The general rule of thumb is think for yourself and try and look beyond just the phrases other folks throw at you like i.e. the i7 is buggy/no good buying new architecture.
The truth of the matter is that all CPU's have errata, even the one's in the White House.
Intel does a lot of testing prior to releasing a CPU, proof of this is for instance the fact that the first stepping to reach consumers is C0 and not A0, B0, B1, B2 etc. This means the CPU has gone through several interations and errata fixes before being classified as OK to be released. This means the errata that remains either cannot be fixed or can be fixed but isn't life threataning to the CPU's stability.
Intel has a strong track record for delivery stability, one exception was the 0.18 micron Pentium III 1.13GHz back in 2000.
There's no need to be freaked out about all this errata. Sure a newer stepping is nice but the C0 i7 stepping will do you fine, it might use more power than the D1/E0 stepping that follows (it won't be called C1 since there's about 11 fixes awaiting) and overclock better but that's about it. Unless you're a real enthusiast that cares about the stepping of your CPU and whether it's from a good batch, there's more joy in actually owning the hardware than contemplate the "What If" paradigm.
The truth of the matter is that all CPU's have errata, even the one's in the White House.
Intel does a lot of testing prior to releasing a CPU, proof of this is for instance the fact that the first stepping to reach consumers is C0 and not A0, B0, B1, B2 etc. This means the CPU has gone through several interations and errata fixes before being classified as OK to be released. This means the errata that remains either cannot be fixed or can be fixed but isn't life threataning to the CPU's stability.
Intel has a strong track record for delivery stability, one exception was the 0.18 micron Pentium III 1.13GHz back in 2000.
There's no need to be freaked out about all this errata. Sure a newer stepping is nice but the C0 i7 stepping will do you fine, it might use more power than the D1/E0 stepping that follows (it won't be called C1 since there's about 11 fixes awaiting) and overclock better but that's about it. Unless you're a real enthusiast that cares about the stepping of your CPU and whether it's from a good batch, there's more joy in actually owning the hardware than contemplate the "What If" paradigm.