New i7 D0 Stepping

[bojangles]

Looks like Anandtech managed to grab some D0 stepping i7 chips, and from what I've read there is that these thing have quite a bit more overclocking headroom, of course with lower voltages. Take a look!

AnandTech

Anyone gonna try swapping their i7 when these become more available?

[MpG]

Very interesting. I may wind up being in the market for a new 920 in the future, and if so, I'm definitely going to be making sure I get a D0 unit.

[chrisk]

Saw that article too...Funny...I have been reading that Intel was going to release some 920s that overclocked less than the current lot. Some good news for those going to build in the near future.

[3oh6]

i have to nip this in the butt right away...not all D0's are going to be better overclockers than C0's. it is the same as everything else, some will, but some won't. there are two batches floating around so far and one sucks worse than a bad C0 batch and one seems to be a little better than your average C0 batch.

the hype you will see around the forums is that D0 is the end all be all but still choose CPU's wisely and keep your expectations within reason.

[chrisk]

Thanks for the heads up!

[3oh6]

the good batch of 920 D0's is 3845B027 so keep your eyes peeled as they seem to be worth picking up.

[gingerbee]

is there really a big difference between a 920 @3.8 vs 4.3 besides benchmarks just curious

[SKYMTL]

Personally, I think this is much ado about nothing. The overclocking headroom of ANY particular chip is like Russian Roulette which means that buying a certain stepping may give you a higher overclocker but chances are you won't see much of a difference. Just look at some of the idiotic stuff that went on when Intel released the G0 stepping of the Q6600.

[MpG]

I'd say that the memories of the Q6600 scenario is half responsible for this, actually. There was definitely a noticeable difference in how the B3's vs G0's behaved and clocked, although things were a little weird for a bit. But yeah, that sort of difference really isn't typical of most stepping changes, and you really do roll the dice where overclocking is concerned.

[SKYMTL]

My point about the G0 versus B3 debate was that people expected miracles from the G0 and then got up in arms over the fact that they received a B3.