Coming in the next couple of months a revised and updated chipset for Intel 8 series motherboards will be releasing for Intel Haswell C2 stepping processors. When Intel Haswell was in its final stages of production before release a flaw was found that affected how USB 3.0 worked. Since all the motherboard manufacturers were neck deep in getting their own motherboards released for the Haswell it was something that couldn’t be fixed before launch.
Intel 8 Series Chipset for Haswell
I have written an article about the issues with Intel Haswell and my source tested 22 different USB 3.0 drives and found horrible results. Here are those results.
Problems withUSB 3.0 and the first Intel 8 Series Chipsets
| Brand | Product | Test |
|---|---|---|
| Adata | S102 Pro Superior Series 32GB | OK |
| Corsair | Flash Survivor Stealth 32GB | OK |
| Corsair | Flash Survivor Stealth 64GB | error |
| Corsair | Flash Voyager GT Short 32GB (USB 3.0) | OK |
| Corsair | Flash Voyager GT Speed 32GB | OK |
| Corsair | Flash Voyager Slider 32GB | error |
| Corsair | Flash Voyager Slider 64GB | error |
| Freecom | Hard Drive Quattro 3.0 1TB USB 3.0 | OK |
| Icidu | Rubber Drive 32GB (USB 3.0) | error |
| Icidu | Slider Fast Flash Drive 32GB | error |
| Icidu | Slider Fast Flash Drive 64GB | error |
| iomega | Prestige 500GB USB 3.0 | error |
| Kingston | HyperX Max 3.0 64GB | error |
| LG | HXD7 500GB USB 3.0 | error |
| Philips | USB Flash Drive Snow Edition 64GB | OK |
| Sandisk | Cruzer Extreme 32GB | error |
| takeMS | MEM-Drive Easy III 64GB | error |
| Team | TP1023 Rico 640GB USB 3.0 | OK |
| Team | X101 USB 3.0 32GB | error |
| Verbatim | Store’n’Go V3 32GB | error |
| Verbatim | Store’n’Go V3 64GB | error |
| WD | My Passport Ultra 500GB USB 3.0 | OK |
Now the biggest issue is if you do let your computer go to sleep and when you wake it up again the USB 3.0 ports will not work or they just will not work all together. While the Intel 8 series revision is being announced today that it will be showing up in September, we still don’t have any hard proof that the new Intel 8 series chipsets will in fact fix this issue. Having said that back before the release of Intel Haswell and the Intel 8 series chipsets, Intel did say they were aware of the issue and working on a fix so after a few months they fixed it.
Intel 8 Series Chipset for Haswell
Information courtesy of digitimes.
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