Hardware The True Cost of the Intel Sandy Bridge Cock-Up

I would totally buy (another) one. All they have to do is unsolder ports 2-6 and resell as P8P67-FE (faulty edition) for 30% off

When I think about all the cutdown motherboards that didn't have the AGP or PCI-e slot soldered on, or the disabled cores/cache on cheap processors, this seems to be a no brainer.

 

Wow, sounds like this is being blown out of all proportion! Not from a retailer perspective perhaps, but certainly from a desktop customer perspective. The fact that it's only the sata2 ports affected, and could take some time to degrade lessened the "shock". Now I read it's 110,000 in 8 million... so less than 2% of boards are affected?! I'll take my chances.

Not sure I can even be bothered to swap should a fix become available. I even have a disk and optical drive plugged into said faulty ports (assuming I'm in the estimated <2% of unlucky ones) even though I have 3 sata3 ports free and I really can't be bothered to move them over.

 

I have to cancel my new PC (P67 based) because of that stupid bug.

 

iIs not the end of the world to work around the problem for a desk top build.
I have had to as my old pc died just as the problem came to light.
But wouldent go near a lap top with the problem.

 

Is it right you can use the sata 3 ports for your sata 2 harddisk and dvd/blur-ray drives? if so to be fair,id buy one no problems. why not just kill off all the sata2 ports and make them sata 3 from now on??? how long did it take to get rid of the serial port and mouse ps2 ports, tech moves fast so come on already... and wheres the new pci express slot due??

 

I would seriously doubt it as only about 1.5% of boards sold with the chip are affected, they aren't going to sell you 7,890,000 boards at a loss and the chances are if you have bought a board; it's probably fine.

They (Intel and OEM partners) will probably just take back the unused boards, run these validation tests on them and if they pass repackage and put them out on the market again.

 

"Asus' P8P67 motherboard features four extra SATA ports via a Marvell controller, which retailers such as Scan are offering as a compromise to customers who want to get their hands on the kit as soon as possible"

I thought it was only 2 via the Marvell controller (the 2 dark blue ones?) there are another 2 intel 6gb ports (the grey ones)? Am I correct in thinking this issue only affects the light blue ports on the P8P67 mobo? (the light blue ones being the 3gb ports)?

 

last paragraph, page 4:

"we've also heard a rumours"

 

That would be the easiest way out, but it has 2 Problems:

1) Can the chipset stress test be carried out while the chip is soldered to the MB? I pretty sure Intel only tests raw silicon and the single chips. (Contacting the BGA Is a delicate matter)
2) This would make distinguishing affected from unaffected MoBo's next to impossible. Now you can just look at the version.

 

Also I'm pretty sure the test is *immensely* stressful, as in it fries the chipset after completion. It's trying to simulate 3 years' worth of use, bear in mind.

 

I have to say if they were selling the B2 at a reduced cost I would be out and buying one like a shot. I only have 2 hard drives and an optical drive in my rig so wouldn't need to use the affected SATA ports.

As it is I'm waiting until B3 - if I'm paying full price I might as well get the fixed up version.

 

most current boards don't even have any 6gbs so most people arnt going to care at all
if these boards where more "affordable" (for the average person there a bit too expensive)
i would be buying one off these now if they had money off them
i would use 6gbs port and i wouldn't be worried about it at all. in 3 years time id probably be thinking off upgrading or would have already upgraded. and since there's only a 2% off it happening it woulnt be top off my list off things i would be worried about

if i where Intel i wouldn't have bothered recalling them its only 2 percent and in 10 months when 10x as meny board where made with the B3 silicone that's only 0.2% and that's after 3 years
at the cost off 1 billion they could have recalled all the laptop chip sets (they need to do this as they need the manufactures too trust them) and replaced all boards that break in the future with shiny new ones and even offered the customers newer models or money off

silly intel

 

it was more than 2% of boards that are supposed to be affected and besides, something like this will always come out so it was better for intels customer relations to admit to this problem and get a call back program and fix in place as soon as they could.
can you imagine what they wouldve looked like if they had swept it under the carpet like you suggest and then it had come out later down the line? something along the lines of financial suicide and id imagine a loss of the market leadership to amd for the forseable future not to mention almost irreparable damage to their image.

 

Sounds delicious.