Q9550 questions...

[tpfoster]

*Thought I would make a new thread for this because no one answered my question before in the other thread*

Could any Scan employees confirm whether the Q9550 processors in stock now are C1 (SLAWQ) or E0 (SLB8V)?
Does this apply to the motherboard + CPU bundles too (today only)?
Does the Empire: TW come with the bundles or just when buying the processor separately?
Any chance of Q9550+Motherboard bundles coming up soon?

Thanks for any help

[zawer612]

same here if they can confirm the stepping i would buy straight away...

[tpfoster]

I will buy it today too if I knew- hurry up Scan please!

[Terbinator]

Pretty sure theyre E0 steppings, it had that in bold on the product description a few months back and i cant see there stock going from C1(?) to E0 to C1 again...

[tpfoster]

Well that's what I thought but check this out...

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-surprise.html

[danroyle]

mine i received tuesday is SLAWQ which is c1 hope that helps

[tpfoster]

Decided to risk it anyway and I got the E0 stepping version which is a nice surprise. I was expecting to see SLAWQ on the chip/box but was surprised at the SL8BV
Also got the Empire: Total War game, which I wasn't sure was included with the today only bundle
Just need the Graphics card, case and DVD drive now as my PSU should be arriving tomorrow

Thanks Scan!

[danroyle]

Decided to risk it anyway and I got the E0 stepping version which is a nice surprise. I was expecting to see SLAWQ on the chip/box but was surprised at the SL8BV
Also got the Empire: Total War game, which I wasn't sure was included with the today only bundle
Just need the Graphics card, case and DVD drive now as my PSU should be arriving tomorrow

Thanks Scan!

is there a huge difference between the two steppings overclocking and heat or is it minimal difference

[pauleden]

mine i received tuesday is SLAWQ which is c1 hope that helps

Mine was delivered a couple of months a go and was SLAWQ too.

[Terbinator]

is there a huge difference between the two steppings overclocking and heat or is it minimal difference

Overclocks are chip dependant and just becuase youve got a newer stepping doesnt mean your going to lose anything significant. Ive had my Q6600 @ 3.9Ghz on air, most people wont get that on a Q9550 E1 or otherwise

[Lee H]

Could any Scan employees confirm whether the Q9550 processors in stock now are C1 (SLAWQ) or E0 (SLB8V)?

Sorry,

As we've stated on previous posts regarding this we do not have the facility to guarantee steppings or week codes on processors.

This is due to the fact that we source most of the products from more than 1 active supplier/distributor. As you can imagine this increases the chance of us having a mixed batch on the shelf at any given time.

The only time we can guarantee steppings is if they are launched under a new SKU code like what happened with the well known Q6600 'G0' stepping and the new intel core i7 920 D0 stepping.

Best Regards,

[tpfoster]

OK, fair enough
As far as I can tell, it is not such a big difference as is the case with the Q6600 steppings, but it seems to be the case that people can get a stable overclock at lesser voltages with the E0 stepping on the Q9550. However, as has been said, this depends entirely on the chip, so you could quite easily get C1 chips that clock better than E0s.

[Lord_Azrael]

Actually, I blame intel for this as all the marking and codes on the packaging are the same if you buy a retail box. If you go for an OEM there is no reason why the supplier cannot provide the code from the cpu itself which determines the stepping.
I bought mine from Overclockers the other day and luckily received the E0.

Intel should really make a model number change on their boxes to make it easier.

[sammorris]

I've never seen a C1 CPU come out of retail in the UK for months - it's widely accepted you're 90% of getting an E0 these days.
The stepping isn't a vast difference unless you have a very good board with very little hardware in it, as the C1 chips can actually reach about 4.05Ghz before you need to start using crazy volts - the vast majority of systems can't reach that FSB anyway - X48 boards from Gigabyte for example require 1.85V on the northbridge to reach that speed (default is 1.25V - ouch!)