Intel 6 series

The Intel 6 series is a series of motherboard chipsets from Intel and the successor to the Intel 5 series . The new chipset series, which is also led under the code name "Cougar Point", became necessary because the processors of the Sandy Bridge generation presented at the beginning of January 2011 are incompatible with the old chipset series.

description

The chipsets of the 6 series are based on the two-chipset design of the previous generation, whereby the actual mainboard chipset only consists of a single PCH chip ( Platform Controller Hub ), which is still produced in the 65 nm manufacturing process. All previous models are designed for socket 1155 (H2), which is necessary for the operation of the Sandy Bridge processors. The biggest technical change compared to its predecessors is the full connection of PCI Express 2.0, whose eight ports can now work with up to 5 GT / s (instead of 2.5 GT / s), as well as native support for the SATA standard 6 GBit / s.

A special feature of the new chipset series is that almost all the timings of the bus clock (engl. Bus Clock , abbr. BCLK) of the processor are coupled. As a result, the previous overclocking by lifting the front side bus or BCLK is practically no longer possible. Instead, a processor with an open multiplier is now required (K series). This open multiplier can only be adjusted if the chipset supports the "Intel Extreme Tuning" feature, which was initially only the case on the P67.

All processors of socket 1155 (H2) have an integrated graphics unit for which the chipset must have the "Flexible Display Interface" to operate. This supports the formats DVI , HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort (with HDCP). The only chipset that does not have this feature is the P67 chipset. However, since this is required for overclocking, the customer first had to choose between the integrated graphics unit and "Intel Extreme Tuning". This fact was resolved on May 11, 2011 with the Z68 chipset, which has both "Intel Extreme Tuning" and the "Flexible Display Interface" and is the only one that supports SSD caching.

Technical problems

On January 31, 2011, after information from an OEM manufacturer, Intel discovered a hardware bug in the chipset that led to a delivery stop. Due to a design flaw in the development of the PCH chip (Platform Controller Hub), a transistor is supplied with too high a voltage and accordingly ages faster. This can lead to errors in data transmission on the SATA-II ports (3 GBit / s), but the SATA-III ports (6 GBit / s) are not affected. All PCH chips in B2 stepping are affected by this bug. Since this was the only revision that had come onto the market until the error was discovered, all mainboards previously delivered for the 1155 socket were affected. Nevertheless, Intel stated that the failure rate was “only” 5% to 15% within three years. From March 2011, the PCH chip was delivered to the mainboard manufacturer in the corrected B3 stepping. Intel puts the total damage at around one billion US dollars.

Model overview

Desktop versions
Chipset	Official launch	base	System bus	PCIe 2.0		PCI	USB ports	Serial ATA ports			PATA	Intel Extreme Tuning	Flexible display interface	TDP
				CPU	Chipset			SATA-II (300 MB / s)	SATA-III (600 MB / s)	supported RAID modes
B65	Feb. 20, 2011	1155 (H2)	DMI 2.0	1 × 16 lanes	8 lanes	Yes	12 (2.0)	5	1	no	No	No	Yes	6.1 W
H61	Feb. 20, 2011	1155 (H2)	DMI 2.0	1 × 16 lanes	6 lanes	No	10 (2.0)	4th	no	no	No	No	Yes	6.1 W
H67	Jan. 9, 2011	1155 (H2)	DMI 2.0	1 × 16 lanes	8 lanes	No	14 (2.0)	4th	2	0, 1, 0 + 1, 5, JBOD	No	No	Yes	6.1 W
P67	Jan. 9, 2011	1155 (H2)	DMI 2.0	1 × 16 or 2 × 8 lanes	8 lanes	No	14 (2.0)	4th	2	0, 1, 0 + 1, 5, JBOD	No	Yes	No	6.1 W
Q67	Feb. 20, 2011	1155 (H2)	DMI 2.0	1 × 16 lanes	8 lanes	Yes	14 (2.0)	4th	2	0, 1, 0 + 1, 5, JBOD	No	No	Yes	6.1 W
Z68	May 11, 2011	1155 (H2)	DMI 2.0	1 × 16 or 2 × 8 lanes	8 lanes	No	14 (2.0)	4th	2	0, 1, 0 + 1, 5, JBOD	No	Yes	Yes	6.1 W
Mobile versions
HM65	Q1 2011	PGA988 (G2) BGA 1023	DMI 2.0	1 × 16 lanes	8 lanes	Yes	12 (2.0)	4th	2	no	No	No	Yes	3.9 W
HM67	Q1 2011	PGA988 (G2) BGA 1023	DMI 2.0	1 × 16 lanes	8 lanes	Yes	14 (2.0)	4th	2	0, 1, 0 + 1, 5, 10	No	Yes	Yes	3.9 W
QM67	Feb. 20, 2011	PGA988 (G2) BGA 1224	DMI 2.0	1 × 16 lanes	8 lanes	Yes	14 (2.0)	4th	2	0, 1, 0 + 1, 5, 10	No	Yes	Yes	3.9 W
QS67	Feb. 20, 2011	PGA988 (G2) BGA 1224	DMI 2.0	1 × 16 lanes	8 lanes	Yes	14 (2.0)	4th	2	0, 1, 0 + 1	No	Yes	Yes	3.4 W

Web links

• Model overview at HardTecs4U.net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Test: Intel “Sandy Bridge” chipsets (page 15). ComputerBase , January 3, 2011, accessed January 5, 2011 . 
2. ↑ Intel Z68 in the test: New motherboard chip for Sandy Bridge - SSD caching, Lucid Virtu and OC potential tested. PC Games Hardware, May 11, 2011, accessed May 11, 2011 . 
3. ↑ More details on Intel's chipset fiasco. ComputerBase, February 1, 2011, accessed February 1, 2011 . 
4. ↑ Intel® B65 Express Chipset. (No longer available online.) Intel ARK, archived from the original on January 12, 2011 ; accessed on January 5, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Intel® H61 Express Chipset. (No longer available online.) Intel ARK, archived from the original on March 26, 2011 ; accessed on March 7, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Intel® H67 Express Chipset. (No longer available online.) Intel ARK, archived from the original on January 12, 2011 ; accessed on January 5, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Intel® P67 Express Chipset. (No longer available online.) Intel ARK, archived from the original on January 10, 2011 ; accessed on January 5, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Intel® Q67 Express Chipset. (No longer available online.) Intel ARK, archived from the original on January 12, 2011 ; accessed on January 5, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ Intel® Z68 Express Chipset. (No longer available online.) Intel ARK, archived from the original on July 4, 2011 ; accessed on June 29, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ Mobile Intel® HM65 Express Chipset. (No longer available online.) Intel ARK, archived from the original on January 15, 2011 ; accessed on January 31, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ Mobile Intel® HM67 Express Chipset. (No longer available online.) Intel ARK, archived from the original on January 15, 2011 ; accessed on January 31, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ Mobile Intel® QM67 Express Chipset. (No longer available online.) Intel ARK, archived from the original on January 15, 2011 ; accessed on January 31, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ Mobile Intel® QS67 Express Chipset. (No longer available online.) Intel ARK, archived from the original on January 15, 2011 ; accessed on January 31, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

predecessor	Office	successor
Intel 5 series	Intel 6 series	Intel 7 series