Why is Stepping CB0 so important on a P3?

[Bad Dude]

Why does everyone so crazy about the stepping CB0? What is wrong with the other steppings processors? What is the advantage of having a stepping CB0?
Thanks.

 

[skull]

The cbo stepping will overclock a lot highier than the other steppings.

 

[Viper GTS]

He's basically correct. P3 cb0 processors have a ceiling around 1 GHz, where ca2's have a ceiling of around 800-850.

Viper GTS

 

[Ulysses]

The stepping is only important if you are going to overclock. If not the performance should be the same. See:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=209861

There is also a new stepping, the cC0, which was/is used for the infamous 1.133 GHz P3. That stepping will also be used for faster and for certain slower Coppermines eventually. See:

http://www.overclockers.com/articles208/

 

[Bad Dude]

How long ago since the CB0 stepping has been out? Is it more than 3 months? I just bought a P3 600E and has not got it yet. The seller said it is about 3 months old and it is a slot one.
Is it possible to get a CB0 stepping and not reach to 800 at least?
Thanks.

 

[Ulysses]

I think the cB0's have been out not quite 3 months, but I'm not really sure. I did see an interesting article dated May 26: http://www.overclockers.com/tips109/

When you get your CPU, before opening the box check its S-spec against the chart I linked you to above in order to determine its stepping. If it is not a cB0 maybe you can return or exchange it since it is unused and unopened at that point. The sweet spot for these cB0's seems to be around 700-750 MHz, which will hopefully do 900-1000 and cost only a bit more than the 600E's.

EDIT:
From that chart, the Slot-1 cB0 600E's will have S-spec SL44Y if retail packaged by Intel or SL43E if OEM version.

 

[Bad Dude]

Hi Ulysses,
I got no choice on the return since I am buying this P3 600E used for 3 months from a guy on this forum for only $140 shipped. Do you think this is a good price?
From the chart I see these:
600E. COPPERMINE 100 MHz SECC2. cA2 SL3NA SL3H6
or
600E. COPPERMINE 100 MHz SECC2. cB0 SL44Y SL43E
So Ulysses, it can be stepping cA2 too right? Oh well, hitting 800 is just great too since I only got the Kingston Value PC100. The max these RAMs can do is 140Mhz if I am lucky.
Hey you have not answer my question of the possibility of the cB0 or cA2 of not hitting the 800 mark?

Thanks.

 

[Daniel]

The cb0 is also dual capable if that is important.

 

[Bad Dude]

Hi Daniel,
What do you mean dual capable?

 

[Howard]

Meaning you can use the processors in a dual setup (setup on a motherboard with dual-processor support). Like you can plug in two processors.

 

[Bad Dude]

I won't be using it in dual config. Just single chip. I am more concern with overclock.
Thanks.

 

[Nack]

He means that the cB0 stepping chips are SMP capable (two processors, one board) if you run them on a dual capable board and use an SMP capable OS like Windows NT4 or Windows NT5 (oops I mean Windows 2000). The older cA2 stepping P3s do not support SMP operation.

Nack

 

[Bad Dude]

Thanks Nack.

 

[utopia]

You can use dual (2) CPU's on one board...

 

[utopia]

All PIII's are dual capable... Yes i do mean the older steppings as well, thats what Intel's press release stated... However, i know that some people wore unable to run dual cA2 PIII's...

 

[Goi]

Bad_Dude, if this helps, my friend had a cA2 P3-650 that did 780 stable with the generic intel HSF. I don't know the voltage though. 819MHz would POST and reach Windows, but would not run stably. After getting a Globalwin FOP32 and using MPU 3.7 thermal grease, he can now run 819MHz stably and reaches Windows at 845MHz. Anything beyond that wouldn't even POST. This is on a Asus CUVX with generic TwinMos PC133 128MB SDRAM.

 

[Bad Dude]

Thanks Goi for the info.