TR Forums

So, you pays your money and your get...

I do understand failures are unlikely in the next few weeks, but there seems to be a workaround for most of my needs on this board. (only 2 SATA connections short if I don't use the 3GB/s blue ports).

I figure I should run my boot SSD (which is 6 GB) and my data HDD (3 GB/s) off the gray 6GB/s Intel SATA ports, and my two DVD drives off the navy blue Marvel 6GB/s ports. This works but for how to connect my backup SATA HDD drive.... The other option is to leave the DVDs or just the less used one in a SATA 3 onboard port (since it is rarely used).

The separate PCI SATA add on boards mentioned in the TR suggestions from yesterday all seem very poorly reviewed on Newegg and seem often tricky to get right. (I spend a day and a half getting this board to work well enough, though all parts were good - but the board!)

This sound like a plan?? - also intended to perhaps help out anyone else in this situation.

I am very glad I kept my old box for the RMA period to come...

If you do decide to get an add-in card, you'll want a PCIe card instead of PCI.

PCI-E cards will be faster, as per JAE's post, and yes you can easilly drop one in if you want, but I probably would not. If your that worried about it, you will be able to get your motherboard replaced for free, so why not do that?

I think this issue has been overhyped. Intel has said that only *some* of the SATA 3G ports *may* degrade overtime. See those keywords there: some & may. It doesn't say all and will

It could mean in the real world that only 1-2% of the boards out there will ever have this problem. Furthermore, it's conditional on you having the board for a good 2-3 years anyway. On the flipside, it could mean that signifficantly more boards will fail, but only Intel know this, and clearly they will not say.

I applaud Intel's reaction to this, but still feel it's been made to sound like a bigger issue than it really is.

The press release said that 15% of systems would be affected in a typical usage pattern.

I'm not even sure if much more than 15% of all PCs use more than two SATA devices.

Hi. Yeah, PCIe is better. Thanks. I do understand the problem is a potential and unlikely soon, or for many. Still, I'd rather not have my data be full of errors. I do think Intel has been responsible and the exchanges will be forthcoming.

So, as memetest runs I read the manual and found the Marvell controller is just for HDDs and not for atapi devices. Hmm. So the SSD and the HDD shoukd go to the navy blue Marvell SATA 6 Gb/s ports and the ATAPI to the gray Intels? There is no text suggesting they will not support an ATAPI device with its signals to open and eject, etc. We'll see after memtest.

As noted, I am trying to figure this out for 1 ssd, 2 hdds and 2 dvd burners (1 dvd only if need be). My hope is others may find it useful and not need to read all the fine print.

Thanks.

I ordered my stuff sunday night, it'll be here tomorrow/thursday. Just a few moments ago NewEgg sent me this auto-email.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you. Newegg has recently become aware of a design issue that is affecting recent models of Intel Sandy Bridge platform motherboards. We are working with Intel to identify the exact nature of this problem.

As always, Newegg remains 100% committed to our customers' total satisfaction. In keeping with our commitment to our customers, we are extending the return period for your motherboard by 90 days or until replacements become available from the manufacturer, whichever is greater. Intel expects to have a new revision of the P67 & H67 chipsets out around April, at which point first-run motherboards with this issue will need to be physically replaced in affected systems.

From a technical standpoint, the design issue can be bypassed fairly simply by not using the Serial ATA (SATA) ports that are affected. Your motherboard’s manual should identify your SATA ports by number, and at a minimum you should see ports 0-5 (6 ports in total) listed. Ports 0 and 1 are Sata Rev. III (6Gbps), and do not appear to be affected by this problem. Ports 2-5 are SATA Rev. II (3Gbps) and should not be used. For a thorough explanation of this hardware work-around, please refer to our video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJcE2alQPvY

If you choose to use the hardware work-around option, there is no need to contact us at this time. We have your information on record and will email you as soon as the replacements become available. If you would like to discuss this with our tech community or read up on the latest updates, please visit our EggXpert forum:
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/682006.aspx

If none of the above options are suitable to your needs and you wish to return the board at this time for a full refund, please email us at [email protected] and include your sales order number so we can help you out with your return.

If you have any concerns, please contact Newegg Customer Service for further information and assistance.

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Your Newegg.com Customer Service Team

Kudos to Newegg for being proactive. I've generally been pretty impressed with their customer service.

Personally, I think the Intel 3Gbps ports should be fine for the optical drives. They are accessed far less often, and require less bandwidth than the main storage devices.

yuhong wrote:

Personally, I think the Intel 3Gbps ports should be fine for the optical drives. They are accessed far less often, and require less bandwidth than the main storage devices.

That depends on whether the failure is related to usage of the port, or just having the interface powered up.