Q9550 Steppings

[mldewey]

My guess is they or their suppliers are reducing inventory as you suggested. They probably don't have the luxury of holding back old stock. Maybe E0s are getting hard to come by and they have to flush the C1s. I am disappointed in Newegg because I saw they same threads you did and did not think I had a chance at getting the old step.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

I talked to a CS supervisor today at Newegg today. He indicated that, since they want to provide the best on line support for the enthusiast community, to call them and explain that you got an older stepping (C1) - and that they will arrange to swap out the chip for a newer (E0) one.

No promises, but that's what I was told on the phone. He did promise to call me back in a week or two - we'll see.

A note: He indicated that they had a similar problem with some Q6600 a while back. So it could be intel, but I doubt it.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

I'm still curious, has anybody received a Q9550 (quad) from the egg lately? I'd be interested if they are still shipping the C1 stepping or are back to the E0 stepping. I hope the holidays cleared out all that stale inventory.

Anybody?

 

[jsc]

I ordered a Q9550 about a month ago. Received a C1 chip. Got back to work in Saudi Arabia and installed it in my Gigabyte motherboard. Worked. I increased the FSB to 400 MHz. (no other changes) and speed went to 3.4 + GHz. Increased vcore to 1.25 volts and FSB to 425 MHz (3.6 GHz) and tested a couple of hours with P95. Running just fine.

I haven't spent any more time trying to see how far I can go. Right now, I have other priorities. Right now, I am pulling the Antec 900 case apart to swap the two 500 GB drives with two 1 TB drives.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

I ordered a Q9550 about a month ago. Received a C1 chip.

I'm disappointed to hear that. I had hoped that Newegg had flushed all the older steppings by now. I wish there was some way to get them to confirm the stepping when an order is placed. I have not had that follow-up call from the CS supervisor that was promised.

 

[jsc]

That's the way it goes. I received a G0 Q6600 when I bought it at Fry's. So I am batting 50-50. I know that some sites will guarantee a particular stepping when you order a CPU, but newegg is my vendor of choice.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

That's the way it goes. I received a G0 Q6600 when I bought it at Fry's. So I am batting 50-50. I know that some sites will guarantee a particular stepping when you order a CPU, but newegg is my vendor of choice.

Mine too, but when they were shipping the E0 stepping for months after it came out, then suddenly people began receiving the older C1 stepping in Nov and Dec (and still are) ... just makes me wonder what was going on, and why?

I guess I'm saying that, now, my assumptions about Newegg having the fastest stock turnover and best service may not be so solid after all. 🙁 I know many who have had great success with the C1 stepping and I'm not saying there is anything bad with the chip - just that Intel did release a newer stepping for a reason and we all want the "latest and greatest" (whatever that means). Given a choice, I'll go with the E0.