Intel had to test the boards in a thermal lab at beyond recommended volts to even see this issue. I think people need to get a reality check as a well ventilated case running standard volts through the SATA ports, will not cause an issue.
The issue that was reported
to Intel in the first place by OEMs?
Intel merely confirmed the fault by artificially accelerating the speed at which it manifests (increased voltage, increased heat, increased load). The defect by definition will cause gradual degradation simply from voltage being applied to the circuit - which means
every consumer with a B2 revision chip would eventually end up with malfunctioning or dead SATA 2 ports.
To be brutally honest I think people are bringing up this "5-15% affected within 3 years" quote and putting their own spin on it to suit whichever agenda or misconception they have. "5-15% affected" is an estimate based on usage patterns of SATA ports, people who never use more than 2 drives will never see the problem, and people who use all of them heavily (video processing, etc) will see the problem much sooner. What is unequivocal in my mind is that anyone who has a B2 board will see the problem eventually.
I'm not an electrical engineer but I can understand that fundamentally a circuit that receives a voltage during normal operation that is higher than it can handle, resulting in leakage, is going to result eventually in component damage. This "excessive voltage" is received during normal operation - i.e. just using the ports. Eventually it will degrade leading to error-correction going mad (and degraded performance), and then finally stop working completely. Intel have said this unequivocally.
No disrespect but "will not cause an issue" is plainly wrong unless you simply never use (and disable, to ensure no voltage is passed through circuit) the SATA 2 ports at all.
