MSI and ASUS begin Shipping Updated 6-series Chipsets

Ever since Intel outed a flaw in their Cougar Point, or 6-series, chipsets that supported the Socket 1155 processors (Second Generation Core processors, codenamed Sandy Bridge) and announced a massive recall that would cause upto a billion dollars in losses, motherboard manufacturers have been in a mad rush to get the updated motherboards that wouldn’t face the problem. These mobos were named the B3-stepping models, and wouldn’t be affected by the SATA issue that plagued the B2 revisions.

Be Ready

Intel were supposed to have the new motherboards out by the end of Q1 2011, but it looks like the shipments have been leaving ahead of schedule. ASUS and MSI have announced that they’ve begun shipping the B3-stepping motherboards, which means they will available in stores very shortly. Both manufacturers have opted to make the B3-stepping label very easy to see in their packaging, in order to ease potential buyers’ confusion.

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One of their biggest competitors, Gigabyte, has announced that it’s going to go the extra mile though. Their versions of the new motherboards will have a completely different naming scheme so as to make them easily differentiable from the earlier models.

This is very good news for PC enthusiasts, because those planning to upgrade to Sandy Bridge processors can now do so without having to worry about major issues.