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My motherboard died a few days a go. I had a Gigabyte GA-880-GA-UD3H and a AMD Phenom II X2 555 unlocked to 4 core. I would like to spend as little money as possible, my budget doesn't allow much. So I would like to just buy a replacement MOBO. I would greatly prefer an Asus or Gigabyte mobo. The thing is it is not very clear which of the new model mobos are capable of unlocking the two extra cores. Does anyone have any info on this. I have looked at both manufacturer's websites. Asus has a list of mobos on their website that have that feature, but none of the mobos in the list are current models. I would be fine with a non-current model as long as it has USB3 and Sata3 but I cannot find any of those models for sale (I only looked at Amazon and Newegg).

Just checked for your board on newegg and noticed that the earliest reviews are from May of 2010. Have you checked with gigabyte to see if it's still in warranty? Generally speaking, Gigabyte gives their boards a 3 year warranty.

It is possible that they would give you a replacement board that isn't the exact same model, however.

I did not buy the board new, I got it 2nd hand a year ago or so. I doubt if they would cover the warranty if I am not the original owner. Thanks for the suggestion.

Well, the Asus M5A97 R2.0 has a setting in the BIOS labeled CPU Core Activation. It is unclear from the description whether it allows you to unlock additional cores, or can only be used to disable existing ones.

That is very interesting.I wonder if that is the feature I am looking for?

not@home wrote:

That is very interesting.I wonder if that is the feature I am looking for?

Best bet is to head to any board-specific forum Asus might be hosting.