Steppings

[pewter77]

Do later steppings always bring better overclocking or stability or do they sometimes just bring stuff like vt-d support? I'm wondering if its worth it to wait for the C3 stepping on SB-E since the C2 stepping is rumored to be the first retail availability. I've waited a long time to build a new computer and I'm trying to decide if i want to wait for the later stepping. Considering it would only be a month or so later that the next stepping is released.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Inte...ch-Date-and-Time-Revealed-Report-231405.shtml

kinda my source, i'm sure i've seen it elsewhere. It sounds as if the D revision will come out far too late so ya. Wondering if anyone can give me a general idea of how big a small revision like the jump from C2 ----> C3 has on performance in past generations.

 

[drescherjm]

Do later steppings always bring better overclocking

I would say sometimes yes sometimes not really.

or stability or do they sometimes just bring stuff like vt-d support?

I believe is this definitely false. They may fix bugs but not add new features. New features will only occur on a Tick / Tock.