I’ve done hours upon hours of reading and I am so ready to flash a new firmware – especially to get better battery and wifi performance, hopefully. Rooting and flashing a different ROM afterwards is very appealing to me as well.
However, I’ve come across some conflicting messages and I’d just like to clear it out, guidance would be so much appreciated

(The XDA Galaxy S2 forums have reached 62 000 and 45 000 posts and that would be an impossible read through!)
On the mybroadband GS2 battery usage thread I’ve read that if your phone’s Baseband version / Kernel number says e.g. XWKE7, then you would need a firmware version that also starts with XW. Is this true? I hope this is untrue as the latest up to date version on the XDA thread of ‘Intratech’ seems to be XXKH3 and I’d like to update to that if I can?
By how much can your CSC differ to the rest of your PDA/PHONE versions? Until a South African is released, must it absolutely be a ‘XEU’ version? I’m hoping it’s not true, because I’d prefer to download just one firmware upgrade and update it with Odin from there without using parts from different firmware downloads (due to data constraints

)...but would do so if necessary. I’d like to update to the aforementioned XXKH3 which has a CSC of OXAKH3. (The latest one with XEU is firmware XXKH1 with a CSC of XEUKD1). ThePhilosopher said he made this update with the OXA CSC and didn’t have any problems…but Mici said if you do update the OXA part you will lose your data…I just want to get more confirmation please
If I will lose my data, is it possible to rather keep my current CSC and just upgrade my PDA and PHONE parts? I am looking for a non-wipe solution at my ‘amateur’ stage of development
So currently my phone stats are as follows:
PDA: I9100XWKE7
PHONE: I9100JCKE1
CSC: I9100JCKE1
Barring any obstacles, could I update to that XXKH3 (with a CSC of OXAKH3?). If not that CSC, is there a better one you guys know of?
I want to root after firmware update, I’ve backed up to my sd card using MyBackup – do you guys reckon that’s sufficient in unlikely case of something going wrong? This is my baby now and I can’t lose it!!! Freaking awesome phone…