It that was really the case then why have failures already shown up, less than 6 months, so much they are causing issues, let alone a 1 billion dollar recall.
The issue will not cause the drive to fail in a hardware sense. You could have data corruption or loss, so if you continue using the ports, hang on to those back-ups..
One article said the expected failure rate was 5-6%, so there is a good chance most users will never see the problem; though an RMA is certainly in order, as soon as it is available..
The Intel press release is vague.
"the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives"
I read that as saying that the hard drives or disk drives could fail as a result. I wouldn't want to put any drives on the affected ports as those drives will probably be stressed more as a result of this bug.
Hang on, where was data corruption mentioned? It wasn't in Anand's article. The controller will fail to read back data, and the errors in reading the data will cause slower speeds, and the drive may become unrecognizable. It's a bit of a leap to suggest it will corrupt your existing data.
Where are you getting your information?
You're spreading so much FUD about this issue, yet we've only known about it for 4 hours.
Intel told consumers first along with their announcement to board manufacturers. I believe that was the correct thing to do, letting everyone know at the same time.
Because of this, there are no public plans for recall, but you're in here saying, "Intel is screwing consumers, blah blah blah, no replacements for early adopters"
This is unfounded, we have no idea how end user replacements will be handled.
Well that sucks for the early adopters. Looks like I may be waiting for z68, or Bulldozer. One thing I am still not clear on; will this physically damage the drives, or is it simply the controller which fails? If it does not cause data corruption, or physical damage I don't think it's a huge issue. Simply switch the main HDD's to the 6GB ports, or use Marvell/offboard controllers.
I'm spreading what intel has said.
THEY, intel, has said customers have come to them with failures. Intel then tested and found the issue. If customers are already seeing failures then this is a lot worse than that.
"some complaints from its customers about failures. Early last week Intel duplicated and confirmed the failure in house."
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4142/intel-discovers-bug-in-6series-chipset-begins-recall
So check your own fanboy FUD at the door.
If youre already a P67/H67 owner, the problem relates to connectivity between the SATA ports and hard drives. That link can degrade over time and, in a worst-case scenario, youll boot your machine to find attached storage simply isnt identified at all. None of your data is at riskanything on the drive already cant be affected by the link degrading and ultimately failing, after all.
Problems with the chipset's SATA controller shouldn't have any detrimental effects for the SATA devices on them. Performance impacts, yes (if the bug is seen on your system), but quality impact, not so much.
Yeah, so there's a product defect, and Intel is recalling the products.
Yes, this is a black mark on Intel's reliability reputation. Yes, this sucks for consumers running several SATA devices, which may start to see performance issues.
But Intel biting the bullet, fully disclosing the issue, and recalling the products. Sounds to me like they're taking a pretty ethical course of action for this particular issue.
It would be a lot worse if Intel was covering up this issue or refusing to disclose it.
Wouldn't a faulty controller continue to access the SATA device over and over until the data was transferred? Maybe I don't understand the architecture behind it, but I would imagine that the SATA device would be under more stress in this situation vs a normal situation. Maybe not a big deal in the long run, but for more sensitive devices like SSDs, it could be a significant issue.
Crappy news :| Since it only affects the 3Gb ports, I might be able to get by using just the 6Gb ports and the marvell ports if I have to. Would rather not go through the hassle of a recall now that I have a new system up and running.
I stand corrected.. I was trying to address the suggestion that a drive could be damaged and extrapolated a bit, in error..Hang on, where was data corruption mentioned? It wasn't in Anand's article. The controller will fail to read back data, and the errors in reading the data will cause slower speeds, and the drive may become unrecognizable. It's a bit of a leap to suggest it will corrupt your existing data.
The issue is a circuit design problem resulting in a gradual degradation over time of SATA connectivity on the affected ports, manifesting itself as high bit-error rates on those ports and eventually as total device disconnects.
That's a serious issue, but it's limited in scope. Intel says storage devices connected to those ports should not be damaged, and data on the devices should be intact and readable on another system.
Sit on it till april. D:
But this just shows intel should give at least 1 company a license to make chipsets. Remember the problems during the Rambus days and how VIA saved their ass? If VIA, nvidia, etc was making intel chipsets right now people would have a way of using their CPUs and not letting them collect dust till april.
............if that's the case I may just take my chances as the downtime would suck ass. Unless ASUS are sending out forward replacements...
Given the breadth of this issue (impact on sales, margins, and earnings), it would also be illegal for them to cover it up.
Crappy news :| Since it only affects the 3Gb ports, I might be able to get by using just the 6Gb ports and the marvell ports if I have to. Would rather not go through the hassle of a recall now that I have a new system up and running.
Also, if Intel weren't such a bunch of greedy bastards and insisted on forcing a new motherboard chipset with every new processor they might actually have a chipset out there right now that could be used with the sandy bridge chips. Sure, the chipset might not be as fast as the new one but at least there would an option and an interim solution. Since they wanted it all, they lose it all too. The processors are of dubious usefulness without a chipset to run them on so they've essentially recalled two new products.
I had made up my mind to buy a sandybridge and H67 board this week actually...I guess I'm back to sitting on my hands.
Yeah, but you're talking about a few WEEKS until the problem is fixed for most people......
honestly my sister was just looking into buying a PC and its hard to even TELL from the mfrs websites which i5s they are using (760s vs 2300s etc). It wasn't as if Dell, HP etc all trumpeted on Jan 9 "HELLO EVERYONE WE ARE DOING AWAY WITH CRAPPY OLD CORE i5s - COME AND GET THE GREAT NEW i5 2300s!"
Intel is being smart - deal with this swiftly and minimize the reputational issues. Dell and HP will still be selling plenty of "Core i5" systems over the next month - they just won't be SB systems for a short time.......