Would you still risk doing a Sandy Bridge build?

[Krynj]

So the word is out, and everybody is panicking. Although Intel has said only 5% to 15% of P/H67 boards will fail approximately 3 years from now, would you still buy components for a Sandy Bridge build?

I was planning on doing my Sandy Bridge build in February -- hell, I was going to start ordering parts next week. I've even got a buyer lined up for my current rig and everything. But now however, it looks like I might be stuck waiting until April.

I will admit though, if the Egg (or any credible retailer) was still selling CPUs and boards, I'd probably still do my build as planned, and for a couple reasons.

1) I upgrade every two years, at which point I sell off my current build to help cover the cost of the new one. When the time comes to sell my Sandy Bridge build, I could either dish out $100 for the new board just to take care of the buyer, or sell it "as is" at a good price, with of course full disclosure regarding the motherboard (which may not even go bad, as the only SATA II devices I use are for storage. My SSD and VelociRaptor would go on the SATA III ports).

2) I do a lot of 3D rendering, and if you've ever waited 65 hours for a 15 second clip to render, you know the pains of waaaiiiitttiiinnngggg for renders to finish. I'm working on a scene right now that is just killing me. A single frame is taking 3-4 hours, and these times would be reduced by up to 65% by switching to an i7-2600K with a healthy overclock. Rendering stalls productivity so badly, so having my renders finish in less than half the time would be so worth any potential SATA II errors later on down the road. Hell, I could even just buy a new board in the spring or summer as a precautionary measure. I would not mind dishing out the cash for another board. That's how badly I want to reduce render times.

3) If it does fail sooner than expected, I'm covered, and I'll gladly do an advanced replacement. Meanwhile I won't have access to my storage drives, but my SSD and VelociRaptor will still be up and running just fine. 0 loss in productivity.

I can understand why everybody's pulling Sandy Bridge from the shelves, but part of me wishes they'd still offer them up along with some kind of BUYER BEWARE. Kind of sucks that we're not even given the chance to risk it if we're willing to.

So is anybody else in the same boat? I almost pulled the trigger on a board today before everybody started pulling them, but I was too slow. I'm hoping some e-tailers will start stocking them again, but I doubt it. Maybe I should call around to the local shops tomorrow and see what they've got in stock.

If anything, maybe this will drop the prices on other components, since there really is no latest and greatest to buy at the very moment.

 

[Anomaly1964]

I JUST literally finished building mine and the news hit this morning...

...I was flustered at first but now, I'm fine.

Now, if I had not yet purchased everything and the news came out today, I might be a little less...positive?

But like you said, 5-15%, possible 2 years to fail time (if at all)...?

 

[endlessmike133]

at this point you cant even "risk" it because sandy bridge cpus and mobos are being snatched from the market!!!!

 

[Hogan773]

I'll bet someone out there who is affected might want to Ebay their board to you........

 

[Engineer]

I've got everything but the case sitting in my dining room. Haven't even sent in for the rebate on the Biostar board yet (such a good deal $78.xx for a $139.99 board). Want to build it but hate to tear it down and replace the motherboard. Need 3 SATA ports (SSD, HD and burner). Burner will reside on the flawed SATA II ports and in all honesty, won't do much past installation of the OS (if even that - might install from flash).

Since I don't have the case yet, not a huge hurry but the rebate submission date is approaching fast. Need to decide soon.

 

[Anetic]

Like anamoly I woke up this morning to a rather unpleasant suprise as I JUST built this Saturday. However, I feel safe switching over my HDDs to sataIII ports.. dont think Ill ever use the SATAII ports TBH (only reason I did was because I didnt know sataIII was back compatible).

This isnt soo bad. I get to keep top of the line stuff while everyone else has to wait. Then Ill RMA for a new one (might just keep this).

 

[Beavermatic]

Im stuck in motherboard limbo

I got my processor and ram. Distributor was supposed to ship my p67 board out yesterday. As of today, it still hasn't shipped.

That means i could be stuck with my 2600k and ram until april with no motherboard.

 

[paperwastage]

Im stuck in motherboard limbo

I got my processor and ram. Distributor was supposed to ship my p67 board out yesterday. As of today, it still hasn't shipped.

That means i could be stuck with my 2600k and ram until april with no motherboard.

could try to return the processor and ram, and buy it in april

im on a similar boat: bought a 2500k from microcenter, was looking at matx p67 mobos... had a intel DP67DE matx p67 mobo in my cart this morning, but the price gone up $8 now

 

[kevinsbane]

Sandy Bridge Chipset Flaw: Don’t Panic!

A lot of people are returning their Sandy Bridge motherboards (and CPUs) because of this defect, many for good reasons, but many for bad reasons. In my opinion, it is better to keep your system until the fixed motherboards are available, and then RMA the motherboard then.

Good reasons return your SB motherboard:

1. You use many (4+) SATA drives that are sensitive to theoretical data corruption. In other words, you need the additional 4 SATA II ports that are faulty.
2. None of the currently available workarounds are practical or appealing to you.
3. You don’t want to use hardware that has a defect in it, even though it may not affect your operation of the hardware. In other words, you feel that you should not be paying for defective (but functional) parts on principle.
4. Your SB purchase was an impulse buy to begin with and you had reservations already before the chipset bug surfaced. In other words, in was a marginal decision to begin with.
5. You need/want the money. Basically, you’d be better off not having bought Sandy Bridge to begin with.

Most other reasons I can think of to return a SB motherboard are panic reactions that, in my opinion, have a weak logical basis.

Bad reasons:
1. It has a defect, and because it’s defective it must be returned right away even if it works perfectly fine with what you do. If you dislike buying defective hardware on principle, it’s one thing; to knock the SB “fiasco” based on pure practicality is another. If the defect doesn’t affect you, then returning SB just means you lose the use of the computer until you replace it.
2. You&#8217;re simply worried that the defect will corrupt your hard drives. It&#8217;s true that if you do nothing for years, it might. Takes steps now to mitigate the risk, and your risk of losing data to the SATA controller bug is almost certainly less than your risk of a normal hard drive failure. It&#8217;s unlikely the bug will occur to begin with (5-15&#37; over 3 years of use?), it&#8217;s even more unlikely that even if it does occur, it will occur before the new fixed motherboards come out (<3 months), it&#8217;s still more unlikely that even if it occurs before it&#8217;s replaced that it will corrupt data. And, to top it off, there&#8217;s always the SATA 6.0 gbps port which isn&#8217;t affected at all.
3. You want to punish Intel. Personally, I&#8217;d classify this as a bad reason. I doubt you returning your motherboard will do much if anything to punish Intel at this point.

On the other hand, there are also good reasons to keep your Sandy Bridge computer (for now).

1. It&#8217;s basically the fastest (yes yes, 970/980x) affordable platform around currently, and now even more exclusive, since it&#8217;s harder to buy now. So what if the platform&#8217;s got a defect? If you don&#8217;t have anything in the SATA II ports, it won&#8217;t affect you; it&#8217;ll get fixed eventually anyways, and meanwhile, you have something nothing else can affordably touch.
2. The defect is not necessarily essential to the working of your computer, especially if you only use 2-4 SATA devices. Additional workarounds also exist, such as PCI or PCI-e SATA cards.
3. You don&#8217;t have to wait the 1-3 months (or more, if you don&#8217;t want to pay even more for an SB motherboard when they&#8217;re fixed) in the meantime. So you get 1-3 months more use out of your SB machine than anyone else.
4. If you don&#8217;t have a good reason to return your SB motherboard in the first place (see above list), then it creates more hassle for everyone as vendors try to deal with the huge backlog of people trying to return boards for good reasons, for bad reasons and the panickers.
5. You do not have a &#8220;good&#8221; backup computer. Well, this would be personal preference. I&#8217;d rather use a Sandy Bridge over anything older than a Core2 Duo/Athlon.
6. They&#8217;re going to fix it in the next couple months, and you can live with the theoretical risks for that long.

Bad reasons to keep your Sandy Bridge:
1. It&#8217;s only a 5-15% chance of it happening over 3 years. Well, maybe. Intel used a &#8220;synthetic&#8221; way of testing this, and 5-15% is too high to leave to simple chance. If you are going to keep it, then take some simple steps to mitigate the risk.
2. RMA&#8217;s and returns are too much of a hassle. If a fix is available and you are too lazy to apply it, then you&#8217;re responsible for whatever happens. Nothing might happen (see how many crappy PSUs don&#8217;t blow stuff up) but then again, you might get a PSU that fries your motherboard.

Conclusion:
So, I think it&#8217;s obvious that I feel that much of the RMA/return fever is silly. Personally, I think most people haven&#8217;t thought through most of the facts available and are making rash decisions. My theory is that people are hitting the panic button.

I&#8217;m getting a SB i5 2500 system shipped tomorrow, and I personally would love to buy 6-7 more for our office even knowing about the bug. But I know exactly what our needs are, and where the problem lies, and I know that the problems that could arise don&#8217;t outweigh the benefits of having the i5 2500 machines. If you return your SB system, more power to you, but please make it an informed and rational decision!

TLDR:

Do I need the onboard SATA II ports, and want/need them to be absolutely, 100% reliable? If yes, then return and buy something else.

Do I hate the idea of spending money on something that isn&#8217;t 100% working? If yes, then return for a refund.

Do I need the money? If yes, then return for a refund.

Do I feel the hassle of RMAing the board and installing it outweighs the hassle of setting up a new computer? If yes, then return and buy something else.

Otherwise, implement risk mitigation and keep your system until the new, fixed motherboards are available and RMA it then. You just lose a perfectly functional, high performance PC if you return it now.

 

[Hogan773]

+100 - nice writeup

Just reading thru these threads (about 12 hours worth since announcement) it is amazing how many "facts" are being thrown around by the mob mentality

People already "KNOW" that the mobo people are going to leave them high and dry, or that Intel is going to make you PROVE that you have a problem, or that if you don't return to Newegg by 11pm tonight that they will change their mind and slam the door in your face tomorrow.

My first ever build - done Saturday - just finishing loading up the various programs now - PC seems to work fine - am OK running 2 HDDs only on SATA 0 and 1, and my DVD on Sata 2. Plus I still have my old PC which has been working for last 5 years, so when time comes to RMA I am fine if it takes a week.

My only FEAR would be if somehow the recall process ends up costing me money and/or I get a remanufactured board when my current one works great. But it sounds like Intel is going to pay for this, and I wonder whether it won't be easier for the mobo mfrs to just ship brand new mobos and take the old ones and trash them (or send them to Intel in a giant box with a bow on it ) rather than take out soldering iron and pull out a little chip and replace it.

 

[RussianSensation]

3) If it does fail sooner than expected, I'm covered, and I'll gladly do an advanced replacement. Meanwhile I won't have access to my storage drives, but my SSD and VelociRaptor will still be up and running just fine. 0 loss in productivity.

:thumbsup:

The 6-series issue only affects SATA 2 ports. For example, Asus P8P67 boards have 4x SATA 3.0 ports (2 off the chipset and 2 off the Marvell controller).

I see that you have 4 HDDs/SSDs, but I would still grab a SB processor as it's so much superior to everything else. Just connect those 4 drives to the SATA 3.0 ports and connect your DVD-writer to the SATA 2 ports. Worst case scenario your DVD writer stops working. Asus also has advanced replacement for motherboards in the 1st year of warranty. They will send you a new board before you send them your old one. Once the fix is available, you'll have your new board and barely any downtime.

 

[Rifter]

No way would i build a SB system till the new fixed mobo's are out, 15&#37; failure inside of 3 years is astonomically high.

 

[Dangerer]

:thumbsup:

The 6-series issue only affects SATA 2 ports. For example, Asus P8P67 boards have 4x SATA 3.0 ports (2 off the chipset and 2 off the Marvell controller).

I see that you have 4 HDDs/SSDs, but I would still grab a SB processor as it's so much superior to everything else. Just connect those 4 drives to the SATA 3.0 ports and connect your DVD-writer to the SATA 2 ports. Worst case scenario your DVD writer stops working. Asus also has advanced replacement for motherboards in the 1st year of warranty. They will send you a new board before you send them your old one. Once the fix is available, you'll have your new board and barely any downtime.

Yep.. logged on this morning and read all the commotion. Proceeded to turn my comp off and switched my two HDDs and my DVD drive to the SATA 3.0 ports and continued on with my day.

 

[PreferLinux]

I'm planning on buying soon. I had been planning on waiting some, but I don't want to wait 'til April, so I'll possibly buy within the next day or two. It won't affect me, anyway, as I only have one HDD and a DVD burner.

 

[PreferLinux]

:thumbsup:

The 6-series issue only affects SATA 2 ports. For example, Asus P8P67 boards have 4x SATA 3.0 ports (2 off the chipset and 2 off the Marvell controller).

I see that you have 4 HDDs/SSDs, but I would still grab a SB processor as it's so much superior to everything else. Just connect those 4 drives to the SATA 3.0 ports and connect your DVD-writer to the SATA 2 ports. Worst case scenario your DVD writer stops working. Asus also has advanced replacement for motherboards in the 1st year of warranty. They will send you a new board before you send them your old one. Once the fix is available, you'll have your new board and barely any downtime.

Server motherboards only.

 

[james80]

For a lot of people (myself included), there really isn't any risk. Just depends on how many SATA devices you have.

My motherboard (and everything else) shipped out yesterday from Newegg. I'm actually glad it made it out the door before being pulled, otherwise I'd be stuck waiting on boards with the new stepping to be available to get my system up and running. I only have 3 SATA devices (SSD, Velociraptor, BR/DVD), so this has absolutely no impact on me given that my board has 4 SATA 6Gb/s ports. I may end up using the 4th 6gb port at some point, but needing anything beyond that is extremely unlikely.

 

[Caat]

This is so annoying. I was about to start ordering SB components but now I will have to wait.

Sure I could get a MB with 3+ SATA III ports but I am one of those people who don't like paying new prices for things that have a known fault - and the hassle of RMA'ing the board later is too much.

I guess I will have to wait until April. The upside is I'll get to then choose between P67 and Z68 chipsets I suppose!

 

[Manticorps]

Since I already have a Sandy Bridge build, it's rather a moot point, but I would do it all over again. I'm not too terribly concerned about the flaw. I switched my SATA ports and will sleep fine. Of course, I will try to replace the Motherboard when the updated ones are available, but until then, I'm going to enjoy my 2500k and p8p67 pro.

 

[Alaska Wolf]

Apparently I missed an opportunity to buy another super piece of equipment only to return it.

If I had just built it would be annoying, but not world ending. I'd be on the phone getting a deal worked out to either replace the board or get a KickAss discount on a Intel X68 Express when it launches.

 

[Hooptymobile]

Im not an expert on any of this by no stretch of the word or in any literal sense but from I am reading from others and what I can gather (as a result) is :

Intel foots the bill to have manufacturers repair your mobo.

Your particular Mobo manufacturer receives your mobo(replaces the Intel P67 chipset thats faulty (transistor and perhaps ports).

(as for how much it will cost you to ship or even if it will cost you is the unknown variable).

I suspect your motherboard manufacturer purchases the P67 chipset from Intel so for the time being there is going to be somewhat of a disconnect between all 3 parties (you, Intel, your mobo manufacturer) until Intel makes the 1st step at fixing this.

As for Chinese 2 week holidays etc. thats a whole 'nuther can of worms (or icing on the cake for a lack of better words) to add to the situation.

I must admit this is tragic no matter whose perspective you look at it from. Intel takes a hit, manufacters come to a halt of new technology, and the end user is potentially halted of his own devices.

As for the Z68 boards releasing in the near future (there could be a silver lining to this scenario as well)
1) We may have far more higher standard of board as a method of recompensation for an initally flawed product (P67).

2)Rebates are always an option they can use to honor the customer

3)This could have went unchecked and/or affected Z68 as well furthering more damage to half the boards released for 2011.

A couple of guys who posted above are sitting on pc hardware (everything but the board ). Im in the same boat too. Its been a long, seemingly painful process of trying to decide on what board will suit my needs and just when I thought I had informed myself of all the latest boards to make a wise decsion on which to choose then we are all hit with this bombshell.

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks some progress will be made in getting us all in the right direction w/ making right of this all.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Dont worry they are just buying their stocks back cheap

 

[Lonbjerg]

Still waiting for socket 2011...so can others do the beta-testing on the socket 1155

 

[Golgatha]

No way would i build a SB system till the new fixed mobo's are out, 15% failure inside of 3 years is astonomically high.

This. Not a snowball's chance in hell I'd build a Sandy Bridge system right now. My data is too precious to me to even risk a 1% chance of corruption, much less 5-15%.

 

[Spook]

When I purchase a new motherboard, I have to think about the future of the motherboard as well. Sure it starts its life in my primary system, but eventually it ends up in a 2ndary system, and finally in my HTPC most likely. Beyond that the motherboard gets passed on to friends and family.

SO.... I just purchased this motherboard, and they have announced a possible failure (15%) within 3years... First, who is going to take this at face value, its and educated guess, and probably understated to mitigate panic returns... How, am I going to pass this motherboard on, or even sell it in the future with this bug hanging over it. Yes I can RMA the motherboard, maybe, manufacturers haven't come out and said anything yet.

In the end, Im still in my window to salvage my $240 of up front money(ie return) I invested in this turd, and sure, I'll have to wait several months to get a working replacement, at least I still have my previous MB...

Thank God for Win7, and I don't have to do a complete reinstall.

 

[Mem]

at this point you cant even "risk" it because sandy bridge cpus and mobos are being snatched from the market!!!!

Still being sold in the UK,http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=5&subid=1906 .

There are ways around the issue like Anand stated use 6GB ports,another option is get a controller card if you need more ports.

Personally I'm going to wait until April ,by then we should also know more on the Bulldozer as well ,so I should be able to decide what and when I'll be upgrading.