what is speedstep?

It lowers the multiplier and voltage when your CPU is idle to reduce power and heat.

speedstep will lower your multiplier whenever the processor is at idle to save energy. When you put load on the processor the multiplier will return to normal and give you the full speed. Some people claim that speedstep may cause stability issues when overclocking but i have always used it without problems.

i am a noob at OCing and was reading one of the many guides avilable:

in that,the guy had suggested disabling speedstep at first and once you get a stable oc,..then enabling it.

That last bit of advice sounds good to me once stable OC re engage. As a notebook person I always use it as heat control is limited and that does help. I have never noticed a performance issue.

Oh, if you have a SSD.... SpeedStep maybe reducing its performance.