PhenomIiX3
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Acer Aspire 5551G, 5553G and 7551G keep the Phenom II X3 and X4 leaks flowing
Ah, now we get it. Clearly AMD has a few mobile chips in the backroom that it has yet to inform us about, and unfortunately for the fine folks in Sunnyvale, it seems as if their partner firms aren't being quite so hush-hush. Just hours after discovering a quad-core Phenom II X4 within Dell's new Inspiron M501R, along comes a spate of Acer Aspire machines with -- you guessed it -- Phenom II X4 and X3 chips within. The 15.6-inch 5551G / 5553G and 17.3-inch 7551G are all listed now at Amazon's German portal, with the X3 N830 clocked at 2.1GHz and the X4 N930 chip humming along at an even 2GHz. The cheapest of the bunch is listed at right around €668 ($870), though you'll have to dig into that source link for specifics. Fret not -- we get the impression that each of these will be headed stateside just as soon as AMD sees fit to officially unveil its not-so-secret stash of new silicon. [Thanks, TheLostSwede]
AMD's triple-core Phenom II X3 goes quad-core via BIOS hack
Here's a little known secret for you to chew on: that triple-core AMD Phenom II X3 you purchased actually has four cores. The last one's just locked down for pricing purposes. A Korean site has disclosed information that enables owners of select motherboards to unlock that fourth core, and apparently, all you need is a Biostar mobo and / or a BIOS that has an option labeled Advanced Clock Calibration. When said selection is flipped to "Auto," the fourth core is loosed from its shackles and able to ever-so-slightly up your frame rates and overall level of excitement. Of course, you're taking a big risk by running a chip in a fashion it was never intended, but what fun is life without a little edge-side living?[Via Slashgear]
