B0 Stepping CPU on GA-X79S-UP5-WIFI

[sergeant72]

Hi,

I was planning a decent server build for some time by now. Few weeks ago I scored that motherboard for a really good price.
The choice for CPU is kind of limited for me due to the budget. There is a seller on ebay, offering E5-2650L for a reasonable price. It would fit my needs ideally - low power, 8 cores/16 threads - plenty for multiple virtual machines. The only problem is that it is ES - engineering sample from Intel with B0 stepping. On gigabyte website for that motherboard, that CPU is listed as supported with C2 stepping.

What are the chances that it will work properly (or at all) on that motherboard?

Thanks in advance.

Regards.

 

[sotech]

Not high enough that I would take the chance, unless you can find someone who has definitely gotten it working.

We've seen customers with B0/B1 stepping CPUs work in some Asus S2011 boards with some BIOS revisions - as an example we have yet to see a B0 stepping CPU work in a board with a BIOS revision which supports VT-D, which is a shame as VT-D wasn't broken in that revision.

It's a gamble, basically. What will you do with it if it doesn't work?

 

[Patrick]

I saw that chip and was thinking it looked interesting... but not sure if I would take the risk.

 

[sergeant72]

Thanks for the response!

There is also E5-2630L C0 Stepping on ebay - that low power model is not listed as supported at all.

I guess I'll keep looking.

 

[Patrick]

I look at that CPU every day. No single CPU board and a bit worried about using something like that. Also much slower than the real chip.