new i5 CPUs and motherboards

[ianhind]

Having read how good the new Intel i5 CPUs perform (i5-2300, i5-2400, i5-2500, i5-2500K) in comparison to even the previous top of the range i7s, I thought it was about time to consider upgrading and started to price the components. But today I read about problems with the motherboards needed for these CPUs (H67, P67). http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379241,00.asp

So it's just the SATA2 ports that might become faulty! Since there are no IDE ports on these motherboards, SATA is the only way to connect the hard disks and DVD-RW. Looks like if you have more than 2 disks to connect (to the unaffected 2 x SATA3 problems), you might have problems. [Note: I see Scan.co.uk has a warning about the motherboards which suggest 2 x SATA2 ports might be ok as well]

I was just wishing I had waited to upgrade my wife's PC (she now has an i5-760) but on reflection, the pain involved in
a) negotiating for a replacement motherboard
b) persuading SWMBO that she needs to be without her PC while the motherboard is replaced
c) my wasted time
makes me feel pleased with myself after all.

Anyway if you were considering upgrading, think about all this - if there was heavy discounting of those motherboards, I might just buy one after all.

What does anyone else think about this? Is it going to be a PR disaster for Intel?

Ian

[DaveB]

Don't worry mate.. it's only going to be a 6 percent degradation in speed over 3 years Glad I've not got one!

ATB

DaveB

[ianhind]

Is it only speed degradation?

Gigabyte is trying to sell the story that only users with more than two SATA devices might be affected, as SATA 3 ports are not affected. We like the choice of words where Gigabyte tells its customers that “not so important devices like DVD rom (Nicht so wichtige Geräte (z.B. DVD-ROM) / translated from German press release ed.)” should get attached to SATA 2 affected port. We don’t want to prejudge here but installing from a DVD on a bad SATA 2 port can also result in a very long and bad day.

Note that last sentence - imagine trying to install Windows, FS2004 or whatever from a DVD if there are errors in the SATA port.

[DaveB]

Yes mate.. that's a thought that doesn't stand pondering on. A bit of a huge faux pas by intel me thinks!

ATB

DaveB

[ianhind]

The replacement Sandy Bridge motherboards have started shipping. The key marker is that they are referred to as "B3 stepping".

Since it was initially suggested that the new boards would be widely available in April, they are probably going to be like hen's teeth for now.

By April maybe Intel will be trying to shift CPUs at good prices.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2 ... shipping/1
http://gadgetsteria.com/2011/02/28/giga ... herboards/
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2 ... erboards/1

[jonesey2k]

Was thinking of upgrading soon tbh, my old Q9450 OC'd to 3.4ghz isn't exactly struggling but I've got that itch to build a new PC...

[FlyTexas]

Was thinking of upgrading soon tbh, my old Q9450 OC'd to 3.4ghz isn't exactly struggling but I've got that itch to build a new PC...

I understand that itch. I awoke the other day thinking of building a new PC...I should've slept in. I've named her 'Money Pit'. She's a real screamer but I'll be eating rice and beans for the forseeable future to pay for her.

Brian

[ianhind]

As the time gets nearer when the new motherboards will become generally available, I learnt today that the widely acclaimed i5-2500k and i7-2600k CPUs with their unlocked chipsets will NOT be able to be overclocked in the H67 motherboards. So no point in spending the extra for those chips if you go for an H67 chipset.

To overclock these two CPUs, only the P67 motherboards (more expensive) will allow that.

But the ability to use the onboard graphics (ok so not really applicable here!) is only possible with the H67 motherboards. If you want both options, it seems the recent Z68 chipset will provide that but at probably even higher prices since the motherboards are premium versions.

Looks like I'll be going with an i5-2400 on an H67 motherboard to keep prices reasonable.