Intel Chipset Recall?

I just got home from work and was reading engadget and i guess there has been a pretty substantial recall warning for the chipsets controlling the new sandy bridge?

Here is the article:

A problem requiring a "silicon fix" is bad news in the chipset business, and sadly that's what Intel is announcing. Its new Intel 6 Series chipset, Cougar Point, has been found to have a flaw, something to do with the SATA controller. Intel is indicating that the ports can "degrade over time," leading to poor i/o performance down the road. All shipments have been stopped and a fix has been implemented for new deliveries, but it sounds like recalls will be starting soon for those with this ticking time bomb silicon within. It isn't a critical problem right now, though, so if you own a Sandy Bridge Core i5 or Core i7 system keep computing with confidence while looking for a recall notice, but it is bad news for Intel's bottom line: the company is advising a $300 million hit to revenue.


Not many could have this these bad chipsets considering it hasnt been out long, but damn thats a big money hit for intel. Ohwell! Still better than amd.

From what they are saying they know whats wrong, and a fix has been implemented for new orders, etc. It really will just suck to people who already have the stuff running and have to potentially remove the motherboard, etc to get the chipset replaced.

Lot o work

There is no need to worry.   We will be testing the systems prior to shipment for any issues.   We do saturate and benchmark the SATA ports that the devices are plugged into on our systems during testing.   Nevertheless, if you ever had issues down the road, we'll do our best to take care of our valued customers.

Intel won't have a updated chipset until a month from now.

We've been plugging all of the hard drives in the faster SATA 3 ports on our Sandy Bridge builds anyways which are unaffected by the issue. Intel has informed us that the issue is on the other ports, and it's performance degradation that happens after a couple of years. If the SATA 2 ports have optical drives on them, the issue won't be noticed during normal usage.

We'll be contacting our customers that order from us about this and if they approve, we'll move forward with the build with Sandy Bridge, or the customer can change over to an X58 chipset.

Edited by Alex - 31 Jan 2011 at 2:06pm

Hi Alex,

I was preparing to purchase the new Enix design, featuring the 2600k as soon as tonight or tomorrow at the latest... I just noticed these posts... So, not sure what I should do as the Enix only comes with the new cpu's. Truth be told, I am trying to follow what has been posted, but I do not understand it all. Although I noticed a few posts up that the issue is with only specific ports or something?

I was prepared to order a Enix with a SSD and a 1TB HDD along with the standard disc drive... Should I skip the SSD and only use a single HDD along with the optical drive? If you could let me know, that would be great as I would like to order tonight or tomorrow and I'd really like the Enix case but do not want problems with it as I have had so many with past computers

^^ Yeah, forgot my P8P67 Deluxe has 4 sata 3 ports...guess I'm safe then. :D

If you are an early adopter this is the kind of price you have to accept.
If you want stability, do not buy the bleeding edge, go with the mature and functional existing tech.....true for any type of purchase/investment.

For my self and my customers I usually give a new tech 6 months to "bake" before jumping in, UNLESS they specifically let me know they are not risk averse.


Edited by MagiK - 31 Jan 2011 at 4:51pm

Sabertooth is a great board, and the Noctua 120 or 140 is a fine Air cooler to get the most from the free OC

I am kind of in need of the computer now, otherwise I probably would just wait. I have been researching and pondering different custom builders and then since I have decided on DS, several different builds lol. I really do not want to wait any longer. I have everything arranged to place the order now and would like to do so if I can find a nice alternative build tonight.

I do not need an extreme overclock in excess of 4.0 gHz or higher really. However, I would like to be at 3.9 ghz at least which is the max for the free o.c.  Mainly due to Everquest 2, which I may play alongside Rift. It is a very demanding game on the cpu and the few who can play the game on the extreme quality graphics, are sporting overclocks around 4.0 ghz.

I was playing around with a few different builds using the HAF 922 and I was able to get pretty much all I wanted and much of what you guys had suggested to me (160GB SSD, GTX 570, etc). The question that I have revolves around the overclocking of the 950 as I do know they run hotter than the new sandy bridge. I am assuming that is why it costs 200 bucks to get 4.0 gHz haha. That being said, if I can get 3.9 ghz, that would suit my need for speed just fine

In summary... I need the new computer within the next couple of weeks and would like to order tonight or tomorrow at the very latest to get the process started. If all goes well with this first DS purchase, I can always upgrade (as in buy a new computer) to the sandy bridge architecture model in two years once its perfected! I just need a powerful, fast, computer now that is build well enough to last at least 2-3 years. After that period of time, I would just soon get a new looking case and new technology.


Edited by MosleyP4P - 31 Jan 2011 at 5:43pm

Can somebody correct me if I'm wrong please, but with the p8p67, you get 4 x 6GB sata correct? if they perform fine with all four working at the same time, then I don't think this is a big issue. But if the sata 6GB ports have problems then its a big issue.

Right I forgot about marvell, 2 out of 4 is the marvell chip, does ich10r have native 6GB sata?

lol so what is running the other 2 6GB sata? lol where is justin?

man this sucks, how can they make this mistake

there is no ICH on sandy bridge. yes 2 6Gbs are native.

PCH. Platform Controller Hub  like the 1156 socket had also..

yes, but only 2 are native 6Gb, the other 2 suck donkey balls.

damage control......... i like it!