PowerNotebooks.com - Laptop & Notebook News & Articles

Links:
Articles Home
Category Index

Intel Sandy Bridge platform RECALLED - Sager

31 January, 2011 in

As of January 31st Intel announced that it has ceased production on the Intel 6 series "Sandy Bridge" chipset which affects all Generation 2 (i7-2xx0) processors due to a quality issue. See: http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2011/01/31/intel-identifies-chipset-design-error-implementing-solution

Intel has now issued a worldwide order to stop all shipments of computers with this chipset and will be issuing a recall in the next few months because extreme stress testing showed there was at least a 5% chance that within 3 years you would see degradation of performance, or even failure, of your SATA II Optical Drive and/or eSATA ports. This is not an immediate risk, but could happen over several months or years.

As a result:

1. Sager and Clevo (the Sager shell manufacturer) have decided that they will halt all pending shipments of Intel 6 series Sandy Bridge chipset systems. These models include the Sager NP5160, NP5170, NP8130, NP8150, NP8170. (Clevo: W150HNQ, W170HN, P150HM, P151HM1, P170HM).

2. Starting in the middle of Feb 2011, Intel will begin supplying qualification samples of the new revision of the Intel 6 Sandy Bridge series chipset to Clevo. Clevo R&D and QC will make it their first priority to test and qualify this new chip revision and prepare for mass production.

3. The mass production version of the revised Intel 6 series chipset is scheduled to begin delivery from Intel to Clevo in limited quantities at the end of Feb 2011. Sager estimates that they will resume limited quantity shipments of Sager models NP8130, NP8150, and NP8170 in the middle of March 2011 and limited quantity shipments of NP5160, NP5170 models sometime between the end of March and the beginning of April 2011. Stabilization of shipments for all models should occur by the end of April 2011.

So, the question is, should I still place a new order, or cancel my pre-order?

Since the Intel 2nd Generation Core i7 processors have shown great potential in performance gain in many areas, supply was already on a very tight inventory control. This recall will further restrict supply through the first half of 2011, meaning the longer you wait to place your order, or if you cancel your pre-order, the longer it will take to get one. Our suggestion is that if you do not have any urgent need of a new system, you should place your new order, or keep your pre-order, because if you cancel now, or wait to place a new order, you will have to start at the end of the pre-order list. It doesn't happen often, but this is a case where patience, while stressful, will pay off.

However if you need a new laptop sooner, we still have all of the Generation 1 Intel Core i7 based models available.

Please feel free to call us toll free at 877-711-1777 between 9:00AM to 6:00PM with any questions, or to discuss the alternatives.