In essence, Intel identified a problem with the SATA 3 Gb/s on its Cougar Point chipsets last week. SATA 6 Gb/s ports are unaffected. The issue is hardware-related and requires a silicon-based fix at the metal layer, which of course means that all of the currently-shipping P67- and H67 –based motherboards are affected. It’s severe enough, especially for the enthusiast community most likely to be populating multiple SATA ports and pushing heavier I/O workloads that we’d want to recommend holding off on Sandy Bridge-based builds until boards with a fixed version of the chipset ships out. This will happen within “weeks,” according to Intel, as motherboard vendors will start getting updated core logic in late February for a full volume recovery in April.

Update: Jimmy sent us a chat log with an Intel customer service representative indicating that this recall only affects "some desktop boards based on Intel P67 chipset," that the H67 chipset boards appear to not be affected, but that the company doesn't have a comprehensive list yet. We've certainly seen cases where CSRs don't have all the info in this sort of situation, but still we'd advise waiting a bit before tearing your new mobo out and bringing it back to the store.

so are the processors in Laptops affected???

oh crap , i was wanting to buy new lappy wif Sb ...huhu

yeah me too.. this is a total pain in the butt 

- If you've bought a Sandy Bridge system, you may be entitled to a free replacement.

Manufacturers told us that revised motherboards and notebooks based are unlikely to appear until at least April of this year, and Intel probably won't be supplying new chipset revisions until early to mid-March. However, replacements are unclear as manufacturers are informing us that details need to be worked out with Intel on how customers will be handled.

Intel claims that only 5-percent of Sandy Bridge owners will experience the flaw. But speaking with manufacturers, we were told that numbers appear to be far greater than that. Some companies told us that this is definitely a "panic-mode" situation for them.

Motherboards that you already have today will still work, but you may see performance drop over time.

- If you're thinking about a Sandy Bridge system, you will have to wait until at least April.

Clearly, buying a Sandy Bridge system isn't what anyone should be doing at this moment.

- Desktops, notebooks, servers are all affected.

This is a widespread problem affecting all products that are based on Sandy Bridge. Notebooks and up-coming Xeon-based servers may take longer than motherboards to see replacements become widely available.

- Expect delays in new availability.

Some companies told us that there is some shortage of copper and other materials from the manufacturing side. This could further introduce delays beyond an April time frame.

- Sandy Bridge updates.

Intel is expected to hold several conference calls with major manufacturers today and let them know how the situation will be handled. We'll have more details for you later this afternoon.

The shop is Stygix.

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Added on February 26, 2011, 11:10 pmI'm still waiting for the HP dv6 to come 

Dont think la.. Hahahah.. Need to confirm this hp dv6 or asus n53sn.

According to notebookcheck.net's notebook GPU comparison chart, GT550M is more powerful.