Dual E5 2670 workstation motherboard recommendation

[Bill1950]

Per Microsoft, Windows 7 support expends until 2020. But if it's anything like MS XP, support will continue long after the official expiration date. I'm still getting XP updates even this week on older systems, years after they "stopped support."

I see no need to dump a motherboard that works and is stable. It may not be the fault of the motherboard as much as Windows10 or a C602 faulty driver. There is no fault on the board, just the inability of Microsoft to provide support for already operational hardware and not supporting a conversion to their latest O/S. The reputation MS has for releasing immature operating system is legend. They work out bugs as they go. A fix will probably be developed as W10 matures. And if not, W7 is a stable operating system that will be around for years to come.

 

[wildpig1234]

it's possible that some of this problem might be with MS. I believe however most of this also should be blamed on asrock. I for once don't believe that asrock doesn't know about this. there is a real possibility that there is a change in win10 that is doing this compared to win7 that only asrock and ms knows about but decided that it's not really a benefit for them to fix for whatever reasons (likely b/c this is older board/chipset and they want everyone just to move on to the more expensive latest)...

I am not sure I would blame it on the C602 chipset or win10. Point is that I have an s2600cp2j and a Lenovo d30 and both use the c602 chipset. and win10 is running good on them with zero crashes. However, in the case of s2600cp, sleep consumes 17w while in the d30 only 3w. also I have to disable "allow wake up from sleep" feature for keyboard and mouse for the s2600cp or else it would takes like over a min to enter sleep and in a very weird way like something else trying to pull it out of sleep initially. The way the MB is designed is very important even if its the same chipset on both. My point is that I think the majority of the problem with asrock board win10 crashing probably lie with asrock and how they choose to implement or wire the components or design their firmware for whatever reason.

I feel like most users on here are very in tune to everyone else problem, but I do think people should also be even more responsive. As I reported about my sleeping problem on the s2600cp2j in my own WS built thread as well as also in other threads, I am surprised at the lack of response as well as the lack of specific responses to a lot of questions that I posted. and I know that there is a buck load of people on here that have the natex motherboard/cpu combo/ram that I bought. I appreciated everyone that responded to my questions, but at the same times I feel like it still lacking in the number of people responding a lot of time. I don't expect outright solutions, but just an even yes or no confirmation is good enough from several people....

Sorry for the long response. anyway, I sincerely hope that more people with the asrock board with input their experience regarding win10. it would be helpful if everyone has one says yes we all have random crashes or if one person says I never had any.

 

[wildpig1234]

If you don't care about using standby (and really if you use SSD's for boot do you NEED standby?) then I don't think there's any problem with the asrock boards. I've been using ep2c602-4L/D16 since April using Win 10 Pro and have not had any issues (currently running 2 weeks without a reboot). I've used R9 290x and 980 ti both without issue. I started with regular ddr3 but switched to 128GB registered, SB1040 sound card. SSD boot drive, 4x 1TB intel sw raid 0, couple standalone 4tb drives.

Here's at least one person that seems to have a more stable asrock MB running win10 without random crash problem (excluding the sleep issue). let's check to see if he has any issues since. Maybe it could be related to a specific individual or batches of boards? hopefully anyone else running this board that has no random crash issue can also chime in?

 

[Klee]

Here's at least one person that seems to have a more stable asrock MB running win10 without random crash problem (excluding the sleep issue). let's check to see if he has any issues since. Maybe it could be related to a specific individual or batches of boards? hopefully anyone else running this board that has no random crash issue can also chime in?

Well going on 24 hours since the last lock up.

It's not a hardware issue, Windows 7 , 8.0, 8.1 and Server 2016 run great on it. Also Kali Linux runs perfectly also.

I had Windows 8.1 on it running Seti@home probably 16-18 hours every day wen I was away working or not using my pc for the last few weeks and never a complaint except from my electricity meter.

 

[wildpig1234]

Well going on 24 hours since the last lock up.

It's not a hardware issue, Windows 7 , 8.0, 8.1 and Server 2016 run great on it. Also Kali Linux runs perfectly also.

I had Windows 8.1 on it running Seti@home probably 16-18 hours every day wen I was away working or not using my pc for the last few weeks and never a complaint except from my electricity meter.

I imagine you probably already tried the latest update of win10 build 1607?

Can anyone else with this same MB using win10 says anything about the random crashing?

 

[Bill1950]

I was thinking about different builds as well. But the bottom line is that Microsoft released an operating system without considering all the possible legacy systems that needed support. It's not like this is anything unusual for them.

Signing off for a while. Getting some light eye surgery. I'll be back when I'll be back.

 

[wildpig1234]

I was thinking about different builds as well. But the bottom line is that Microsoft released an operating system without considering all the possible legacy systems that needed support. It's not like this is anything unusual for them.

Signing off for a while. Getting some light eye surgery. I'll be back when I'll be back.

see ya then!

well, its possible that MS is to blame somewhere but if the MB from the majority of other manufacturers work then those minority manufacturers should also look at it too. maybe intel should also look at it too? i am almost certain that there is something different that asrock is doing with their implementation that is causing some conflict in win10. the reason is that this random crash has not been brought up by anyone with supermicron board either. Anyone w supermicron please jump in if they have any experience with random crash...

 

[Klee]

I noticed after the crash something changed the power plan setting from performance to balanced. Changed it back to performance and its been on for two days without a crash, a new record with Windows 10 on this build.

So maybe the issue is with the balanced setting.

 

[wildpig1234]

I noticed after the crash something changed the power plan setting from performance to balanced. Changed it back to performance and its been on for two days without a crash, a new record with Windows 10 on this build.

So maybe the issue is with the balanced setting.

hopefully it will continue and hopefully this will be the fix we all need? it might have to do with power saving stuffs again (which included sleep).

 

[Klee]

Just installed Cuda 8 and reinstalled seti@home so it will be cranking out work units for a few days and i'm hoping that turning off suspend mode in the bios and configuring the power plan to performance will do the trick and stop the hard lock ups.

 

[wildpig1234]

update us again soon....

 

[Klee]

Just some info on what my setup is, Fresh Windows 10 64bit install , latest version as of sunday.
Only drivers I have installed are Nvidia Cuda 8 with Nvidia video driver and Asus pci sound card driver.
Thats it, everything else is using the default Windows 10 driver installed during the install.

I'm thinking of not running seti like I was planning, just let windows run to see what happens.

 

[Klee]

Still has not locked up yet.

EDIT: Spoke too soon , it just locked up solid. Had to hit the reset button.

 

[wildpig1234]

sorry to hear that .... I don't know what else to say except that asrock has some different implementation of c602 that just not working with win10. and it seems like you are not the only one. at this point if you want to keep that board, you will have to just run win7, 8, or server 2012. you can try server 2016 which should be out soon. but server 2016 might have a lot of similarity to win10 that could cause problem. so might just have to go to another mb if you want to go with win10

 

[Klee]

sorry to hear that .... I don't know what else to say except that asrock has some different implementation of c602 that just not working with win10. and it seems like you are not the only one. at this point if you want to keep that board, you will have to just run win7, 8, or server 2012. you can try server 2016 which should be out soon. but server 2016 might have a lot of similarity to win10 that could cause problem. so might just have to go to another mb if you want to go with win10

I have tried the most recent version of Windows Server 2016, and it works great. Rock solid and had zero problems with it. Every OS I installed except Windows 10 runs fine. I really do not think its a hardware issue.

I will try tweeking a few more things in the bios and windows.

 

[wildpig1234]

windows server 2012 has no sleep feature . I am guessing 2016 doesn't either? ... oh well...

that could be the very reason again why server 2016 works on your asrock while win 10 wont even though win10 and server 2016 has a lot of similarities..

 

[Klee]

I'm trying to narrow the problem down, concentrating on installed/running programs first incase its a program that's the issue and it seems Firefox is my most used program so I'm trying Edge browser instead.

Edit: Well it locked up using Edge browser too. Was watching you-tube when it locked up.

I am trying to pay closer attention to the running programs when it locks up. I went back to Firefox and changed one setting. So try one thing at a time until I fix it or give up and install OpenBSD LOL

 

[wildpig1234]

we all hope you can find it . I bet my money on some sort of sleep related or power saving functions.

 

[Klee]

Windows did an update a couple of days ago and it has not locked up since. Crossing fingers that maybe Microsoft fixed it. I also disabled the H264 video codec in Firefox shortly before which may or may not have anything to do with it. I'll give it a few days then enable it again.

 

[Bill1950]

Up six plus days straight on Windows 7 Ult without a hick-up. System is serious overkill, stable, fast, runs the needed software. I'm satisfied.