Question A dual processor motherboard that will definitely run dual Xeon E5-2697 V2 processors

[Starnet]

I tried an ASUS Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard that advertises that it will work with dual Intel Xeon E5-2697-V2 processors, Wrong, WILL NOT and ASUS is really wishy washy about why and when pressed completely site that the motherboard is out of production as well as warranty....

I would like to build a new system using these processors possibly finding a motherboard that in fact will correctly function with the processors. I don't wish to duplicate the wasted effort I did with the ASUS motherboard and share this to help those trying to accomplish the same.

 

[ak47jar3d]

I know the X9DRI-LN4F+ Supermicro Rev 1.20 can do it. Can't confirm the rest....

 

[LinuxDevice]

I'll +1 the Supermicro suggestion. My ASUS Xeon mobo also died (still in warranty). Plus another ASUS new mobo (non-Xeon) was D.O.A. without BIOS flash helping. I've kind of given up on ASUS.

 

[Starnet]

I doubt seriously I will try again with ASUS, they used to be my goto boards in the past but their new lack of support and making statements about hardware combination that just don't work.
Then when you point it out to them they simply say "its no longer in production" so we have no way to verify specifics. I would really like to build a dual E5-2697 V2 platform so I will look into the X9DRI-LN4F+ Supermicro Rev 1.20 and maybe give it another shot. Thanks for the suggestion ak47!

 

[Starnet]

Looking into the X9DRI-LN4F+ Supermicro Rev 1.20 motherboard, my only concern at this point is being able to gather the drivers for different operating system. I spoke with a Supermicro tech today about it as was told this specific product was being moved to archive and hoping it will be accessible to the public before I dive in again. One good this about this MB there are lots of them out there and the prices are very reasonable. We shall see how this works out.

 

[Starnet]

Here was the response from Supermicro tech support on the X9DRI-LN4F questions about CPU compatibility, drivers for operating system and general support:


Hi Dan,

I have some information about your X9DRi-LN4F+

1. I found this FAQ # 26445 that someone has asked the same question about E5-26xx V2 CPU and the solution is submit an RMA request to SMC. However, since this motherboard is already End Of Life therefore RMA the motherboard back is irrelevant as we are no longer supported this product.

https://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=26445
(So submit a RMA form which will be ignored as stated above, think someone tried what I want to do and it didn't work for them)

motherboard manual:
https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/motherboard/C606_602/MNL-1258.pdf
(This answer was a little better and actually provided a current motherboard manual)

1. You can use the link below to find out the OS Compatibility for this motherboard (Intel chipset C606/C602)

https://www.supermicro.com/support/resources/OS/C602_listing3.cfm
(Nice chart but no leads to the drivers and it leads me to believe many of the Microsoft OS's were not supported on this specific motherboard)

1. You can use the link below to download the drivers for your motherboard. Please make sure fill in correct information such as product name = X9DRi-LN4F+

https://www.supermicro.com/en/support/resources/downloadcenter/swdownload/result
(Invalid link: this is what I got when I tried to go there:

Oops! An Error Occurred
The server returned a "405 Method Not Allowed".

Something is broken. Please let us know what you were doing when this error occurred. We will fix it as soon as possible. Sorry for any inconvenience caused

Well to sum it up Supermicro isn't any better then ASUS when it comes to support of out of production motherboards, ASUS 's website was able to provide some of the drivers for their dual xeon motherboards. So, again I came up empty and unless I am willing to gamble a couple hundred bucks to hope I can get it to work. EOL to manufactures is truely a literal statement. Once it goes out of production they figure they go up in smoke and have no future value. Dissappointed to say the least. So be it, I will stick with only 12 cores and old ASUS P9X79 for now .

Thanks to all who tried to help and provide info and suggestions!

 

[Starnet]

The saga continues, I purchased a ASUS Z10PE D16 WS which I will set up with 2 E5-2640 V4's initially and then once it stable move to 2 E5-2699 V4's and 64GB memory.

I have been on the ASUS site downloading all the support software. I am hoping once the board arrives the factory ASUS Drivers DVD and the ASM software will be included.

If not I will be going back to ASUS again trying to get the support DVD from them. Since this motherboard was recently just dropped as an active product by ASUS I am hoping to have better luck getting all the pieces and parts. If I do manage to get it all to work it should be a powerful platform with 44 Cores and 88 threads.

If anyone out there has the Z10PE D16 WS ASUS support please drop me a line here, thanks

 

[Starnet]

I worked with the configuration but unfortunately it was not very stable and ended up moving over to an ASUS X99-E WS USB/3.1 . This worked out to be the best and seems to be the most stable platform for those wanting to use the top end Xeon E5 2600 series. I had none of the problems that I had with the dual processor ASUS boards. So, case closed and I bought me a few more years with this configuration. I know there will come a time I will just have to shelf Win 7 break down and just have to pony up the case to have some of my applications upgraded to run under Windows 11 (or even the next os)