Fixed Intel Sandy Bridge boxes ready to print

The original ‘just in time' philosophy might have been Japanese, but it seems that Intel's engineers are passing around the parable as well. So, how close are they?  KitGuru attaches safety lines and prepares to investigate the bridge.

Working like flayed demons, Intel chipset engineers across the globe have been at it night and day.

So are we close to a solution?

New into our HQ from KitGuru spies in the Far East, tells us that artwork for the new boxes from Gigabyte, MSI and Asus has now been signed off and sent for production.

Significance?

The boxes for the Sandy Bridge chipset mainboards needed to be reprinted with plenty of reassuring messages (and to stop intermediaries, like distributor Ingram Micro, from refusing after-sales support – thinking it might be older/recalled stock).

Just how much of a mountain of printed material does any factory want around?  Not much, we can tell you.

The box designs go to be printed very close to the time they are likely to be used. The revised chipsets should follow into the factors very soon afterwards.

On the major vendors' web sites, the older stock will be clearly labelled. Here's an example from Gigabyte.

That leaves just one question.

With the second generation Intel Core i3 processors due to launch at the end of this weekend, which mainboards will they be running on?

High-end Core i5 and Core i7 boards, from the major brands, all tend to have a secondary 6Gb/sec SATA controller on board, but it's less likely that a feature like this will appear on the kind of boards that would normally be sold with an entry level processor. Surely this will hamper system builders?

KitGuru says: The glitch that was the Sandy Bridge recall is about to right itself. AMD might see a small upsurge in CPU sales for Q1 2011, but the real chance to do long-term damage has probably passed. It's strange that the Core i3 launch has not been adjusted to coincide with the release of 100% working mainboards, but maybe Intel's so keen to push through to Ivy Bridge that it just wants the existing range launches out of the way as fast as possible.

Let us have your thoughts below.

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