Cheap chinese x79 mobos

[e97]

I received a text from a chi-town number but no name in the message so a little back and forth to establish who it was, namely Diego. Timezone lag is creating a 24 hour round-trip delay in all channels. He also connected to me via LI and we have exchanged messages there too. I've suggested email since I'm not on social media much.

Diego said it was packaged up and out the door the same day I ordered it. He did not have the shipping info at that time. The shipping info was posted to the order within 48 hours - its there now.

Alibaba Air Express was I think the default option and second cheapest. The shipping amount was $21.04 for 5-7 business days plus a 3 day lead time. Per Diego it went out same day, tracking info was posted within 48 hours - all within the 3 day lead time. Maybe waiting for a air cargo container to fill up before it goes out?

I will definitely update with the shipping details, actual carrier etc, and will take some pictures when I receive the box. I am very curious about the Alibaba Air Express too - a very positive experience with that would cause me to look at Alibaba as an alternative source to eBay for some items as I do not feel the shipping cost was particularly outrageous.

I *might* even have a small volume (5-7 unit) custom "very value-priced" engineering workstation build project later this fall and am hopeful this motherboard could fit the bill if that project goes live and I like what I find. I have NOT mentioned this to Diego and like a said very small volume.

I use skype, whatsapp or wechat (in order of preference). For alibaba protection it recommends you keep all payment and conversation on the platform so I've been using alibaba messenger. I tried email but most sellers are slow to reply, Diego included. He's been pretty responsive on Alibaba messenger.

To use it: go to any item page. In the bottom right will be the messenger chat window. Click to open it. ote: the messages item in the top menu is different (like email vs chat).

It seems most of the sellers on ebay sell the same thing on Aliexpress or Taobao. I ask for their other store links to compare prices. Some platforms have higher fees but the prices should not be too different.

= ) we're on the same page. I'm thinking this could be an excellent candidate for the coreboot bootloader, an open source BIOS-ish, due to the debug headers.

A system booting in under 5s, with latest security patches + microcode, disabled ME vulnerabilities and all core unlock sounds pretty good to me.

 

[jpautom]

I just received the same X99 board yesterday.
Very excited to find this thread and the Win-Raid material.
Any advice on how to acquire a copy of the BIOS with the ECC fix?
Or have you had a chance to see if there was anything more than changing the platform to C612?

 

[itronin]

Off-topic - kinda -
am familiar with / semi familiar with coreboot (old IBM thinkpads, my own librrem 13v2) and doing basic updates and some of the troubleshooting steps. I did some research when I was actively working on and using my librem. I had not considered coreboot but now that you mention it ... interesting... sehr interessant... hmmm... I digress further for the moment - I was unaware that the ME and other locked-in components were also "turn-off-able" in the E5 series and chipsets. when I get time may have to look back into that.

back on track

thank you for the tip on communicating with the vendors. am wondering if an topical thread "alibaba, aliexpress dos and don'ts for sourcing compnents) in a more appropriate forum topic here would be handy...

 

[itronin]

hmmmm... and then there were three (known) so should we start a specific thread for the szmzit X99.

why?
a) szmzit has multiple products
b) there are other overseas mfg's
c) a variety of boards x79, x99, 4 dimms, 8 dimms, dual sockets etc. etc.

Maybe a sticky recapping resources from here and for adding new resources, and start on a FAQ / read me first?

 

[foogitiff]

I read the topic on Win-Raid forum, and I am very tempted by this X99 mobo.

@e97 can you share the bios that works with ECC? The firefox link from the Win-Raid forum is expired

 

[e97]

I read the topic on Win-Raid forum, and I am very tempted by this X99 mobo.

@e97 can you share the bios that works with ECC? The firefox link from the Win-Raid forum is expired

When I contacted the brand JINGSHA (KINGSHARK), and asked about ECC support, they didn't even bother to reply. One of their other sellers said it was not possible.

I specifically bought this X99 board from Diego because he promised good support.. and he delivered. Above and beyond. After talking with him, he went out and hired a BIOS engineer to get ECC working. That's expensive.

Developing a product and resolving issues takes blood, sweat and tears. You're asking me to steal this persons hard work. I won't do that.

If you want working ECC on this board, you have a few options:

* develop it yourself. From my research, the ME does MC initialization so setting it to the server chipset should be enough.
* wait for an alpha release of open core (open source) I'm working on
* ask szmit for the BIOS.
* buy the board from szmzit. They have the best pricing, even on Taobao.

FYI - I don't receive any money from this. I'm only recommending a product I found to be useful from a stellar seller.

 

[foogitiff]

You're asking me to steal this persons hard work. I won't do that.

What? I thought the bios you got was from the motherboard manufacturer, not the seller.

I am a bit confused, what works "out of the box" with this motherboard? Does RDIMM works without ECC enabled, or it simply doesn't post?

 

[e97]

What? I thought the bios you got was from the motherboard manufacturer, not the seller.

I am a bit confused, what works "out of the box" with this motherboard? Does RDIMM works without ECC enabled, or it simply doesn't post?

To be honest, I have no idea. I'd love to know who the original designer of the board is.

JINGSHA is the name on the silkscreen and the Taobao seller with a flagship store, so I assume thats the main OEM. But there are many factories who make the board, I guess SZMZ is one of those factories which could explain the BIOS work.

With the original BIOS: RDIMMs POST fine, works as non-ECC.

 

[foogitiff]

To be honest, I have no idea. I'd love to know who the original designer of the board is.

JINGSHA is the name on the silkscreen and the Taobao seller with a flagship store, so I assume thats the main OEM. But there are many factories who make the board, I guess SZMZ is one of those factories which could explain the BIOS work.

With the original BIOS: RDIMMs POST fine, works as non-ECC.

Thanks for the info.

I can live without ECC, so it's not the end of the world if I cannot make it work. I just want to be able to use 8x16GB rdimm ddr3.

 

[Klee]

They are also listed on Ebay.

 

[itronin]

@e97 you asked about the logistics. I received my board midday yesterday (Denver, Colorado). 9 calendar days - 7 working days which is the outside limit quoted by Alibaba. Shipping cost was $21.04. I selected "express" at order; the logistics company was Alibaba Air Express. Air Cargo was provided by Cathay Pacific and domestic delivery was provided by OnTrac.

I'm very happy with the shipping time and cost combination.

eBay Bucks released today and should have my cpu in the next few days.

 

[e97]

@e97 you asked about the logistics. I received my board midday yesterday (Denver, Colorado). 9 calendar days - 7 working days which is the outside limit quoted by Alibaba. Shipping cost was $21.04. I selected "express" at order; the logistics company was Alibaba Air Express. Air Cargo was provided by Cathay Pacific and domestic delivery was provided by OnTrac.

I'm very happy with the shipping time and cost combination.

eBay Bucks released today and should have my cpu in the next few days.

Thanks @itronin ! I recently used Alibaba Air Express for Raspberry Pi Camera modules and it worked out as you described. Cheaper than DHL and way faster than regular shipping.

 

[itronin]

I finally had a little time to take a look at this board (SZMZIT X99) in more detail. I'm thrilled to see that it supports PCIE bifurcation. Slot numbers do not appear to correspond to what is silk screened on the board but with only 3 slots it was pretty easy to figure out. Looks like the slots are from top to bottom: x16, x16, and x8 (in x16) with x4x4x4x4 for the x16's and x4x4 for the x8 (in X16).

I successfully tested with a supermicro AOC-SLG3-2M2 and both of the m.2 drives appeared as boot options in the c, and d splits. I suspect with that split that a x4x4x4x4 m.2 card may work.

My thoughts for filling up the slots are: graphics card, a x4x4x4x4 m.2 card , and a dual port connectx-3 10gbe.

I am open to suggestions, reviews and/or pointers for a non switch based card with 4 x m.2

hopefully the bifurcation option does not go away when I flash the updated BIOS to the board.

 

[BeTeP]

I am open to suggestions, reviews and/or pointers for a non switch based card with 4 x m.2

There is always Dell PCIe Storage Adapter FH Card - DPWC400 (Dell P/Ns TX9JH PHR9G 6N9RH 80G5N) . It sells for about $110 shipped.

 

[itronin]

UPDATE (2019-09-22):

seller said they can give a discount, use this link:
SZMZ X99-8D3 LGA 2011v3 DDR3 Intel motherboard on Alibaba.com

I'm just going to throw this out there as my mind is churning on possibilities...

the price on this motherboard via the link and in general is currently showing $72.30 for a sample qty of 1...
am tempted to pick up a 1-2 more just to have on hand for as the need arises... Perhaps Holiday gifts...HA!

and really, I do need to do more testing with this motherboard for my own satisfaction and caveats apply - yeah the chipsets are probably desoldered off e-cycled motherboards... the thing could go up in smoke after a few weeks of heavy use. But there is a 1 year warranty on the motherboards and the vendor has been very communicative via email.

so far I am liking what I see.

 

[itronin]

There is always Dell PCIe Storage Adapter FH Card - DPWC400 (Dell P/Ns TX9JH PHR9G 6N9RH 80G5N) . It sells for about $110 shipped.

Thank you @BeTeP.

Quick survey shows lots of expensive cards (with switch chip) and only 3 "more value oriented" cards.

all prices approximate.

Asrock Ultra Quad M.2 ($140) - drawbacks = cost, fan noise reportedly loud
Dell DPWC400 ($110) - drawbacks = cost, max stick size 2280, fan noise reportedly loud
Asus Hyper M.2 X16 v2 ($57 AMZ) - drawbacks = reports of fully populated card required to use, some nvme slots do not show up on some motherboards.

I just want JBOD carrier functionality so given the title of this thread I think I'll go with the Asus for now and see what happens.

btw, if there is anyone in Denco reading this thread, has this card, its not in use and you want to loan it out for 7-10 days of testing then please pm me.

 

[hobby386]

Anyone have any hands-on experience with these OEM motherboard with x79 chipset on eBay?

I like that they support registered memory which I have some lying around and are cheaper to buy. I also like that they come in M-ATX form factor for a smaller build.

The only question is longevity and whether they will last with 247 operation and for how long? So far I haven't found any "reviews" that's worth the time it takes to watch or read it.

Some people say they fail after 2 month or 6 months, but who knows? They LOOK like they could be pretty quality. I don't know enough about motherboard designs to know if the parts are good quality parts or not.

As far as I know.
Many X79 chips come from the server motherboard disassembly.Is old
For now, the OEM X79 technology is mature.

 

[Neil Jefferies]

This is a good source for BIOS mods China x79/c602 overclock xeon, ecc reg ddr3 (Google translate is your friend!)

I have a Xinlizhi X79 2.4F which has been running 24x7 for the past 6 months as my son's gaming rig (E5-1650 V2 and 32Gb RAM) no problems with Windows.

On the basis of that I have just acquired a dual socket Huananzhi.

...the fact that the BIOS's seem to be labelled C602/X79 leads me to believe that the real differentiator between these chipsets may be marketing and a couple of polyfuses.

 

[BeTeP]

X79 (or X99 or that matter) in the Chinese board's name does not mean that the board is specifically using Intel BD82X79 PCH chip. It's merely an indication of which generation of the Intel CPUs might be compatible with the board.

 

[Neil Jefferies]

I would have thought that but the X79 and C602 share the same datasheet from Intel, the X79 is literally just the lowest C600-series SKU. All these motherboards seem to have feature sets (e.g. 6 SATA ports, no Intel ME) which match actually using an X79...although, as far as I can see from the docs, if you design for an X79 you can actually drop in any higher SKU and it will still work.

That's a good way to use up leftovers!