$101 Huananzhi X99 Motherboard Review | Can We Game On This Board?

[@Lurch-Bot]

Cool MB. This would be perfect for my secondary gaming PC/recording/editing/DAW machine. The single thread score of a 2690V4 is similar to the Haswell i7 I currently use. But the multicore performance is massively better. The x4 slot is perfect for my Elgato 4k60 Pro. Unfortunately, you didn't say anything about what chipset this actually has - it is nominally X99 due to the CPU support but these cheap Chinese boards use a variety of chipsets which are rarely ever actually X99. For example, I am doing an X99-PR9-H-M build right now to sell. HWInfo says it has a QM57 chipset. And I am utterly baffled how a PCIe 3.0x16 GPU and fast NVMe 3.0X4 can both run normally when the QM57 only has 8 PCIe lanes. Even more baffled how a mobile chipset that originally supported first gen mobile CPUs can work with a Haswell Xeon...Somehow they do all this, including NVMe support on a platform that doesn't even natively support it but there are absolutely no USB 3 ports on the MB, even though it is pretty rare to find a Haswell MB, let alone one using an enterprise CPU without them. Oh, there's a USB3 header but I already can safely assume it only runs at USB2.0 speed. It doesn't matter. I'm building a gaming PC and it somehow supports reBAR and I'm putting a 2060 on it, which can use reBAR with the NVStraps mod. So I have a suitable CPU that performs like a Ryzen 1600 but for just $10 - a quarter of the trending price for a Ryzen 1600, surprisingly good RAM benchmarks, in spite of having 2133MT/s DDR4 ECC RDIMMs that cost less than $10 per 8GB stick with 32GB total and a Crucial P3 that doesn't seem to realize it is in a hacked, cobbled together Chinese MB. And for a budget gaming PC, does anything else really matter? I'm gonna put a USB 3.2Gen1 adapter in with 2 USB-C ports that supports 20W PD. I also get to call it a "New" Motherboard in my listing.

[@ntn888]

i tried to sell one of thiese x99 systems in fb marketplace and had a hard time.. how are you going with flipping these?

[@tuwaise9216]

thanks for the review, now i can decide what i want to buy.

[@ericmasson7462]

Very interesting video. I still on the fence between the famous X99 dual Xeon vs. this one ;) BTW, this bundle shows at $256 CAN, still not bad.

[@milk4chillout]

Thanks for the video. The aliexpress link does not workung. could you explain a little bit more in detail, how the bios dump thing is working? Maybe in case of similar china mobo's? Thanks

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Updated the link. Basically I use flahrom to dump the internal BIOS, it might work in most cases, but might not work on some. When it doesn't work, you need SOIC8 clips and dumping it via USB. After dumping you just use the github repo I use in the video to clean out / shrink the ME, then you flash back the modified BIOS image, either using flashrom directly again, or if flashrom directly doesn't work, you'll again write it back using SOIC8 clips. Hope it helps

[@cowboype]

​@@TechnicallyUnsurewhy needs to clean ME?

[@bekim137]

I have my huananzhi x79 for 2 years long at it work fine

[@shahazmeer]

same here i'm running huananzhi x79 zd3 for 2 years still working fine

[@marcc5768]

I'm running a Kllisre x79 since Oct 2021 w/e5-2650 v2

[@horizonrider508]

I m running ASUS RAMPAGE 4 EXTREME with E5 2687w + sapphire RX VEGA 64 LC for 4 years still runs fast n reliable with

[@nadtz]

The nice things about these boards is the onboard M.2 support but the old chipset/CPU is starting to grow long in the tooth especially with no VGA/BMC. And I say that as someone who has V2-V5 xeons running in my homelab (that I'm in the process of replacing). The good thing is that they are cheap which for some use cases can trump more modern features assuming power usage/costs isn't too high.

[@yourpcmd]

You can buy just the Huananzhi motherboard for a mere $65.

[@marcc5768]

The product page says xeon v4, then you stated it was v3 Xeon?

[@zeroturn7091]

Wish that I would’ve waited for this feature. I purchased the last board, and the x16 slot is too close to the CPU.

[@agentsmith8434]

Great review this CPU support virtualization?

[@thomaswood8167]

If you don’t mind me asking, what is the actual chipset? Chinese motherboards are famous for using a wide range of desktop chips for these X-99 boards.

[@Yarpopcat08]

From my experience, they use literally any chipset they can find, so two boards with one branding can have two different desktop chipsets. It is always a gamble. Edit: After searching through some forums, it seems that most common chipsets for this exact board are Q87 and Z87

[@Vegatablez]

Even if you buy the same model of Chinese x99 at the same time you can get a different chipset.

[@redwanhasan1721]

The only issue I have with these motherboards is how long are they going to last and in an event of failure is there any support available or not.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

You are right, that's why these boards are so cheap, but from what I've seen so far, they seem to be doing pretty OK. Support-wise though, you probably won't get much, but as for longevity, they should last a couple of years.

[@slobodanfuletic9465]

They are giving 3y warranty

[@marcc5768]

Remember to do regular back ups of data so you don't lose what's important. Can always build another budget Xeon rig.. Data can't be replaced

[@sourcilavise3788]

So you just need to remove the intel ME and then you can flash a compatible bios on it, that's right ?

[@garrettmandujano2996]

I also have this question

[@Garcian91]

You showed how to run some debian/ubuntu OS on system but... How about booting it headless? Does this MoBo support it? Most of the X99 boards on chinese market doesn't allow it so they can't be used as a real server.

[@kkpriRSUPDr.M.DJAMIL]

Bro where you get intel hsf with screw?

[@abdulshukorkamis3606]

Thanks for sharing 😀.

[@benedictfernandez9069]

I have the same setup a e5 2680 v4 paired with rx 590gme and its rocking bro totally one with tight budget for gaming ther some x99 mobo that comes with 8 slot ddr4 and ARGB header thou u cant overclock the apu but u can get a mod mobo for it to unlock boost and not recommend it might destroy ur apu

[@teaminvest1397]

cool, but i have to ask, what did u do while installing windows? is there something i have to buy to run windows, and how can i connect wifi without ethernet

[@marcc5768]

If you don't use a network cable then you need a wifi add in PCIe card

[@SevenHealer]

A good use could be as a ssh server

[@boneappletee6416]

Do you mean a media / file share host...? Because SSH servers are incredibly lightweight packages you run on nearly any machine

[@TAPS147]

@@boneappletee6416i think he means maybe headless (without the gpu). That would cut the power draw a little too !

[@CherryColaWizard]

What is the form factor for this motherboard?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

245*190mm M-ATX

[@Allen811973]

most of the boards from Aliexpress is bios lock on over clocking

[@ethancastillo1679]

Not just ali boards, any server grade x99/c612 board does not support it because Intel didn't intend it

[@SeeJayPlayGames]

it's kinda wrong for them to be bundling 2000 series Xeons in with a single-cpu board with dual channel memory slots because those chips are meant to be for dual-cpu boards with quad channel memory... but what do I know? The free market knows best... ;-p

[@marcc5768]

True the Haswell and Broadwell e5 xeons can work with dual cpu config and quad channel RAM. Huananzhi likely cost cutting. An everyday user won't know the difference between dual and quad channel performance. Myself I used ECC ram for my xeon in quad channel for x79 build. Single cpu Kllisre mobo. Not all use case need the horsepower of dual cpu. Some config can be power hungry

[@SeeJayPlayGames]

what's up with your game capture? Low bitrate? Looks awful. With 35TB of SSDs there, there's no excuse for low bitrate.

[@vexdr3520]

is it bottle necking

[@zulutgseta8276]

But, Xeon TDP was so fat 🤪