Picking a good OC proc. How?

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0zymandias

Weaksauce
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Feb 28, 2006
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How does one do this when buying from an online store? Is the stepping in the model or item #? Does someone have a online store they know is selling good OC x2 3800s right now?
 
Unless you can get ahold of somebody over the phone there's not usually a lot you can do when purchasing CPU's from an e-tailer. I've seen one or two canadian sites actually display some information about the processor stepping, but again...if you can't actually get ahold of someone at the site (via phone or email) you might be left to just trying your luck, or seeing what other people might be saying at the time if there's any product feedback on the site itself.

This is one reason I always try to purchase CPU's locally if I can...cus the guys in town know me quite well and let me look through their stock 'till I find a certain stepping. ;)
 
This doesn't help much, but about 2 years ago, svc.com had guaranteed stepping for like 5-10 dollars extra. I was able to basically hand pick my tbred XP1700+ from them, and I got a 60% overclock this way.

Unfortunately, most if not all online retailers do not do this. If you go to a local shop and handpick, you'll always pay more of a premium.
 
Sometime the store will say but usually not. You can try to find someone who just got a good stepping and see what store it came from but even then you still might not get the one you want.

I just go for a model that's a good overclocker. Usually the lowest in a series such as the Opteron 144 or the Opteron 165. If you get the slowest in a series you're likely to get the highest percentage of an overclock.
 
AssMan said:
Sometime the store will say but usually not. You can try to find someone who just got a good stepping and see what store it came from but even then you still might not get the one you want.

I just go for a model that's a good overclocker. Usually the lowest in a series such as the Opteron 144 or the Opteron 165. If you get the slowest in a series you're likely to get the highest percentage of an overclock.
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Typically yes, however...has newer stepping dates for any A64 or Opteron chips are released overclocking can vary quite a bit.

Do what you can, but sadly, there's not a lot you can do anymore...sucks, but good luck grabbing a nice chip. :)
 
Seems like it'd be worth it to pay 20 bucks more at a retailer to possibly gain 300mhz more OC due to good stepping. Of course, they have to have the good stepping first.
 
0zymandias said:
Seems like it'd be worth it to pay 20 bucks more at a retailer to possibly gain 300mhz more OC due to good stepping. Of course, they have to have the good stepping first.
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Of course, but for processors specifically I will always buy locally for that very reason. Good luck finding what you need.
 
malicious said:
buy a proven one used
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That's also another way to go about it, that will give you a better idea about the chips overclockability. Some people are overly paranoid about private deals though, so there's always the option of the local store.

Some stores (one of mine included) can/should actually be able to check with their suppliers for certain steppings of CPU's...so that's another idea if they don't have something on hand at the time.
 
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