Dual E5 2670 workstation motherboard recommendation

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FunkyRider83

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Jan 31, 2016
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I have just tested the geforce patch and it seems to work correctly.

S2600CP4 with 2x E5-2670v1, GeForce GTX 670, Driver 347.88 with PCI-E 3.0 patch.

When PCI-E 3.0 8x is enabled the bandwidth is twice of PCI-E 2.0 8x.

I have also done some investigation of what the patch actually does, it sets the registry value in below screen:

For GeForce GTX 670 it definitely works fine, however I will be upgrading the GPU relatively soon. So good luck to myself to run the new GPU at PCI-E 3.0 since the patch doesn't say it supports anything newer.
 

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jjoyceiv

jjoyceiv

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May 31, 2016
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S2600C* owners - it doesn't look like Intel's own X520 is on their whitelist anywhere. Is it supported at PCIe 3.0 speeds?
 
Joseph Nunn

Joseph Nunn

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May 11, 2016
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FunkyRider83 said:
I have just tested the geforce patch and it seems to work correctly.

S2600CP4 with 2x E5-2670v1, GeForce GTX 670, Driver 347.88 with PCI-E 3.0 patch.

When PCI-E 3.0 8x is enabled the bandwidth is twice of PCI-E 2.0 8x.

I have also done some investigation of what the patch actually does, it sets the registry value in below screen:

For GeForce GTX 670 it definitely works fine, however I will be upgrading the GPU relatively soon. So good luck to myself to run the new GPU at PCI-E 3.0 since the patch doesn't say it supports anything newer.
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That is excellent work FunkyRider83!

I have not seen that program you used to test the link connection speed before, but I'm sure I can find it with a bit of looking on google. In general sc2600 family owners could use it to test their connections, but I wonder if it would be able to test hardware other than graphics cards.

Also great work on IDing the registry value it modifies. I surmise the patch identifies the entry for the card and sets its PCIe link value appropriately in the registry, which is then actually used. I would believe it possible to set the link speed in the registry by hand for other, newer cards, if needed and if able to identify which card is which in the registry.

Having a software program which can point oneself to the registry entry for cards installed in a specified PCIe slot could come in handy, sounds like a promising google search!

Joseph
 
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epicurean

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Sep 29, 2014
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I would stay away from Intel S2600 boards if you intend to passthrough more than 1 GPU to a VM in esxi. The bios settings are rigid and Intel Support is rather unhelpful in this aspect.
 
RobertFontaine

RobertFontaine

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Dec 17, 2015
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For a workstation build Z9PE-D8 WS is the nicest board for a dual 2760 imo. The X9DRG-QF has amazing specs but the ginormous board size means that only the 1000 custom chassis fits and it needs 3 - EPS12 connections which no normal psu will provide. Both are in the $500USD range so they are not cheap but you get everything in a WS board that you might want. The Z9PE gives you a bit of BCLK oc'ing if you like that sort of thing.

If you don't need pcie-16 slots there are plenty of boards in the 200 range.
 
Joseph Nunn

Joseph Nunn

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tanders12 said:
@Joseph Nunn did you ever get your board? I noticed newegg is selling them for $320 now.
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I did not, Superbiiz was unable to source the board when they claimed. I waited as long as I could, and ended up getting a Supermicro X9DAi from them instead. Which arrived without further problems.

I'm now typing on my new frankenbox and it is pretty cool. Although the X9DAi was about $100 more I think I may have made a better choice in the end. Without IPMI I think the boot times are probably faster, which is important to me as I'm using this as a workstation rather than as a server. The board also came with optical audio out and USB 3, so I didn't need to get a sound card or USB 3 card. The nic is an Intel 350, rather than the older nic on the Asrock. Those I believe are the major differences, and I have to say the Supermicro board is rock solid and has given me zero issues. If you want SLI you can also get the X9DAE which is basically the same board minus 2 sata ports and adds SLI capability for ~$40 more, I passed on it. My PCIe slots run 16x @ 3.0 just fine.

As for buying the Asrock from Newegg, I don't trust their replacement only return policy they list on that board. The first board I tried to order was a EP2C602, the one with only 4 DIMM slots per CPU, and they sent me a board with a broken ILM slot. I had to raise hell to get them to take it back, although to their credit they did, allowing me to source a board elsewhere.
 
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trumee

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Joseph Nunn said:
I did not, Superbiiz was unable to source the board when they claimed. I waited as long as I could, and ended up getting a Supermicro X9DAi from them instead. Which arrived without further problems.
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Amazon reviews that the hole placement on the motherboard is not standard E-ATX. What case did you go with and did you have to drill holes in the case?
 
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znd125

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Aug 8, 2016
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Klee said:
I joined just to reply to this post, been lurking for a while.

I chose the Asrock Rack EP2C602-4L/D16 for my "cheap" E5 2670 build.

I had a major issue with Windows 10 Pro with this motherboard. It had random hard lockups, nothing in the logs at all except for the messages about the unclean shutdown because of me hitting the reset button.

It would be completely random sometimes only a minute or two after booting up and sometimes many hours or one a day and a half of being powered on.

Did two fresh install's and all the updates, removed all unnecessary cards and hardware, still hard lock ups.

It would not lock up at all under Kali Linux. So I knew it was a Windows issue.

Did a fresh install of Windows 8.1 and its been %100 stable for the past couple of weeks.

I had planed to run Unraid and run Windows 10 virtually with pass through for my video card and will probably try that out in a couple of weeks as soon as I decide on hard drives for the build.

I purchased this motherboard from NewEgg at $329.00 after the first price hike but before it shot up to $449.00.

I originally wanted the EP2C602 motherboard for ~$280.00 but this one was instock and I jumped on it as I had about $50.00 in my paypal account I had forgotten about so I was still within my budget.

This build is for a main pc/workstation that I plan to tinker with alot.

I already had the power supply, phantecks enthoo pro case ( MB fits perfectly as I only had to move one standoff and install one from the pack of hardware the case came with, every hole lined up perfectly.), GTX 970 video card and ssd's and hard drives.

All I needed was two cpu's , motherboard, ram, usb 3.0 pcie card and two Cooler Master 212 evo's.

I am very pleased with this setup especially the motherboard and the performance of the cpu's.

A few days before I purchased this board I went on Asrock Racks facebook page and asked a question or two and it was only minutes when I received a reply. That blew me away. I have never had a motherboard company reply so fast.

Also the board is supposed to be able to run AMD crossfire, thats per the guy at Asrock Rack , even tho its not listed anywhere in the manual or online.
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I joined just to reply to this post too.
I am running almost exact same setup as yours. Dual E5-2670, EP2C602-4L/D16, 64GB (8 * 8GB) DDR3-1600 ECC RAM, and Enthoo Pro.
Experiencing the same Windows 10 Pro lockup issue. The system just freezes randomly and no dump file since I always have to hard reset.
Based on your information I might go back to Windows 8.1
 
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rayofsi

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Jun 18, 2016
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znd125 said:
I joined just to reply to this post too.
I am running almost exact same setup as yours. Dual E5-2670, EP2C602-4L/D16, 64GB (8 * 8GB) DDR3-1600 ECC RAM, and Enthoo Pro.
Experiencing the same Windows 10 Pro lockup issue. The system just freezes randomly and no dump file since I always have to hard reset.
Based on your information I might go back to Windows 8.1
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i just swapped from a intel s2600cp2j to the same asrock EP2C602-4L/D16, from superbiiz 2 hours ago..

getting random windows 10 pro lockup issues as well. Randomly freezes while idling. Guessing windows 10 pro with the board results in the hard locks? Has anyone figured this out?

Previously fine with intel 2600cp2j, asides from bios randomly going corrupt and natex not replying to my tech support emails.
 
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znd125

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rayofsi said:
i just swapped from a intel s2600cp2j to the same asrock EP2C602-4L/D16, from superbiiz 2 hours ago..

getting random windows 10 pro lockup issues as well. Randomly freezes while idling. Guessing windows 10 pro with the board results in the hard locks? Has anyone figured this out?

Previously fine with intel 2600cp2j, asides from bios randomly going corrupt and natex not replying to my tech support emails.
Click to expand...
I got mine from SuperBiiz too. Their price was reasonable.

What's most annoying about this lockup is the inconsistency. If I can't reproduce it, I can't fix it.
The only error I can consistently reproduce is during a PCMark 8 run. The "Creative Conventional 3.0" benchmark always exits with "an unknown error". "Work Conventional 2.0" runs just fine.
 
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rayofsi

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Jun 18, 2016
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znd125 said:
I got mine from SuperBiiz too. Their price was reasonable.

What's most annoying about this lockup is the inconsistency. If I can't reproduce it, I can't fix it.
The only error I can consistently reproduce is during a PCMark 8 run. The "Creative Conventional 3.0" benchmark always exits with "an unknown error". "Work Conventional 2.0" runs just fine.
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not sure if it has anything to do with the intel inf drivers.
my s2600cp2j was rock solid - ran for a week+ testing stability, i swapped it because in between reboots and shutdowns, the bios would corrupt , and require recovery.

the asrock inf drivers are version 9.xx and dates 2013 and specific for sandybridge and ivybridge and for up to windows 7

where as the intel s2600cp2j are up to 10.xx with specific windows 10 drivers. had to uninstall my 10.xx drivers and install the 9.xx on asrock website for my usb2.0 ports to be recognized.

locked myself out of the bios by disabling usb in bios by accident, so can't play around some more.
 
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rayofsi

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Jun 18, 2016
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znd125 said:
FWIW this is my setup on which Windows 10 just randomly locks up
Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHz 8-Core, Quadro 4000 2GB, Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower - System Build - PCPartPicker
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pretty sure everyone has a very similar build. Mines in a Enthoo Luxe with a seasonic x-1250, 128gb of PC3L-12800R, a gigabyte gtx1070, 960gb ocz enterprise ssd. Have a usb 3.0 pcie card and a sound card. but nothing that would cause these random freezes.

hope someone figures something out. I'm thinking the sleep/suspend states in the bios settings and the way windows 10 applies them? asrock firmware is dated 2014.. but on asrock website there is
bios 1.80 3/23/2016 - same version of bios, but listed as from as 2016 instead of 2014 build date i have.

Might try this bios later and see if it works.
 
K

Kevin

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Aug 9, 2016
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I didn't read this whole thread (TL: DR) just saw lots of people having issues with freezing in win10 with the asrock board and wanted to add my experience with it. I've been using the asrock ep2c602-4l/d16 with Windows 10 Pro since April sometime, it only gets shut off if I'm going out of town or updates get installed. I have yet to have it freeze on me even once, however I have sleep/hybernate disabled because it's my main system so it's running 24/7 and electricity isn't outrageous where I live.

Other hardware:
2x e5-2670 v1 SROKX
r9 290x (had my 980ti in there for a few months with no issues)
16GB 10600R (recently ordered 128 of 12800r)
kingston ssd
4x 1TB WD in raid 0
1x 4TB WD for backups
evga 1000w G2
random old sound card SB1040? I have a bunch but I think that's what's in there now.
vantec usb 3.0
original cooler master stacker w/ 15 hot swap bays installed in 5 1/4 bays (only using 10 until I grab a hw raid card for this system)
 
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