Good stepping?

[CCW]

Hi,
Im a newbie to overclocking and wondered what stepping is and how do you tell if a processor has good stepping?

Thanks,
Craig

[N8]

What CPU are we talkin about here? This will tell where to read the stepping from :)

[CCW]

Spose you need a pic of my proc?

Craig

[N8]

Not really, lol. I just don't know what processor you're talking about? :)

[CCW]

Athlon XP 2000+

Cheers,
Craig

[KnightElite]

On the top of the processor, it will say something like this:
AX2000MT3C
AGOIA 0204 GPDW
Y7704530321
® © 1999 AMD

The first line tells you it is an Athlon XP 2000 +
The second line gives you the main stepping (AGOIA) then the week it was made (week 4 of 2002 in this case) then another bit of the stepping.
The third line is the serial number, though people say that the overclockability of the chips correlates with whether the first letter of that line is a Y or a 9 or a 4 or something else.

Hopefully this helps, I just took this off a dead CPU someone gave me.

[CCW]

Thanks very much, so 1st letter of 3rd line, if its Y or 9 or 4 it will overclock better.

Cheers,
Craig

[KnightElite]

Originally posted by CCW
Thanks very much, so 1st letter of 3rd line, if its Y or 9 or 4 it will overclock better.

Cheers,
Craig

I honestly couldn't tell you, since different people seem to have different opinions on it ;).

[CCW]

Ok, but thanks alot anyway

Craig