Compatibility - x99 and Intel Xeon CPU

[valshteinj]

Hi guys,

I recently got a fantastic deal on a MSI x99s sli plus motherboard. I was looking for a processor, and found a intel xeon e5 1603 v3 on ebay for cheap as well. The xeon has an lga 2011 v3 socket type. Im good on compatibility right? Thanks for any response!

 

[Hlsgsz]

[strike]Yes, you're ok. [/strike]What will you be using the system for as that CPU will not be good at gaming?

Scratch that. Upon further research, it would seem that, strangely, that board only supports the E5-1603 v4.
You can check yourself here: https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/X99S-SLI-PLUS.html#support-cpu

It's possible taht they forgot to list the v3 there, but i wouldn't risk it.
Plus, either teh v3 ort v4 will not be that great in single threaded tasks as they are only clocked at 2.8Ghz.

 

[methodius1]

I hate to bring this back up but I have a E5-1607 V3 and I just bought an MSI X99S. Does anyone know if this CPU is compatible. Its not listed on the MSI site.

 

[methodius1]

I hate to bring this back up but I have a E5-1607 V3 and I just bought an MSI X99S. Does anyone know if this CPU is compatible. Its not listed on the MSI site.

Sorry it's the 1607 v3. Does anyone know?

 

[scunner.darkly]

Given the compatibility list doesn't include the CPU specified but does include closely related models there's a very good chance it would work. My old Gigabyte X58 board didn't explicitly support the Xeon X5680 when I bought the CPU but it fired up first time and never missed a beat. And, if offered such a processor at an attractive price, what's the risk? If the price is right you won't lose out financially if you have to sell it on again.

As with the X58 enthusiast boards, Xeon's extra capabilities may not be fully exploited on non-workstation boards but this doesn't mean they offer any less functionality than the consumer i7 CPUs when fitted to an enthusiast board - and certainly won't be down on performance if you choose a model with a comparable clock speed, and may even gain. As an example an X5550 offers the same clock speed and number of cores as an i7-920, but tucked away is the QPI running at 6.4GT/s as opposed to the i7's QPI at 4.8GT/s.

Finally, to say a 2.8GHz CPU won't be good at gaming is a poorly qualified statement. Faster CPUs will obviously offer improved performance but that doesn't mean a 2.8GHz CPU can't game well per se. Give it a decent GPU to feed and it will keep up admirably. My old i7-920 (quad 2.66GHz, HT) powering a GTX 980Ti was virtually indistinguishable from the X5680 (hex 3.33GHz, HT) powering the same GPU. It's not that the X5680 is weak, it's that games performance is largely dictated by GPU power, not CPU power, as anyone here should know.