C1 vs E0 Stepping?

[Iamcanadian7]

So long story short, my buddy is a dick and decided to hold off on Neha like me. So his QX9650 is longer mine

Anywho, I've been looking at the Q9550. I heard the E0 stepping is "the" chip to look for but how much of a difference will it make in the end? Is it worth my time to hunt for one when I can easily get one with C1 stepping?

I've heard that the E0's have lower VID's and will suually clock higher. Any truth to this? or is it still kind of a luck game?

[MpG]

Damn. Shame about QX9650.

I don't know that I've seen all that much evidence to support the superiority of the E0's. It's certainly nothing like the B3-->G0 difference that was seen with the Q6600 chips.

The E0's seem to run slightly cooler, but that doesn't really seem to reliably translate into more overclocking headroom. At their limits, within the realm of regular cooling, the 45nm chips tend to be more architecture-limited, rather than thermally-limited. Ultimately, as always, I expect luck (and patience) is still going to be big factors with either stepping.

[enaberif]

on my 3rd e8600 :P we'll see how it works later.

[MpG]

Your third? Did the other two run out of magic smoke?

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by MpG

Your third? Did the other two run out of magic smoke?

hahah

1) Constant BSOD when trying to accomplish anything
2) 1.4v would equal idle temps of 60-65 celsius
3) Still waiting to boot up again..

I'm just saying that while some steppings ARE better than others, its not always the case.