> Sometimes parts are sold as 2.8 GHz because they're not stable enough to 
> run at 3.3 GHz or whatever. And sometimes they're sold as 2.8 because the 
> 2.8 bin is looking a bit empty this week.

Also don't forget the manufacturer will be testing for absolute worst case 
conditions, the CPU will only be binned at 3.3 GHz if they think it can 
survive running at 3.3 GHz (plus a bit) at the maximum specified temperature 
(plus a bit) for a long time.

They have to do that, because even 0.01% returned unstable CPUs is a huge 
cost for them - but what this means for the individual user is that they've 
got a very good chance of being able to overclock the CPU without any 
reliability issues.

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