AMD Phenom II BE vs non-BE?

[Ecap]

What's the difference in practice between the Black Edition and the standard versions of Phenom II CPUs? I'm having difficulty finding a C3 stepping of the 955 BE here in the UK and wondered whether to settle for the non-BE. I'm not looking for a big overclock.

Or to put the question the other way round, does anyone know whether the C3 stepping is a significant improvement over the C2?

 

[cowgod2007]

If you're not looking for a big OC, go with nonBE. BE just includes unlocked multiplier for easy OC-ing.

 

[loneninja]

C3 has a little lower power consumption due to slightly lowered voltage requirments, the memory controller was also tweaked and improved upon. Unless you were aiming for a 4.0Ghz overclock, I don't think a BE or C3 is that significant.

 

[Ecap]

Thanks. Very useful information.

 

[Ecap]

(I'd mark this as an answered question if I hadn't mistakenly started it as a discussion.)