I have only gotten to page 6 in reading the Sandy Bridge quote ... but I just lost a motherboard on my current system and want to go the Sandy Bridge 2600K route. Haven't checked myself, but on the phone he read me some things off line and said that Intel is into a recall of the chipsets, I think he said the P67 and H67 chip and says they have demonstrated a deterioration in performance.Does anyone here know of any such thing? Is anyone noticing any issues? Does every board for the 2600K use this chipset?I'm not a technician, just an appliance operator.What is your recommendation?Thank you, Steve, in Indiana, USA

Hi Steve,Regarding the recall, all P67 motherboards currently in stores and in customers hands are affected. Intel claims 5-15% of boards will be affected by the defect over the next 3 years. Regardless, anybody owning a P67 board will be able to exchange it in April whether it's affected or not. I don't know about other manufacturers, but Gigabyte has already told P67 owners to take their board to their local place of purchase for an exchange in April (as posted on their blog). In the mean time, owners can continue to use their Sata II ports with little risk of being affected or use their Sata III ports with no risk of problems. To sum it up, it's a non-issue unless you really just don't want to have to rebuild your computer in a couple months.Corey

Thank you, Corey. After I made this post, I found a thread below that discussed this at length, though I confess, I didn't understand the technical aspects very well. So if I understand correctly ... 1) Only 1 out of 8 to 10 boards are effected.2) If you get a bad one ... you can change it out in April for free.3) You can't harm your CPU or any of the other hardware attached to the board.On a point for clarification, you said "In the mean time, owners can continue to use their Sata II ports with little risk of being affected or use their Sata III ports with no risk of problems." Does this mean that the main issue is on the Sata III ports. In my limited understanding ... does that mean the drives that have 6GB data transfer rate, or whatever you call it?Thank you.

Yes, that's all correct.Cheers,- jahman.

Almost, but just a couple missed points. The only affected ports are the Sata II 3 GB/s ports. The Sata III 6 GB/s ports are perfectly fine. To further clarify on the recall, ALL P67 owners should be able to exchange their boards (for free) whether they're seeing the problem or not - that's confirmed by Gigabyte and I imagine all the other manufacturers will be doing the same thing.

Almost, but just a couple missed points. The only affected ports are the Sata II 3 GB/s ports. The Sata III 6 GB/s ports are perfectly fine. To further clarify on the recall, ALL P67 owners should be able to exchange their boards (for free) whether they're seeing the problem or not - that's confirmed by Gigabyte and I imagine all the other manufacturers will be doing the same thing.

Thank you again, Corey.I know these boards are getting harder to find because of the recall. But if I only use HDDs using the Sata III 6GB/s port, by your description, I should be okay. Since I do not understand CPU architecture, I wonder if there is any chance of this problem migrating to the 6 gig ports?Also, for the sake of my computer builder, are you relying on the statement I read on the Gigabyte site for your information? "However, it will not be an issue for systems that connect to the SATA 3 ports only. ... No action will be needed if you only use the SATA 3 ports. If you are using the SATA2 ports, then there are possibilities that the device’s performance will decrease after a period of usage. To ensure the highest standard of customer support & services, GIGABYTE recommends that all customers who purchased GIGABYTE 6 series motherboards contact their local dealer (retail store where you purchased the motherboard) at the end of April for a motherboard exchange. GIGABYTE will provide an equivalent new motherboard replacement"Corey ... is Intel or anyone else you know of ... confirming it is a Sata 2 onlh problem? I notice you are using a Gigabyte board. If this is the only source, then it should be trusted as reliable and applying to all of the chipsets ... right?From the information you have kindly provided, it would appear that if I only use SATA 3 ports, then it would be safe to go ahead and build a 2600K on these boards ... meaning ... it would probably never be necessary to take it apart and start over. My current (only) desktop has just had its mainboard fail. I don't have anything else but a little netbook which I am using right now. I need my desk top for much more than just FSX. My processor is only an old E6700 Core 2 Duo.Since I am planning to upgrade soon anyway, and since I have been waiting or these new chips, it seems stupid to spend any dollars rebuilding the E6700 now, when only in April, or whenever to start again builing my upgrade. To be without my desktop for 2 to 4 months would be almost impossible. Hence, my urgency to make a wise decision.I so appreciate yours an other comments and for your patience.Steve

Yes, Intel confirmed it's a problem with the Sata 2 only and even suggested operating off the Sata 3 ports for the time being. If all you have for now is a netbook, I say go ahead with the upgrade, but realize you will have to exchange the motherboard in April. I understand you may not WANT to exchange the motherboard if you're not using the Sata 2 ports, but you really should seeing as how it's really not that time consuming or difficult to do. Also I would try and find one in-store so you don't have to deal with shipping or down time when it comes time to exchange it.

Yes, Intel confirmed it's a problem with the Sata 2 only and even suggested operating off the Sata 3 ports for the time being. If all you have for now is a netbook, I say go ahead with the upgrade, but realize you will have to exchange the motherboard in April. I understand you may not WANT to exchange the motherboard if you're not using the Sata 2 ports, but you really should seeing as how it's really not that time consuming or difficult to do. Also I would try and find one in-store so you don't have to deal with shipping or down time when it comes time to exchange it.

Thank you, Corey. You have been most kind and helpful. That is what I needed to know.God bless and best regards,Steve

I see Intel has restarted shipping the bad chipsets, but only to companies that are supplying systems that don't use the Intel SATA II ports. I don't think there are any enthusiast MBs in that category though?scott s..