P4 steppings - what do they mean?

[Harabecw]

Hello! I'm as new to CPU OC'ing as you can get, stuck to video cards until now
I heard people talk about steppings for their P4s, like C1.

what are there steppings? how many are there? why is C1 better?

Thanks

 

[Duvie]

steppings are revisions where many little physical enhancements (some die shrinking and I think pathway mofifications) are done.....They go in alphabetic order....The d1 stepping is actually the new one and is mainly isolated to the new 800fsb chips...

The later the stepping means it happened in the process where the chips were and are ramping to higher speeds....Therefore the c1's which are new are part of the chips that have made the 3.06ghz chips and therefore even many of the lower 2.0a,2.4b chips can reach that speed with default vcore...

In ocing you want the latest stepping on the lowest speed chip you can get...it will give you the most likely gain for your money...

 

[Wingznut]

Take a look at the AnandTech FAQ: What is a CPU stepping?

 

[Harabecw]

I see...mine says C1.
does it mean it *may* get to 3ghz+?
right now I'm limited to 2600mhz(2390 default) since I cannot change memory/AGP ratio and the system locks up when I go higher than 145mhz for FSB.
this is on the Asus P4S533VM motherboard.

 

[Duvie]

That is a Sis chipset and they are notrious as poor ocers compared to intel chipsets and more so back in the 645dx chipset days because of the lack of a pci/agp lock as you mentioned....

 

[Afro000Dude]

Intel has a Spec Finder here if it is of any interest to you.