Assuming you can get the board(since they should all be recalled by now), yes you'll be able to swap it out for a fixed board.(It isn't guaranteed that we'll get a Z68 or a higher model board)

As for the SATA ports, you'll do fine using the SATA6.0gbps ports, although you can still use the SATA 3.0gbps ports for optical drives while waiting for the swap.

If you read the whole article, you could tell that its only for OEM's who distribute systems that are not affected by the designed flaw. ie - Notebooks or PC systems that don't use more than 2 SATA ports(with ports 0+1 being SATA3/SATA 6.0gbps).

If they need more ports with the systems, they could just use a secondary controller.(Marvell for instance)

The position hasn't changed for us consumers, ie - SB ASUS, MSI, etc motherboard owners.

I don't think you can compare this case with cars, since we know the flaw is isolated only to SATA II ports and does not affect the functionality of the whole system. A spare tyre included in every car is a backup for the existing working tyres, in this case the ports available will most likely not even include the faulty Intel PCH SATAII chipsets.

Only two Intel SATAIII ports, plus the addition of other ports using a third party controller(Marvell) like I mentioned before.

If the systems won't ever make use of these ports, there is no reason not to use these chips. It would be a shame not to salvage them. Win-win situation for Intel and their OEM customers.

This is no different than die harvesting CPUs or GPUs.

Remember soft-modding gpu cards , ie ATI 9500->9700, that was a hit and miss, they were basically stripped down of their original full spec & functionality but served their purpose as a lower tier product. More recently unlocking cores on AMD, etc.

This post has been edited by Zakov: Feb 9 2011, 11:18 PM

The TS of this thread should edit the OP with the important details regarding SB(and the chipset issue of course) so that people would stop asking the same question over and over.

This post has been edited by Zakov: Feb 10 2011, 12:38 PM

Either way, if you're not doing extensive testing or using the port up to its full bandwith you should be safe to use HDDs/SSDS on the SATA2 ports while waiting for the replacement board.

But if you have doubts, using an Optical Drive only on the affected ports is the best solution if you don't have enough SATA3 slots to use.

This post has been edited by Zakov: Feb 10 2011, 07:51 PM

But in general, I don't think a lot of people(the average joe schmuck that doesn't have a clue about Intel processors, chipsets, yadayada) are even aware of Sandy Bridge.

They're generally known as the 2nd Generation Core processors but I'm sure not many even know the difference of it between regular Core i3/i5/i7 processors. And the shops in LYN are still selling the boards from what I heard, I'm not certain if they even mention about the defect to their customers.

So in general, those who are aware of the issue might as well have read more about it. But this is just my POV, you can't predict people.

But I do agree with yer on the marketing part, since the word 'defect' does deter people from purchasing a product.

But the OEMs can easily do something like remove access to the flawed SATA ports and replace them with ports from a third party controller.
And they can just slap a tag or sticker that says "Fault free SATA ports" or any gimmick that would make people feel safe to purchase the product
To a certain extent, kinda like the "Y2K OK" PCs.

This post has been edited by Zakov: Feb 11 2011, 02:59 PM

Troublesome innit?
I guess this is one of the 'perks' of being an early adopter.

I think I'm just gonna wait until April then swap at the MSI office. Might as well get the free SATA card and get it over with. Don't want to make any extra trips.

This post has been edited by Zakov: Mar 11 2011, 02:25 PM