sandy-bridge posts

If you just bought and received a new gaming PC with an Intel-based chipset you might want to pay attention to this news story. Intel's launch of its new Series 6 chipset has run into a major issue. The company announced today that the new chipset, which supports Intel's new "Sandy Bridge" based second generation Intel Core processors, has a design error. According to Intel's press release, "In some cases, 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." The Sandy Bridge processors themselves are not affected by this issue.

Intel has now halted production of its Series 6 chipsets and will release a new version with the design error corrected in late February with mass production expected in April. While Intel states that in its opinion, "relatively few consumers are impacted by this issue" it is working with PC makers who have shipped out systems with the affected chipsets for returns, modifications and replacements. Intel expects that fixing this issue will cost the company $700 million and it has lowered its first quarter 2011 financial guidance down by $300 million.

Earlier this week, Intel revealed its new next generation Core processors and since then PC makers have been sending out press releases by the bucket load announcing their new PC systems with the new chips installed. But the folks at Origin PC have something for the hardcore gaming PC crowd that should turn some heads.

During CES 2011 Origin PC announced that its Genesis and The Big O gaming PC rigs (The Big O also, as some of you may remember, has a working Xbox 360 inside its case) will not only have the new Core i5 and i7 processors from Intel but they will also have support for overclocking up to and over 5.0 GHz. We think you will agree that's pretty speedy.

[Via email press release]

Intel still is the number one maker of PC desktop and laptop processors and today, just ahead of CES 2011 later this week, the company officially announced its next generation version of its Core processors which until now were known by its code name Sandy Bridge.

Intel's official name for the processor family is the rather dull Intel Core 2011. It will keep the i3, i5 and i7 naming structure but, according to our sister site Engadget, there's a lot new under the hood, including putting the processor, memory controller, and integrated graphics on the same die. You can expect a ton of announcements from PC desktop and laptop makers, including gaming PC makers, this week about using the new Core 2011 processors.