X2 550 Unlocking & Overclocking Consolidated

[Mic75]

0925BPMW - Mic75 - GA-MA790XT-UD4P - F5 - Tri Core Succes - link

Didn't think I was gonna be able to run this CPU on anything more than 2 cores at first. Unlocking was no problem and it did post, but wouldn't boot into OS (and I tried a lot of settings). Think the 4th core really is defective. But it now runs perfectly stable on 3 cores in Windows 7, XP and OpenSUSE.
Bit of a hassle to get there; need to install on 2 cores and edit the boot configuration to limit to 3 cores (took some time to figure out how to on Win7) before I unlock the CPU.
Have been running the tri core with a nice OC just for fun, but gonna thoroughly test&bench some configurations first before decide on what speed I'm going to run it. Still waiting for the thermal sensors I ordered to arrive before the real OC can start