A NIGHTMARE!!! : ASUS Z9PE-D8 WS Dual LGA 2011 Intel Motherboard

nrobidoux

Honorable
Nov 23, 2014
5
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10,510
My subject is rather overly dramatic. The experience is a bit frustrating because of my job which leaves me little time and I have to make some progress quick. If not I need to start getting things ready to RMA. I'm just trying to get as many opinions as possible. I'm not going to claim I'm a tech wizard as my Asrock built I mention below humbled me there.

Goal of this system is to run 7 GPUs watercooled. I had this going on an Asrock X87 Fata1ity Killer MB and wanted to take this "thing" out of a milkcrate and into real case of some sort. I wanted a "real case" and not a custom built, open air, aluminum angle iron case. I thought it would take less time LOL. I bought the ASUS MB and several other products to make it work. I was unaware of the compatibility lists but it looks like I did a good job picking.

I chose CPU based on NewEggs mentioning the E5-2600 family. Later I looked at compatibility with the C602 chipset on Intel Ark. Check. Just recently ASUS. Found link for memory compatibility in another thread, Unfortunately I did not see a 1066 DDR3 section but the vendor I purchased RAM from is listed in every other category. ASUS and Newegg both mention 1066 as compatible... interestingly the image on the ASUS site goes to 1333 (http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z9PED8_WS), but on the specification tab it goes to 1066 (http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z9PED8_WS/specifications/)....

It was a Litecoin mining rig but I'm going to convert it to a FAH rig. Eventually using it to test Redis / Erlang game/login/loadbalancing server. (That last part is for if/when I need more than one game server. :) ) If all goes well I'll drive it over to my ISP.

My problem: Power on... No video, seemingly no POST, case and video fans on high. I have two Corsair H90 All-in-One watercoolers, both running. No Q-code displayed at anytime by the MB.

I had all the fans hooked into a PWM hub during my first few power on attempts. The fans "kicked" and then returned to their original positions.

Initial Setup:

  • CPU: Xeon E5-2603 v2 x 2
    RAM: G. Skill Rip Jaws DDR3-1066 7-7-7-18 Quad Channel 4GB x 8
    Cooling:

    • Corsair H90 All-in-One Watercooling Solution (140mm Setup/CPU)
      140mm fans (7) wired into PWM controller, one lead went to fan header on MB
    Video: XFX 7950 DD (Two cards, one on each attempt, neither worked)
    PSU: Lepa G1200W (2 8-pin, 1 24-pin, 2 PCIe 6-pin, 1 4x SATA, 1 2xSATA/2xMolex in use)
    Storage:

    • LG Blu-ray burner SATA ?
      WD Blue 250GB SATA II
      Muskin Chronos 120GB SATA III SSD x 4
    Headers Connected on MB:

    • PWM fan controller
      Chassis HD Audio header
      Chassis USB 3.0
      Chassis USB 2.0
      Chassis Switches / HDD LED
    KB: USB 2.0

Current Setup:

  • CPU: Xeon E5-2603 v2 x 2
    RAM: G. Skill Rip Jaws DDR3-1066 7-7-7-18 Quad Channel 4GB x 2
    Cooling:vCorsair H90 All-in-One Watercooling Solution (140mm Setup/CPU)
    Video: HIS 7950 Boost IceQ
    PSU: Lepa G1200W (2 8-pin, 1 24-pin, 2 PCIe 6-pin in use)
    Storage:USB Xubuntu 12.04 ISO
    Headers Connected on MB: Chassis Switches / HDD LED
    KB: USB 2.0

I also changed VGA enabled to disabled on the last attempt. Tried clearing BIOS, no change. Video hooked into DVI via a DVI-VGA adapter.

Goal for the final setup: similar to my initial above but 5 HIS 7950s (same model), 2 HIS 7970s (same model), +1 Lepa G1200. Got all the stuff... just want to get it working.
 
IDK. As far as I can tell I can't get to the point where I can find out as there is no video. I have no spare LGA2011 CPUs laying around. 🙁

Just spoke with ASUS a little while ago... They asked about the memory. I have some "non-supported" Crucial Ballistix Sport 9-9-9-24 to swap out...


Update: Just got off live chat. I was told there's a sticker near the 24-pin connector with a part number and bios number on it. Well I didn't see the sticker. What I saw was that the 8-pin connector for CPU1 was no longer in. (I have a Phantek's Enthoo Primo case, routed everything behind the MB, positioning-wise the connectors are not that visible... and everything looked good but power cables to the top of the MB are near the end of their length. At some point it must have popped out.)

BIOS 5304

I'm in my BIOS now. 😀

Time to pack this with me and start driving. I feel like a complete fool.... but a very happy fool. 😀