Feb 1, 2011 13:01 GMT  ·  By
Gigabyte stops shipping Intel 6-series motherboards, plans RMA strategy - Gigabyte high end GA-P67A-UD7 motherboard pictured
   Gigabyte stops shipping Intel 6-series motherboards, plans RMA strategy - Gigabyte high end GA-P67A-UD7 motherboard pictured

News about the SATA problems encountered by Intel with its P67 and H67 Sandy Bridge chipsets caught many motherboard manufacturers off guard, Gigabyte being one of the first to react to this bug by stopping board shipments until a final decision is reached.

Gigabyte is planning some sort of RMA for users that have one of these new boards, but the company didn't manage to sort out all the details on such a short notice.

“For the 6-series boards, we have stopped shipping boards out from our warehouse,” said one Gigabyte USA official to the Legit Reviews website.

“All our sales has informed all our channels, resellers, distributors to stop selling the 6-series boards.

“The management is discussing with our HQ to find out more detailed solutions and will keep you updated later today,” continued the company's rep.

Recently, Intel announced that it had identified a problem in their Sandy Bridge chipsets that could lead to SATA performance degrading over time, as well as to data corruption.

As a result Intel has stopped shipments of the chipsets and has begun manufacturing a new revision of the PCH (presumably a C stepping) that should eliminate the problem.

However, it may take some time until production is ramped up and the chipset is available in large enough quantities to meet the demands of OEMs and motherboard manufacturers.

This means that a month or two could pass until Gigabyte, and other producers, could start RMAs for their boards.

Right now, Gigabyte has no less than 14 motherboards based on Intel 6-series chipsets, code-named Cougar Point, including the high end GA-P67A-UD7 that retails for about $330 US.

All these models are affected by Intel's SATA bug and should be covered by Gigabyte's RMA procedure once the company decides how to deal with this issue.