Intel have just announced a design flaw in their Sandy bridge chipsets, meaning that any computer produced by any manufacturer containing a H67/P67 chipset is affected.
If your computer contains an Intel Core i5/i7 2400, 2500, 2500k, 2600 or 2600k you may be affected by this:
http://newsroom.intel.com/community...es-chipset-design-error-implementing-solution
We are very sorry to report this issue although it is totally beyond our control.
Solutions - If you have received your computer.
Any customers who have received their computers are well within their rights to return the computer to us under warranty. As the press release states the problem is a possibility of a degredation of the chipset over time, and it effects hard drives and optical drives connected to SATA 3GB/s ports only. It will not cause the drives to fail - it's the SATA ports on the motherboard that are the problem. If your hard drives are connected to SATA 6GB/s ports you are not affected by this, but your optical drives (DVD/CD/Blu-ray drives) will be. Please continue to use your computer as normal - the performance at the moment will not be affected.
What to do? For now, please don't do anything. We will contact you if you are affected once a solution is in place. Because the new chipsets won't be ready until at least the end of February, there is no point returning your computer now. Once the chipsets are ready you will be able to return your computer to us and we will replace the motherboard with a suitable defect free ASUS model. If you don't want the hassle of returning your computer there will possibly be an easy solution. Because it's only the SATA 3GB/s ports that are affected, we may be able to send you a PCI/PCI-E SATA card, which you can install into a PCI/PCI-E slot and connect your hard drives/optical drives to. This is most likely the preferred choice for most customers, and once we confirm this as a workable solution we will contact you with further information.
Solutions - If you have placed an order but not yet received it.
Because all motherboards currently available contain the defective chipset, and the new chipset will not be available until the end of February, you have a choice on what to do:
1. Amend your order to a chipset other than Sandy Bridge, for example an i7-950 based PC.
2. Amend your order to ensure that your hard drives and optical drives are only connected to SATA 6GB/s ports. If your motherboard has only 2 x SATA 6GB/s ports, then the total drives available would be 2. SATA 6GB/s ports are not affected by this issue.
3. We may be able to install a PCI/PCI-E SATA card into the system and connect your drives to this. The only downside to this would be the loss of a spare PCI/PCI-E port. For most customers, this will be the best solution if it becomes workable because otherwise your order will be delayed by at least 1 month, possibly longer. Given that Sandy Bridge are priced very well and the fastest performing processors available, this is a small compromise to ensure you still receive the latest and greatest system possible.
As always we will work with all our customers to provide the best customer service possible, and although a solution is not immediately available we will work to put this right as quickly as possible. Please however refrain from contacting us at present unless you wish to cancel your order - we will contact you as soon as we are in a position to offer a suitable solution. Remember that your computer will work problem free at the moment and it's only in the future that you may notice any effect - you might never notice anything. Not a single failure has been reported in the UK at present, it is Intel who have discovered the possibility of a problem.
Timescales
You should expect to hear from us in the next 1-2 weeks, with a solution being made available in early March.
As this issue has only just been discovered, it is likely that the exact details and possibly the solutions will change.
If your computer contains an Intel Core i5/i7 2400, 2500, 2500k, 2600 or 2600k you may be affected by this:
http://newsroom.intel.com/community...es-chipset-design-error-implementing-solution
We are very sorry to report this issue although it is totally beyond our control.
Solutions - If you have received your computer.
Any customers who have received their computers are well within their rights to return the computer to us under warranty. As the press release states the problem is a possibility of a degredation of the chipset over time, and it effects hard drives and optical drives connected to SATA 3GB/s ports only. It will not cause the drives to fail - it's the SATA ports on the motherboard that are the problem. If your hard drives are connected to SATA 6GB/s ports you are not affected by this, but your optical drives (DVD/CD/Blu-ray drives) will be. Please continue to use your computer as normal - the performance at the moment will not be affected.
What to do? For now, please don't do anything. We will contact you if you are affected once a solution is in place. Because the new chipsets won't be ready until at least the end of February, there is no point returning your computer now. Once the chipsets are ready you will be able to return your computer to us and we will replace the motherboard with a suitable defect free ASUS model. If you don't want the hassle of returning your computer there will possibly be an easy solution. Because it's only the SATA 3GB/s ports that are affected, we may be able to send you a PCI/PCI-E SATA card, which you can install into a PCI/PCI-E slot and connect your hard drives/optical drives to. This is most likely the preferred choice for most customers, and once we confirm this as a workable solution we will contact you with further information.
Solutions - If you have placed an order but not yet received it.
Because all motherboards currently available contain the defective chipset, and the new chipset will not be available until the end of February, you have a choice on what to do:
1. Amend your order to a chipset other than Sandy Bridge, for example an i7-950 based PC.
2. Amend your order to ensure that your hard drives and optical drives are only connected to SATA 6GB/s ports. If your motherboard has only 2 x SATA 6GB/s ports, then the total drives available would be 2. SATA 6GB/s ports are not affected by this issue.
3. We may be able to install a PCI/PCI-E SATA card into the system and connect your drives to this. The only downside to this would be the loss of a spare PCI/PCI-E port. For most customers, this will be the best solution if it becomes workable because otherwise your order will be delayed by at least 1 month, possibly longer. Given that Sandy Bridge are priced very well and the fastest performing processors available, this is a small compromise to ensure you still receive the latest and greatest system possible.
As always we will work with all our customers to provide the best customer service possible, and although a solution is not immediately available we will work to put this right as quickly as possible. Please however refrain from contacting us at present unless you wish to cancel your order - we will contact you as soon as we are in a position to offer a suitable solution. Remember that your computer will work problem free at the moment and it's only in the future that you may notice any effect - you might never notice anything. Not a single failure has been reported in the UK at present, it is Intel who have discovered the possibility of a problem.
Timescales
You should expect to hear from us in the next 1-2 weeks, with a solution being made available in early March.
As this issue has only just been discovered, it is likely that the exact details and possibly the solutions will change.
