Hello everyone,

Back in January, in this post, I wrote about the new Intel second generation processors (Sandy Bridge). I couldn’t wait to “get my hands” on one of these fantastic new Core i3, i5, and i7 chips. The following month I wrote another post gushing specifically about the absolutely awesome second generation Core i5. I personally was “drooling” over the 3.3GHz Core i5 2500K.

But then, as you probably already know, the bottom fell out! The motherboards (chipsets) for the awesome Sandy Bridge CPUs were found to be defective. The SATA 3Gb/s ports were prone to fail over time, and Intel pulled the production plug. Intel had to pay millions of dollars to replace the bad chipset and the systems that were affected by the bad boards.

The good news is that the issue has been fixed now for some time. To avoid any confusion, look for motherboards that have a “B3” designation on the outside of the manufacturers box as well as inside on the CPU (motherboard) itself. The defective boards were designated as “B2” motherboards, but after the recall, fix, and re-release the new labeling is “B3”.

Professor Randy says: Now you can fully enjoy the incredible Intel second generation Sandy Bridge CPUs. The defective motherboard problem has been fixed! You can know for sure by looking for the “B3” logo (designation) on the box, on the CPU (motherboard) itself, and in the product specifications.