Fake AMD???

[bighead111]

Hi All,

Maybe a silly question. If I buy a AMD chip, how can I be sure the AMD Athlon bought is a real one at its real speed?? not a overclocked one??? Seeking advice.

 

[smn198]

How hot it runs and the letters on top of the die. Should say in Tom's review of the first thunderbirds about the letters.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=1686" target="_new">System spec.</A> Ideas appreciated.

 

[mpjesse]

This may seem obvious- but make sure no one has messed with the L1 and 7 bridges too. There are ways of making it look legit though. Best way is to do like the last dude said: check the numbers.

-MP Jesse

 

[flavio321]

ok, this is how you can tell... go to the bios or at boot up, look closely and it tell your the speed!!!!
the overclocked cpu they sell are only overclock ready, not overclocked. with the t-bird you only control the clock with your mobo.

If you can't beat 'em kill 'em
athlon "SLOTA" thunderbird 700@1050mhz

 

[Grizely1]

A couple of things:

1. On the die it should say the speed so look at that so see if you've been ripped off

2. MAke sure the L1 and L7 bridges haven't been all screwed around with. (Nice and clean)

 

[Guest]

mpjesse is correct. you should go check the numbers. here is an example of what you will see on the top of the black casing of your Athlon. It would be something like <font color=blue><b>AMDK7850MPR52B A</b></font color=blue>. What does this mean?

The above numbers can be broken down into:

<font color=blue><b>AMDK7</b></font color=blue> -> <b>Family/Architecture</b> (AMD-K7 Architecture)
<font color=blue><b>850</b></font color=blue> -> <b>Speed</b> (in this case, 850MHz)
<font color=blue><b>M</b></font color=blue> -> <b>Package Type</b> (M = Card Module, P = PGA, others TBD )
<font color=blue><b>P</b></font color=blue> -> <b>Operating Voltage</b> (1 character for 1.03-2.05V)
<font color=blue><b>R</b></font color=blue> -> <b>Case Temperature</b> (R = 70 degrees Celsius "uses current T codes")
<font color=blue><b>5</b></font color=blue> -> <b>Size of Cache</b> (5 = 512Kbytes, 1 = 1Mbyte, 2 = 2Mbyte, etc.)
<font color=blue><b>2</b></font color=blue> -> <b>Cache Division</b> (1 = Standard/Generic 2:1 cache, 2 = Standard/Generic 2.5:1 cache)
<font color=blue><b>B</b></font color=blue> -> <b>Max FSB</b> (B = 200)
<font color=blue><b>A</b></font color=blue> -> <b>Reserverd Characters</b>
<i>(3 blank spaces are positioned before this character)</i>

The most important part here is the reserved character.It could be either "A" or "C". If it is "C", it is an older 0.25 micron CPU. If it is "A", you may hope for some serious OCing coz you have a newer 0.18 micron CPU.

In your question on determining the speed, in our example, the speed is 850MHz.

Btw, I got this info from <A HREF="http://www.aceshardware.com" target="_new">http://www.aceshardware.com</A>

 

[bighead111]

Thanks very much guys!! Dose it apply both Slot and Flip version??

 

[flavio321]

flip??? i don't think a person's nationality has anything to do with the cpu...

If you can't beat 'em kill 'em
athlon "SLOTA" thunderbird 700@1050mhz