Is MSI OK nowadays? I like the fact that one can have 10 USB 3.0 ports. I'm thinking of using a 512GB XP941 in the M.2 if it can boot.
Intel Haswell-E (X-99 chipset) processors reviews.
- Thread starter snowhiker
- Start date
Is MSI OK nowadays? I like the fact that one can have 10 USB 3.0 ports. I'm thinking of using a 512GB XP941 in the M.2 if it can boot.
I suspect not unless you get low profile RAM. Here is a list of RAM compatibility on their website. That was one benefit of the D15 over the D14 but if you decide to look at the D15, check for motherboard compatibility. The mounting positions will obscure the use of the first PCIe slot in some boards.
Thanks. It looks like the D14 works with most RAM, including the Crucial.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I added a Plextor M6e to my GAX99-UD4 machine. I had to upgrade my firmware to the F12 revision so that it was recognized as a boot device, though the Windows installer recognized it immediately. The firmware also had to be set to UEFI mode, which I typically don't use when I can avoid it and which Gigabyte does not explicitly mention in its documentation.
There's a modest subjective improvement over the Crucial M550, most notable in the time it takes to load my user profile during the login process. I've relegated the M550 to virtual machine storage.
I don't know if it's a characteristic of the Plextor drive or of M.2 drives generally, but my drive was easily the warmest component in the PC while I was copying over the ~40GB of user data from one drive to the other. Apparently the Samsung M.2 drive also gets pretty warm.
There's a modest subjective improvement over the Crucial M550, most notable in the time it takes to load my user profile during the login process. I've relegated the M550 to virtual machine storage.
I don't know if it's a characteristic of the Plextor drive or of M.2 drives generally, but my drive was easily the warmest component in the PC while I was copying over the ~40GB of user data from one drive to the other. Apparently the Samsung M.2 drive also gets pretty warm.
The Samsung is warm, but not too hot in use. Why did you buy the much slower Plextor rather than the Samsung?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Because Samsung couldn't be bothered to do the right thing when they lost my drive while it was supposed to be in their custody.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Looks like some of the big OEMs are releasing refreshed Z97/X99 motherboards now that there's a minor update to the USB spec (for 3.1, not C). I'm pleasantly surprised by that.
I bought a new x99 mainboard at the end of April that supposedly has UPS 3.1. Somehow my earlier MB started working again, so I never opened the box. Are there boards with newer chipset since April already?
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Same main chipset, but different USB controllers would be my guess.
I hope for you that your UPS 3.1 last much longer than your previous UPS.
I hope for you that your UPS 3.1 last much longer than your previous UPS.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Is that how you call what's attached to your infamous pink balls? Are you an ex-porn actor?
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
I have yet to go the X99 route. My customer builds are still Z97. So far, the GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD5H has served me well. For CPU cooling, the Noctua NH-U14S is great, if the enclosure has the space.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I have a Noctua NH-D9L sitting here that I can't for the life of me fit to an Asrock EPC612D8A. Noctua's docs say it should fit 2011v3 but if it does I have no idea how.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Is there just not enough room for it?
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
I think you would need the NH-D9DX i4 3U to meet the 2011 R3 spec with that C612 board.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
There's room for it and the HSF fits in my 3U enclosure (in fact, there's a bullet point on the box about its 3U compatibility) but the brackets they gave me look like they're only sized for 115x and not 2011 and they're either too short or I'm failing at basic geometry. But Noctua's documentation says I should use the same bracket for both.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Isn't the NH-D9L for a square ILM 80 x 80 mm mounting pattern and the board is narrow ILM 56 x 94 mm mounting pattern?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
LGA2011 AFAIK is always on the rectangular pattern, but I've been able to mount other Noctua coolers on other LGA 2011 boards without issue. I want to say I'm probably just missing hardware that should've been in the box but if that's the case their docs are still wrong.
sdbardwick
Storage is cool
2011 can have two different patterns. Here is one example. IIRC, David ran into this a while back on a dual socket board.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Merc, I gave you the specs on the two patterns. You have a cooler for the square pattern, 80x80, and have a board for the narrow pattern, 56x94. You can even see in the picture for your board that it is not the same pattern. You're not missing hardware, the documentation is not wrong. You have the wrong product from Noctua. Your board is not 2011v3, it is 2011 R3, which is the narrow pattern.
ddrueding
Fixture
Indeed. At the time finding a decent heatsink for the narrow board was near impossible; I just had the guys at the fab shop knock something out for me.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The guy at Noctua got back to me. I sent them a proof of purchase and I guess they're going to mail me the brackets I need.
I love Noctua fans to death but I think I'm about 50-50 on getting complete kits when I buy their HSFs.
I love Noctua fans to death but I think I'm about 50-50 on getting complete kits when I buy their HSFs.
ddrueding
Fixture
Sweet. But for a rig like that I would strongly consider watercooling the CPU and GPU
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
My first thought was a dual board rackmount setup but not with X99 and only two DIMM slots. I could at least make a use case out of that as someone who pays $60/month for 2U of space in a datacenter.
I just bought an Asrock C612 board for a server build. I've been unimpressed with Supermicro support in the past and they're only offering one year warranties on server boards. On that level I figure Asrock at least can't be any worse.
Let's all take a minute to curse the fact that Intel isn't shipping branded motherboards any more.
I just bought an Asrock C612 board for a server build. I've been unimpressed with Supermicro support in the past and they're only offering one year warranties on server boards. On that level I figure Asrock at least can't be any worse.
Let's all take a minute to curse the fact that Intel isn't shipping branded motherboards any more.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Indeed. I miss the Intel branded motherboards.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Not quite three weeks later, I finally get the mounting kit for the NH-D9L and it doesn't have any instructions and I don't see any way to make the brackets they sent me securely fasten to the motherboard that I actually have. There's $5300 worth of computer in pieces around my office for want of maybe $1 worth of machined aluminum.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Are the new brackets the same as what you were trying to use?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Nope. They're the right length but don't align to the attachment points the HSF would otherwise use. I wonder if I just got the wrong set.