Cheap chinese x79 mobos

[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!

 

[alex_stief]

I think it is safe to assume that very few -if any- of the cheap Chinese "X79" motherboards ever had an actual X79 chipset.
They use what ever they can find for cheap, and make it work. X79 is just their catchy marketing term to say "runs LGA2011 CPUs"

 

[Neil Jefferies]

Very unlikely, the easiest way to get the required functionality is to use the chipset. I can locate 1000+ quantities in surplus shops in HK and China pretty easily for way below the original price so it's the easiest way to go - it's still probably the most expensive component on the board even at 10-20 dollars a pop in bulk (you can even get them on eBay for 39.99!). Otherwise, you end up having to either use a more expensive chip or more different chips - which costs in terms of board real estate, layout complexity and supply chain complexity.

 

[hobby386]

In fact, I have a Chinese-made X79 motherboard. (Google Translate is great) I used to test memory and compatibility.
Server memory/desktop memory/plus a conversion slot can also test the laptop's memory.

 

[Neil Jefferies]

...I guess technically all of my 2011 motherboards are Chinese-made - Lenovo, SuperMicro, Asus all manufacture in China or Taiwan too!

 

[itronin]

Thank you @BeTeP.

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.

When I purchased the ASUS it ended up being $53 for some reason.

x4x4x4x4 bifurcation works fine in the Jingsha X99.

Maybe a bug in the BIOS. Under the NVME devices menu only the first 4 NVME devices found are displayed. Using the onboard m.2 slot only shows the one in the m.2 slot and only 3 of the 4 samsungs then. However the PCI IIO menu per lane displays all 5 linked up at 4x. Pics showing just the Asus installed with the 4 samsungs.

Need to fire up an OS and see what story that tells now.

all 5 M.2 devices show up in the drive boot menu so that makes me think the nvme device menu only displaying 4 is a limit or a bug.

One other thing I noticed is that using the onboard m.2 slot robs an x4 from the x8 (in x16) slot.
which makes sense ... This motherboard also has qty 2 x1 slots... which I am guessing will also rob from the x8 in x16 slot if you used them. Still enough in the x8 now x4 to run 10Gbe though (I think).

With an m.2 installed you must bifurcate slot 1 to x4x4 in order to get the x8 (phys x16) now x4 to work. windows seems happy as does the MX312A.

 

[e97]

When I purchased the ASUS it ended up being $53 for some reason.

x4x4x4x4 bifurcation works fine in the Jingsha X99.

Maybe a bug in the BIOS. Under the NVME devices menu only the first 4 NVME devices found are displayed. Using the onboard m.2 slot only shows the one in the m.2 slot and only 3 of the 4 samsungs then. However the PCI IIO menu per lane displays all 5 linked up at 4x. Pics showing just the Asus installed with the 4 samsungs.

Need to fire up an OS and see what story that tells now.

all 5 M.2 devices show up in the drive boot menu so that makes me think the nvme device menu only displaying 4 is a limit or a bug.

One other thing I noticed is that using the onboard m.2 slot robs an x4 from the x8 (in x16) slot.
which makes sense ... This motherboard also has qty 2 x1 slots... which I am guessing will also rob from the x8 in x16 slot if you used them. Still enough in the x8 now x4 to run 10Gbe though (I think).

With an m.2 installed you must bifurcate slot 1 to x4x4 in order to get the x8 (phys x16) now x4 to work. windows seems happy as does the MX312A.

View attachment 12313 View attachment 12314

Nice! Working on porting coreboot, should resolve BIOS quirks and provide more stability and faster boot times.

 

[FriscoTec]

Hi e97 and itronin, I just ordered the Jingsha X99 (using the link to Diego at Alibaba) and wanted to thank you both for all the information you guys have provided. I also ordered the E5-2678v3 and look forward to this project. Any tips are appreciated or links to details about your materials, configurations etc. I was hoping to find some OEM case like Dell Precision or even Alienware but no luck yet.