The fourth core is probably power hungry but you did get that one for free so no need to complain about it.

No point blaming M$ again if the buggy fourth core is to blame ;-)