X99 on mITX: ASRock X99E-itx/ac

squeek88 said:
I suppose some small factor server boards can be used as workstations. I'm happy my supermicro X10 Dal-i has onboard sound, and also they give you this tiny little speaker dongle that beeps if you dont. I also agree with you with current AMD products but I am talking about their new one coming out which is multicore and supports 3200 standard apparently. Intel,for "marketing reasons" chooses to not sell unlocked xeons which may run at 3200. I prefer to support a competitor instead of a monopoly which has held back computing power for the masses for a very long time. I have never bought a non-intel CPU but I will give them a shot if they are reasonable and support my OS. I'm currently running a 12 core xeon, but the ram is a serious bottleneck due to multiplier lock: basically my computing time is directly correlated to core count and ram speed 1:1
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Supermicro (and other vendors) do make workstation boards, however the previously mentioned one is not. JEDEC standard only goes to 2400mhz like I said, so no ECC memory above that is made. You can buy plenty of desktop RAM on newegg that is rated for more, but don't expect anything ECC at 3200mhz for a very long time.

If you aren't aware, most of Intel's 2011-3 single socket Xeons are unlocked and you can try to push your system as high as you wish. If you need performance, Intel is the only option anyway as you can pretty much discount AMD for anything that isn't budget. They haven't released a server CPU (aside from the low power Jaguar stuff) in nearly 4 years. Feel free to severely gimp your performance though...
 
squeek88 said:
I call BS on this. I have a xeon v3 and it cant overclock. I have even asked guys with mythical overclockable single socket e5 that supposedly could, but it wasn't true in the sense of a truly unlocked multiplier necessary for ram and cpu overclocking. I know guys who buy and sell Xeons looking for this magical creature, so even if they exist it is not easy to find. Intel has truly shut thus door. Good quality ECC ram can be overclocked. I have done a very big and wide search for this problem because ram speed is so important to me because it literally takes many minutes to open and close files, as well as impacting on actual compute time for running my specific problems. Ram speed is very important. Going from DDR3 to DDR4 was massive difference despite what website benchmarks say. I would be happy to run an unlocked 10 core non-xeon using non-ecc at 3200 for some tasks but that would mean a 20% hit in core count for me, partially negating the benefit to 20% which is marginal.
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You have an E5-26xx series since you have a dual socket board. None of those are unlocked. The E5-1650v3 and E5-1680v3 are known to be overclockable. Plenty of reports out there. Here's an example for you: http://i.imgur.com/heuKIQl.jpg
 
ivoryg37 said:
Officially lost on what to do.

Post into bios fine but Motherboard doesn't want to work with any OS

- boot with no sata plugged in
- boot with 3 different GPU
- boot with 4 different stick of Rams
- boot with 3 different PSU
- boot with only USB boot media plugged in
- boot with Ubuntu and Linux mint live(Doesn't even boot for live USB)
- Win 7 and Win 10 freezes at starting window then fans kick on at 100% then PC restarts so I can't even get to the install screen
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The only other things that I can think is to try a different install USB drive, use a different program to load OS ISOs onto the drive, or if applicable, try a BIOS update. Otherwise, it sounds like you have a dud board, with something wrong on the USB or SATA headers.
 
squeek88 said:
I call BS on this.
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Blue Fox said:
You have an E5-26xx series since you have a dual socket board. None of those are unlocked. The E5-1650v3 and E5-1680v3 are known to be overclockable. Plenty of reports out there. Here's an example for you: http://i.imgur.com/heuKIQl.jpg
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Yes, Blue Fox is right. I myself am writing this right now on a 1650v3 system on this very board. It's currently at stock on air in a tiny Ncase M1, but I pushed it to 4.4 GHz on a quick-and-dirty H100i test before installing the mobo in the case. It's a well-known phenomenon in the enthusiast community, but we tend not to shout it too loudly. For one thing, although they are great overclockers, that's not primarily what they are used or designed for, and for another, I think that those of us in on the secret are probably wary of pushing the prices up :) For the right use-case, it's a great chip: it has all of the features of the 5930K, plus ECC compatibility, 12 times the memory capacity, Xeon binning, and VPro support, and at least when I bought mine, the two chips were the same price.
 
Ozymandias said:
The only other things that I can think is to try a different install USB drive, use a different program to load OS ISOs onto the drive, or if applicable, try a BIOS update. Otherwise, it sounds like you have a dud board, with something wrong on the USB or SATA headers.
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Yeah I actually tried 3 different USB drive , CD-Rom internal, and also cd external. I tried every bios on the AsRock website as well. No clue what's wrong with it. The seller has 100% feedback and seem like he isn't lying when he said it was working when he had it. Considering it does post them it has to be the motherboard or my 5820K is a dud. I will see, AsRock approved my RMA even though the invoice was in the seller's name and address. Hopefully they don't pull anything once they receive the motherboard like saying address doesn't match
 
Hi all,

I've seen several users on this forum using the AsRock X99E-itx/ac with Noctua's NH-C14 cooler.

I have also purchased this combo and started building my system recently.

However, the process of mounting this cooler to the board as been the hardest time I've ever had doing such a thing.

Before you ask, I do have the Noctua narrow ILM brackets which make it possible for this to work at all, but I'm finding it extremely difficult overall to tighten the scews while the cooler is sitting on the board. The ones closer to the rear I/O are near impossible to reach!!

Could any of you who have done this provide a few tips on the best and safest way to tighten the NH-C14 to the X99E-itx/ac?

Thanks in advance!
 
The E5-1650v3 may be a 6-core CPU, but the E5-1680v3 is an 8-core. I've not heard any reports of any of them being locked. Would you care to provide some proof that there are locked models out there before calling us out like that?
 
All E3s are locked. I also did not state that the E5-1660v3 was unlocked. I said most (since there are only a few models with wide availability) single socket E5s are, not all and subsequently listed the two models that are. I've been very particular with my wording for a reason. Maybe you should reread it and see if there's anything that I've stated that is untrue. I've not heard of any reports of E5-1650v3 or E5-1680v3s being locked.
 
lamarao said:
...Before you ask, I do have the Noctua narrow ILM brackets which make it possible for this to work at all, but I'm finding it extremely difficult overall to tighten the scews while the cooler is sitting on the board. The ones closer to the rear I/O are near impossible to reach!!

Could any of you who have done this provide a few tips on the best and safest way to tighten the NH-C14 to the X99E-itx/ac?
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lamarao, I had similar issues attaching the C14. Some forum members here with better skills than mine, such as csd and @Aibophobia, were able to use the Dynatron screws and some elbow grease. I take my hat off to them. For me, it made it much easier to use some 10 mm M4 screws and a low-profile ratchet screwdriver. Here's a post I wrote up about my process from a few months ago, which you may find helpful: link Good luck, you're almost there! With those two changes, the C14 now comes on and off quite easily. The C14 is tricky to set up on this board, but totally worth it if the best air cooling is what you're after.

squeek88 We are not trying to accuse you of making invalid points or otherwise slander you, we are simply trying to get to the truth. As you stated, most Xeons are locked. As Blue Fox stated, the 1650 v3 and the 1680 v3 are unlocked. I can personally verify the 1650 v3, having overclocked my own and worked with others to overclock theirs, and I have yet to see any evidence that the 1650 v3 has somehow been locked recently. I don't quite see where the BS is here.

I would be (pleasantly) surprised if Intel released overclockable dual-socket compatible chips anytime soon. The added complexity of the second chip and logic, the binning differential, the overhead with the firmware, the consequences for failure and other factors make OC-ing with 2+ CPUs on the same system a much trickier affair.
 
inchikiboze said:
lamarao, I had similar issues attaching the C14. Some forum members here with better skills than mine, such as csd and @Aibophobia, were able to use the Dynatron screws and some elbow grease. I take my hat off to them. For me, it made it much easier to use some 10 mm M4 screws and a low-profile ratchet screwdriver. Here's a post I wrote up about my process from a few months ago, which you may find helpful: link Good luck, you're almost there! With those two changes, the C14 now comes on and off quite easily. The C14 is tricky to set up on this board, but totally worth it if the best air cooling is what you're after.
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I also used the Dynatron screws which in retrospect was harder than it it should have been because I had to use a pair of pliers with a drill bit to screw them in...

1bSgxw0.jpg
 
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Blue Fox said:
All E3s are locked. I also did not state that the E5-1660v3 was unlocked. I said most (since there are only a few models with wide availability) single socket E5s are, not all and subsequently listed the two models that are. I've been very particular with my wording for a reason. Maybe you should reread it and see if there's anything that I've stated that is untrue. I've not heard of any reports of E5-1650v3 or E5-1680v3s being locked.
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To add to that, I briefly had access to an E5-1660v3 ES which was locked. It appeared to be unlocked in UEFI setup and I could change multipliers there, but the CPU would not actually ever go above stock clocks. My impression from various anecdotes on forums was ES were locked but retail E5 1600 were unlocked. (That's purely on anecdotes though.) Perhaps this is part of where the misunderstanding is coming from.
 
jb1 said:
Hey all,
It looks like the new BIOS is up that supports Broadwell-E/EP–– could someone try it out and let me know if PCIe bifurcation is supported? So far, it seems that P1.20E is the only version with bifurcation support.

Thanks!
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Looks like it supports bifurcation! There is now a menu entry "PCIE1 Port Config" that can switch between Auto / x16 / x8x8. It looks like you can even set the link speed separately if you split it x8x8.
 
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sdfewfe said:
Looks like it supports bifurcation! There is now a menu entry "PCIE1 Port Config" that can switch between Auto / x16 / x8x8. It looks like you can even set the link speed separately if you split it x8x8.
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Awesome! Just updated. How's your custom bifurcated build coming?
 
jb1 said:
Awesome! Just updated. How's your custom bifurcated build coming?
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I'm not actually doing anything with bifurcation, just noticed the option after the update and thought you'd like to know. ;) And then promptly left the option set to x8x8 and wondered why my system wouldn't boot up anymore.... ;) The update also fixed a few minor things on OS X for me by the way. (edit: Nope, didn't after all.)
 
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So, has anybody installed that NH-D15 on that mainboard by now? I would love to see some pictures!
 
sdfewfe said:
I'm not actually doing anything with bifurcation, just noticed the option after the update and thought you'd like to know. ;) And then promptly left the option set to x8x8 and wondered why my system wouldn't boot up anymore.... ;) The update also fixed a few minor things on OS X for me by the way - previously the system would often reboot instead of shut down, and the GPU fan would spin up briefly after the GUI got loaded, neither are happening with the new UEFI anymore.
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Oh nice! That's good to know... might have to try booting el capitan again....
 
Does anyone know if this board supports flashing via USB (without CPU installed)?

Looking to buy this board for Broadwell-E, and I'm curious if I'd need to buy a cheap 5820k to flash it, before I can put in a B-E.
 
Original said:
Does anyone know if this board supports flashing via USB (without CPU installed)?

Looking to buy this board for Broadwell-E, and I'm curious if I'd need to buy a cheap 5820k to flash it, before I can put in a B-E.
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You might be better off buying the board and cpu from the same place and asking them to do it for you. Some will, some won't. You may also find an old Xeon is cheaper than a 5820k too?

Nox
 
Original said:
Does anyone know if this board supports flashing via USB (without CPU installed)?

Looking to buy this board for Broadwell-E, and I'm curious if I'd need to buy a cheap 5820k to flash it, before I can put in a B-E.
Click to expand...

Doesn't seem to support flashing with unsupported RAM at least, I needed to get a 4GB stick of RAM to update to 1.40, since 1.20 didn't support 16GB DIMMs. I'd be surprised if it worked without or with an unsupported CPU.
 
sdfewfe said:
Doesn't seem to support flashing with unsupported RAM at least, I needed to get a 4GB stick of RAM to update to 1.40, since 1.20 didn't support 16GB DIMMs. I'd be surprised if it worked without or with an unsupported CPU.
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Thanks, I do plan to buy a 4GB stick to flash before putting in actual RAM. A question, are your 16GB sticks regular (non ECC) RAM?

Nox That may work. I just don't know much about the Xeon processors so I wouldn't know which one to look for. I'm assuming only the 2011-v3 compatible CPUs would work. I'll check all compatible ones and see which ones I can find for cheap.
 
Original said:
Thanks, I do plan to buy a 4GB stick to flash before putting in actual RAM. A question, are your 16GB sticks regular (non ECC) RAM?

Nox That may work. I just don't know much about the Xeon processors so I wouldn't know which one to look for. I'm assuming only the 2011-v3 compatible CPUs would work. I'll check all compatible ones and see which ones I can find for cheap.
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Yes, regular non-ECC unregistered DDR4. I believe 16GB RDIMMs were supported from the beginning; it's only for unregistered, non-ECC 16GB UDIMMs that the 1.40 firmware is needed.

Re. cheap xeons, you might want to have a look at ebay for low-end engineering samples, there's some for under 200. An alternative idea: You can buy BIOS chips on eBay as well that come with the latest firmware, and cost around 10 dollars. Just search for "x99e-itx BIOS". The chip is socketed so should be very easy to replace. (I haven't done this myself though.)
 
Finally got my RMA board from AsRock today just to find out I wasted $14 in shipping. Still having the same problems so that narrows it down to the processor I think. Too bad I can't get a loaner 5820K to make sure before I put out the money to buy another one then have the same problem.
 
sdfewfe said:
Re. cheap xeons, you might want to have a look at ebay for low-end engineering samples, there's some for under 200. An alternative idea: You can buy BIOS chips on eBay as well that come with the latest firmware, and cost around 10 dollars. Just search for "x99e-itx BIOS". The chip is socketed so should be very easy to replace. (I haven't done this myself though.)
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Best answer yet, buy a bios chip :). They are easy to replace, just need care. Have done it 8 or 9 times historically, (but not yet needed to on my x99e)

Nox
 
ivoryg37 said:
Officially lost on what to do.

Post into bios fine but Motherboard doesn't want to work with any OS

- boot with no sata plugged in
- boot with 3 different GPU
- boot with 4 different stick of Rams
- boot with 3 different PSU
- boot with only USB boot media plugged in
- boot with Ubuntu and Linux mint live(Doesn't even boot for live USB)
- Win 7 and Win 10 freezes at starting window then fans kick on at 100% then PC restarts so I can't even get to the install screen
Click to expand...
Check your c-state power settings. I upgraded my bios to 3.10 and got a similar issue. I don't remember my exact setting, but if you disable c-states entirely you should be able to boot, at least, and tweak from there.

lamarao said:
Hi all,

I've seen several users on this forum using the AsRock X99E-itx/ac with Noctua's NH-C14 cooler.

I have also purchased this combo and started building my system recently.

However, the process of mounting this cooler to the board as been the hardest time I've ever had doing such a thing.

Before you ask, I do have the Noctua narrow ILM brackets which make it possible for this to work at all, but I'm finding it extremely difficult overall to tighten the scews while the cooler is sitting on the board. The ones closer to the rear I/O are near impossible to reach!!

Could any of you who have done this provide a few tips on the best and safest way to tighten the NH-C14 to the X99E-itx/ac?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
You might want to consider working on the board outside of your case, mounting the heatsink, and then inserting the entire thing into the case as a unit.
 
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Looking at this again....dumb question: with the new mounts (unofficial), would one be able to put the Noctual NH-L12 cooler on this?
 
caycep said:
Looking at this again....dumb question: with the new mounts (unofficial), would one be able to put the Noctual NH-L12 cooler on this?
Click to expand...

With the Noctua Narrow ILM mounts you should be able to mount any of their coolers.
 
There seem to be a fair few people using this board with a Haswell-E CPU and ECC RAM. Anyone care to post what RAM they are using in this configuration? Or even just if they have ECC RAM (non-Xeon).
 
I might bite soon if the Pascal GPU parts come out and they look good. Probably whatever the 3.5-3.7 gHz broad well EP part is, plus a GTX 1080 for gaming or their equivalent of a Titan X for a CNN/Deep Learning test bed. The main decisions, IMHo are which coolers.

Air: Noctua C14 vs. NH-L12...C14 I am not sure if the bottom fan is usable...

Liquid: who knows, but probably the least painful AIO...what is the latest and greatest for an nCase M1 these days?
 
caycep said:
I might bite soon if the Pascal GPU parts come out and they look good. Probably whatever the 3.5-3.7 gHz broad well EP part is, plus a GTX 1080 for gaming or their equivalent of a Titan X for a CNN/Deep Learning test bed. The main decisions, IMHo are which coolers.

Air: Noctua C14 vs. NH-L12...C14 I am not sure if the bottom fan is usable...

Liquid: who knows, but probably the least painful AIO...what is the latest and greatest for an nCase M1 these days?
Click to expand...

For AIO? I don't think there is one best. People have been using a large variety of AIO models with varying results it seems. Everything from a H50 to a H100i. Just look at the spread sheet and the many posts in this thread (if you can take the time to read it all). Problem with most of the AIO units is the hoses that have to be wrapped/coiled just so to make them fit.
 
Using a Corsair H105 with mine in said case. A lot of the others won't fit on account of the tubing being fairly rigid.
 
The NZXTs fit, you just need the asetek adaptor. Though I'm downgrading soon to a more energy friendly build.
 
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