E5-2697v2 and SM X9DRi-LN4F+ -- no POST

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5mall5nail5

Active Member
Nov 16, 2015
107
32
28
39
Hey all,

I picked up two pairs of E5-2697 v2 stepping SR19H. I put two in my R620 and it works perfectly. I went to put the other two into my SC846 with X9DRi-LN4F+ which has a single PWS-920P-SQ PSU and the system powers up but no POST. I'm running the latest IPMI/BMC firmware and BIOS, and I cleared the CMOS w/ battery out for 5 minutes to no avail - external monitor doesn't show any output. Popping the original E5-2680's work fine, no issues, system boots into ESXi. Anyone know if there are Supermicro requirements for booting with 135W CPUs? Perhaps the 920W PWS-920P-SQ PSU isn't enough? Perhaps I need two? I have some 900W loud guys I can pop in but it's a pain to get the PSU out and I wanted to make sure the machine booted with the original CPUs again.

Thanks for any insight!

Jon
 

MBastian

Active Member
Jul 17, 2016
205
59
28
Düsseldorf, Germany
Most likely you have the 1.10 revision. You need 1.20 for Ivy Bridge CPUs. It should be written somehwere (right beside the CMOS battery iirc) on the motherboard.
 

5mall5nail5

Active Member
Nov 16, 2015
107
32
28
39
FWIW - I decided to just bite the bullet and pick up a X9DRi-LN4F+ v.1.20 - thought about buying another R620 but by time I buy rails, ship, etc. with adequate PSUs it'd be a waste. I know E5-2697 v2's aren't really efficient or preferred these days but I am not ready to jump to DDR4 yet. I have two ESXi hosts with 384GB and it'd be supremely expensive to move on still. So, thanks all!
 

Storm-Chaser

Twin Turbo
Apr 16, 2020
151
25
28
Upstate NY
FWIW - I decided to just bite the bullet and pick up a X9DRi-LN4F+ v.1.20 - thought about buying another R620 but by time I buy rails, ship, etc. with adequate PSUs it'd be a waste. I know E5-2697 v2's aren't really efficient or preferred these days but I am not ready to jump to DDR4 yet. I have two ESXi hosts with 384GB and it'd be supremely expensive to move on still. So, thanks all!
Another Ivy bridge owner! it's good to see someone else running on this platform. I wish you the best with your project there,. Sounds like you are set on CPUs, that chip was quite a powerhouse in it's day (and still holds its own in multi-core performance) but that being said, id like to point out another good chip that sometimes gets overlooked, the 12 core E5 2696 v2. Want to be clear, I'm not bashing your choice, and both processors are nearly identical at the end of the day, but the OEM chip has some minor advantages over the retail variant, the 2697 v2, which I will elaborate on below...

-Although the E5 2697 v2 is Intel's flagship processor for the 2600 series line up, it's the OEM processors that really shine. For example, the 2696 v2 is actually superior in multi core performance than the retail 2697 v2. This is because of the base clock turbo speeds. The OEM 2696 v2 has an all core turbo of 3.1GHz versus 3.0GHz.

-The 2696 also manages these higher clocks while while coming into the game with a lower TDP of 120 watts (130 vs 120). And both processors have a single core turbo of 3.5GHz, effectively putting the 2696 in place as Intel's most powerful processor in the entire 2600 series line up.

Not preferred? I beg to differ! (half joking)

Still a force to be reckoned in terms of multi core performance. To give you an idea of how this processor (in dual socket configuration) performs relative to the latest gen CPUs in multi core, my dual socket HP Z820 E5 2696 v2 rig can hang with an aggressively overclocked 10850K (at least in geek bench, AIDA64, etc). This is a current generation 10 core unlocked processor with an all core turbo of 4.8GHz and single core boost of 5.2Ghz right out of the box. It takes a 5.3GHz 10850K to take the lead away and for that you will need a pretty robust cooling system.

1614383541345.png

And for comparison purposes, you can see our processors handily out-perform Intel's latest 10 core / 20 thread powerhouse in multi core...

1614383634392.png
 

5mall5nail5

Active Member
Nov 16, 2015
107
32
28
39
Another Ivy bridge owner! it's good to see someone else running on this platform. I wish you the best with your project there,. Sounds like you are set on CPUs, that chip was quite a powerhouse in it's day (and still holds its own in multi-core performance) but that being said, id like to point out another good chip that sometimes gets overlooked, the 12 core E5 2696 v2. Want to be clear, I'm not bashing your choice, and both processors are nearly identical at the end of the day, but the OEM chip has some minor advantages over the retail variant, the 2697 v2, which I will elaborate on below...

-Although the E5 2697 v2 is Intel's flagship processor for the 2600 series line up, it's the OEM processors that really shine. For example, the 2696 v2 is actually superior in multi core performance than the retail 2697 v2. This is because of the base clock turbo speeds. The OEM 2696 v2 has an all core turbo of 3.1GHz versus 3.0GHz.

-The 2696 also manages these higher clocks while while coming into the game with a lower TDP of 120 watts (130 vs 120). And both processors have a single core turbo of 3.5GHz, effectively putting the 2696 in place as Intel's most powerful processor in the entire 2600 series line up.

Not preferred? I beg to differ! (half joking)

Still a force to be reckoned in terms of multi core performance. To give you an idea of how this processor (in dual socket configuration) performs relative to the latest gen CPUs in multi core, my dual socket HP Z820 E5 2696 v2 rig can hang with an aggressively overclocked 10850K (at least in geek bench, AIDA64, etc). This is a current generation 10 core unlocked processor with an all core turbo of 4.8GHz and single core boost of 5.2Ghz right out of the box. It takes a 5.3GHz 10850K to take the lead away and for that you will need a pretty robust cooling system.

View attachment 17678

And for comparison purposes, you can see our processors handily out-perform Intel's latest 10 core / 20 thread powerhouse in multi core...

View attachment 17679
All great info, however, when playing with Supermicro they have FAQs specifically around stepping and OEM CPUs. Specifically, they talk about the E5-2696 v2 which is not supported as it's not part of the retail stepping inventory.

 

Storm-Chaser

Twin Turbo
Apr 16, 2020
151
25
28
Upstate NY
All great info, however, when playing with Supermicro they have FAQs specifically around stepping and OEM CPUs. Specifically, they talk about the E5-2696 v2 which is not supported as it's not part of the retail stepping inventory.

Yeah, you are correct. Its not "technically" supported but I'm betting there is at least a 99% chance it would boot right up no problem, I've used the 2696 v2 in at least three unsupported boards without any issues, so that's been my experience at least... Anyway how did the project turn out? Are you using the rig now? Happy with the performance?

I also have two 725W PSUs for the R620, sounds like you are pretty settled on not using it but just throwing it out there that I do have these PSUs in hand in case you are still on the fence about it. In fact I have a complete R620 if you need anything LMK.
 

5mall5nail5

Active Member
Nov 16, 2015
107
32
28
39
Yeah, you are correct. Its not "technically" supported but I'm betting there is at least a 99% chance it would boot right up no problem, I've used the 2696 v2 in at least three unsupported boards without any issues, so that's been my experience at least... Anyway how did the project turn out? Are you using the rig now? Happy with the performance?

I also have two 725W PSUs for the R620, sounds like you are pretty settled on not using it but just throwing it out there that I do have these PSUs in hand in case you are still on the fence about it. In fact I have a complete R620 if you need anything LMK.
I've been using the system for a few years, I just needed more cores to avoid contention. I am using both the 1.20 version of the Supermicro board and an R620. Each host now has 2697v2 and 512GB of RAM. All good.
 

moto316

Member
Feb 23, 2014
62
24
8
thinking about upgrading my lab with v1.01 X9SRH-7TF motherboards from the E5-2620 v2's to the E5-2697's as well. It seems like the linked thread states that v1.0 and v1.01 aren't compatible with v2 CPU's but mine is running fine on the 2620 v2's? Can anyone provide more clarification? Supermicro states for the X9SRH-7TF :with no mention of version/revision requiremeents:
  • Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600/1600
    and E5-2600/1600 v2 family†
    (up to 12 cores and up to 135W)
  • † BIOS version 3.0 or above is required

    † E5-1600 series CPU does not support LRDIMM type memory
 

RolloZ170

Well-Known Member
Apr 24, 2016
5,158
1,548
113
this rev. is valid for the X9DRi-LN4F+ (c602)
the X9SRH-7TF (c602j) was launched in the end of 2012, probably with initial v2 support.
 

jordipalet

New Member
Feb 3, 2022
1
0
1
Hey all,

I picked up two pairs of E5-2697 v2 stepping SR19H. I put two in my R620 and it works perfectly. I went to put the other two into my SC846 with X9DRi-LN4F+ which has a single PWS-920P-SQ PSU and the system powers up but no POST. I'm running the latest IPMI/BMC firmware and BIOS, and I cleared the CMOS w/ battery out for 5 minutes to no avail - external monitor doesn't show any output. Popping the original E5-2680's work fine, no issues, system boots into ESXi. Anyone know if there are Supermicro requirements for booting with 135W CPUs? Perhaps the 920W PWS-920P-SQ PSU isn't enough? Perhaps I need two? I have some 900W loud guys I can pop in but it's a pain to get the PSU out and I wanted to make sure the machine booted with the original CPUs again.

Thanks for any insight!

Jon
Should it work with SR171? I can find them much cheaper, but there is no mention in the Dell documents or Intel documents about the differences between both ...