What does a CPU's "stepping" refer to?

[The Dup]

I have an ASUS P2B board (sorry, don't know the revision yet) with a PII 400 and ATX 250W power supply. I'd like to upgrade the CPU to a PIII or something, because OCing a PII-400 will not buy me much (I don't think).

So if I were to buy a new PIII to put in the P2B, what speed/format/stepping should I go for? Is it better to go with a SECC2? Or FC-PGA? The fan/heatsink on the PII cannot be used on the PIII, can it?

I ask because this guy want to sell me a PIII 700 SL45Y with stepping CB0 and I'd heard I neede stepping CA2. Which is more recent/better? Or does it matter at all?

Thanks in advance,

From a

[markedmundb]

Stepping is just another way of saying Version, Revision or Evolution of a CPU or other silicon chip.

cC0 is the latest stepping, cB0 was the previous one. cA2 might be required as the older P2B's *might* not support voltages below 2v (cA2 uses 2v- right?).

If your board will handle voltages below 2.0v, then my advice would be go for a cC0, a good slocket (not Abit), a decent Heatsink (TaiSol, GlobalWin or Alpha). You can adjust the voltage on the slocket, to help you get a better Overclock.

If not, your stuck with the cA2. Check out the Asus website for the max CPU your board can handle (once you find which rev it is) If it's a p/// 933, or higher then it will be able to take a coppermine (cB0/cC0) CPU.

If there's nothing about what the max CPU is, just run off a quick e-mail to Asus' tech support dept asking "what is the max CPU my board (p2B rev xyx) can handle?" or "I've got the option to buy a cB0 p3 700, will it work on my board( P2B rev xyx)

[Phil]

I think the p2b only goes down to 1.8v but this is quite a common voltage if you are going to be overclocking it, go for a cCO as these are the most commonly overclocked chips also go for a slocket and fcpga version as you will be able to select the voltage on the slocket then, as far as I know an secc2 would not boot because it's default voltage is 1.7v so you would need a slocketed version

[Slake]

markedmundb (Feb 21, 2001 06:23 p.m.):
..........................."
If your board will handle voltages below 2.0v, then my advice would be go for a cC0, a good slocket (not Abit), a decent Heatsink (TaiSol, GlobalWin or Alpha). You can adjust the voltage on the slocket, to help you get a better Overclock.


What's wrong with the Abit Slotket!!! ??? ??? Never mind read your post in Slotket question thread. Sorry...

[The Dup]

Thanks for all the replies.

To summarize what was said: if stepping refers to the revision or version of a CPU, can I assume that the higher the letters, the more recent? And therefore better? Or can the letters/numbers tell me something about Katmai vs Tualatin vs Coppermine vs Coppermine-T vs etc.? How?

I took apart my PC and found out that i have an ASUS P2B Rev.1.02. So I went and flashed my BIOS from V1005 toV1012, which is the most recent on Asus's web site.

I don't know what is the lowest voltage it can go to, however. I think it can go to 1.8v on a PIII 800 at 1064Mhz, according to

http://www.ctechnet.com/hardware/asus.htm#41200

Digging deeper into Asus's web site I also found out that my mobo can take a PIII 600 (the Sspec=SL3JM/T, Stepping=kC0, CPUID=0673h (aka as a Katmai, right?) on the Slot 1 in a SECC2 cartride, but beyond that, I must use a slotket (of type FC-PGA 100Mhz I think). That info is at:

http://www.asus.com.tw/products/techref/cpu/coppermine/index.html

So, if you had my config and limited knowledge but a clean slate in terms of CPU. What would you suggest? Katmai PIII 600 in SECC2 if I can find any? Coppermine PIII 800+ in FCPGA on Slotket? Celeron xyz in S370 and Sloket? Or don't even think about overclocking on P2Bs at rev.1.02? Or stick to PII 400 and try overclocking to 496Mhz?

Again, thanks in advance...

[Phil]

I would recomend a celeron 566 or 600 cCO chip in an asus s370-dl, and make sure you set the voltage to 1.8 on the slocket, this should easily get you to about 950mhz with either chip and maybe about 1ghz with the 600, if you have the money for a pIII then I would get a 700 or a 750 and run it on a 133mhz bus if you video card will take it which is one of the reasons I recomend the celeron as you can overclock it well under 133mhz fsb speeds