Venice Steppings -- Differences?

[Gophermofur]

Sorry, I know this is a newb question.

a) Do the letters and numbers after the manufacturing date indicate the tests performed on that chip?

b) Are there drastic differences between chips that have different letters at the end, but are made within the same week.
ie: 0517 BPCW and 0517 BPDW

I am asking because I read the OC venice Stepping thread and saw some good overclocks on week 17 processors, but looking at the local retailers I can't find an exact match (in terms of the lettering at the end).

Yes, please ignore my terminology of "lettering" as I don't exactly know what to call it... yet

Thanks,
Mo

 

[Shimmishim]

well you pose a good question...

with the venices it seems like the week 17 chips in GENERAL overclocked pretty well... but there are some reports of the week 17 not doing so hot...

getting a good chip is seriously luck... it just happens that some weeks are better than others and you'll have a better chance of finding a better one if you can get that week...

there used to be a vendor (dunno if they still do) called excaliberpc.com that would sell particular steppings and weeks of processors that overclocked well but at a premium...

hope that helped...

and yes, i do have a week 17 venice that overclocked nicely but i consider it luck...