Building a Budget NAS! Xeon Motherboard Combo from AliExpress for $167 | Full Setup & Review

I think I discovered an incredible deal on AliExpress-a Xeon Motherboard with CPU and RAM for just $167! In this video, I’m putting together a budget-friendly NAS using this motherboard
www.aliexpress.us/item/325680...
We’ll install Ubuntu and TrueNAS Core, test various storage setups including 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch mechanical disks, and SATA drives. Watch as I configure TrueNAS pools, perform benchmarks, and speed tests, and even test out 10GB Ethernet capabilities via a PCIe slot. Is this setup truly worth its price? Grab your coffee, and let’s find out together! Make sure to hit like, subscribe, and ring the bell for more tech reviews and builds!
PART 2: • Intel ME, PCIe bifurca...
#nas #aliexpress #xeonmotherboard #nasbuild #budgettech #truenas #ubuntu #diyserver #techreview #pcbuild #homelab #networkattachedstorage #sata #mechanicaldisk #10gbe #pcie #techtips #budgetpc #serverbuild #computerhardware #geekculture #techdeals #gadgetreview #techtutorial #datastorage #techenthusiast #hardwarehacking #networking #speedtest #benchmarking #techcommunity

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Please check out the follow-up video, answering most (if not all) your questions: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKPYiKCMmceSo6s

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Thank you all for your interest in this video, I heard you all. I'll do a follow up video, will try PCIE bifurcation, try ethernet link aggregation, show power consumption under load and idle, try Proxmox on this motherboard and have TrueNAS and pfSense as guests. Please keep the ideas coming, I'll try everything you all mention here in the follow up video.

[@smashclever]

I work in Datacenters, these intel xeon were famous in about 8 years ago, they got decommissioned and flooded the aliexpress website. They then created the motherboards to run them, hence the infamous x99. I got one running stuff for work and even games such car simulators. Now Im thinking in building private NAS and this motherboard could not be any better, I think you hit the jackpot with this combo. Maybe a how to installing proxmox then run pfsense, homeassistant and Truenas in VMS would be an idea of a video!!.anyways, subscribed :)

[@shoddits2156]

since NAS almost linked to Media servers now, you can also test plex/jellyfin for transcoding capability (how many transcoded stream it can handle for example 4k to 1080p) and how much power it uses, comparing to N100 board (have almost the same price and feature 4x2.5GB + 6xSATA) if possible

[@blainebrodka5335]

Excellent board for a mini-DTX server, which is slightly longer than mini-ITX. What is important is the PCIe x16 slot supports bifurcation x4x4x4 out of the box allowing you to plug an adapter with 4 NVMe discs. Given this 5 NVMe drives are easily installed in the system. Very convenient and VGA output to set up the system with busy PCIe. On the board, apparently, the IPMI controller is a part of which is a VGA output, but there is no remote control itself, possibly due to the lack of software licenses. In general, an excellent compact board for the cheap Xeon E5 now allows you to assemble a compact, relatively inexpensive server with many streams, a bunch of NVMe and SATA and up to 64GB of RAM. This for a home server will last for 5 years, or even longer. Additional feedback: The board is chic. A few tips below. To select the built-in video or discrete choose in Bios: Intelrcsteup> miscellaneous configuration> Active Video To break x16 slot into other values (bifurcation), such as x4x4x4 for NVMe: Intelrcsteup> io0 configuration> iou0 (PCIe port 2)

[@Dvalin21]

Im assuming you have this board already? You mentioned something about ipmi for this board, can you go into more detail? Maybe @TechnicallyUnsure can research something for a work around?

[@Eggrole85]

My office burnt down a few weeks ago, along went my PLEX NAS so im actually looking for new stuff for a NAS! Might actually buy this one, whenever the insurance money comes in!

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Sorry to hear that, hopefully insurance will cover the damages.

[@nick-leffler]

Depending on how much power you need, I'd recommend a n100 Mobo. Much better with power and the iGPU on the n100 can handle like ~6 transcodes.

[@honahwikeepa2115]

That's a tragedy. Hope you get up and running asap 👍🏾🙏🏾

[@soucouyant]

Great video. Thanks for your hard work.

[@fabfianda]

My definition of "fun video"! Thanks for this :)

[@fabfianda]

And one more upvote for power consumption testing.

[@pedrinhosari]

really really thankyou for this content

[@qureshiabaan1337]

Great video. Keep it up. What was the power draw under load and idle?

[@Dvalin21]

I've actually been waiting for someone to do a review on this board. Been watching it for awhile. By the way, you picked up a new subscriber. The only thing I would like to know is what is the greatest sleep state does this motherboard goes into and does it actually support Restore on AC/Power Loss. Also I noticed you didn't test the msata slot (for wifi or dual Coral TPU)

[@joseph3164]

love the rat's nest of cables! Great video!

[@ChantawatPochaithong]

I always need to build NAS with xeon processor but not sure with power consumption and stability. Your video provide a lot information. Thank you.

[@HaimPeretz]

Thanks for the review, looks like a great board but i have some questions: ECC RAM working? Can you install GPU on the x16 slotm Does this board have display without external GPU? What is the speed of the nvme? Which c-state this board using?

[@EdvardasSmakovas]

I was looking at this mobo for some time, due having v3 cpu and ram laying around, so glad someone finally took the gamble :) Also very interested in pcie bifurcation, ipmi and overall bios features for pci passthrough in proxmox. Does iommu groups separeted properly? Can you passthrough the whole sata controller?

[@superangrybrit]

There are real gems on Ali. My old mobo died. They had B75 based motherboards for 43$ shipped. Swapped mobos. Told Windows to reactivate. Boom done! It even has bootable m.2 4x lanes NVMe. Good video! 👍

[@abb0tt]

Great find. If a proper network link speed could be created, this board would be excellent for a Ceph cluster. I have a few Xeon boards that are 35 watt TDP with ECC and SFP+, but they’re 4x the price.

[@Trains-With-Shane]

Just put this motherboard combo on order. Wasn't originally going to order the CPU or ram with it but, since it's about the same price as ordering them separately off of eBay i figured why not. The Xeon they're offering was only a few dollars more than the motherboard + RAM.

[@Lunolux]

great video thx

[@dktol56]

So how are you getting video output from the vga port? I've never heard of a xeon server cpu with an iGPU. Edit: Ok, later in the video, I see ASPEED, which provides basic 2-D graphics for management. Neat. Also, is this BKHD motherboard using an ASMEDIA or JMicron chipset to provide some of the 10 X SATA ports?

[@akilmilo]

Great video! What would be your thoughts on a system build from the N100 development board from CWWK using the QNASMINI as a case and the ASM1061 controller for SATA ports? It looks to be popular in China. Would love to hear your thoughts and would be kick-ass if you think it merits to be build :) The board can be purchased from T which will be much cheaper.

[@nadtz]

While I on one hand love these Frankenstein Chinese Xeon motherboards I would do a *lot* of testing before I trusted one for a NAS. Miyconst has done a lot of testing of these kinds of boards over the years and I've messed with a few myself and when they work they are generally okish but compared to Super Micro or Asrock Rack you don't get anything like the support (on an old chipset) or reliability, keeping in mind my current NAS runs a V2 CPU in a Tyan board so it's not like I'm against running older hardware. While you do get ECC support you could realistically get some newer hardware second hand for about the same cost and lower TDP but for this particular board the lack of PCIE lanes would be a deal killer for me, that said if it does work for your use case less than $200 for the mb/cpu/ram isn't bad at all assuming it's stable. Also if you hunt around ebay you can find x99 motherboards for some insane prices sometimes, I have 1 I picked up for $30 (supermicro) but like you mentioned you wont get M.2 onboard or other modern IO.

[@wiedapp]

What's that thing beneath the M.2 SSD? Is that a SIM card slot or a micro SD card slot?

[@orange11squares]

amazing board and you really have a lot of 8TB SSDs. wow.

[@wilsmith7173]

I ordered one as well, because I am also curious. I've got a UNRAID Pro key that I would like to use for a backup NAS unit.

[@Labombab]

Nice and complete review, were you, in a later fase, able to run proxmox on this motherboard?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Yes, proxmox works on this motherboard

[@Labombab]

Thnx!!

[@SuperSpecies]

Please test 10GbE write speeds with much bigger files than 10G Byte. I suspect you have enough ram that it is simply getting it into ram but underlying ssd write speeds are lower, considering your read speed results.

[@mitcoes]

SUGGESTION: Make a VENTOY disk for USB3 as fast as you can, with all the ISO files you would need . PS: I used a 128Mb NVMe with external enclosure because I upgraded to 2Tb ones, and it flies when installing or copying from to the computer.

[@Dvalin21]

I spoke to a Marhone Huang with BKHD and he said this board does work with ECC, but it has to be RDIMM or Registered ECC. He really pushed on it being 2400mhz. I hopes this helps PS: The way the conversation went, it doesn't seem like they plan on doing a bios update anytime soon. The latest is what's already on the board dated for December 2023.

[@GriffonWalker]

What’s the difference between rdimm ecc and normal on chip?

[@Dvalin21]

@@GriffonWalker Error correction code (ECC) memory It has the ability to auto detect and correct errors while normal doesn't

[@hrgagan9192]

very impressively put together board, any chance of knowings what's the power draw at full capacity?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Please check this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKPYiKCMmceSo6s

[@bat21sm]

hi, which fan cooler is compatible with that motherboard and that cpu?? Thank you

[@toddmand6451]

Could you use this as a NAS and a PFsense router since your have this 2.5g slots? If so, how would your do it? And would it be worth it?

[@zeroturn7091]

You’d need a host and run them as virtual machines. Looks decent for a home lab, but I would downgrade the CPU to something lower powered.

[@frankwong9486]

Beside the pcie x16 there seems a slot for msata ?

[@YusufTech750]

finally someone made a video on this

[@Dvalin21]

Im right there with ya. Been waiting on this for months!

[@YusufTech750]

@Dvalin21 i already ordered mine. there are more thing to test like if ecc function correctly vram temp if fan speed ajustable

[@Dvalin21]

@@YusufTech750 I've spoken to the manufacturer, they are saying that the ECC HAS to be RDIMM 2400.

[@mzmatze]

Anything about Powerdraw in different situations? Idle, SATA Drives attached but in Spindown Mode etc. And it would be great to know, if this Setup is capable of various C-States for Energy saving. What about the SATA-Connectors? Are there Portmultipliers used? Or is every SATA-Port connected to it's own Controllerchannel? The fairly "slow" Reading-Speed of your fast Dataset sounds to me a bit like there could be Port Multipliers.

[@1138jazz]

Idle for my full setup is 70W (see my post for full details). I tried using spindown mode, it reduced idle power by a few watts, however once enabled it seemed to be the cause of an issue powering on the system after shutdown. C6 is what I'm getting with my setup. Tried running powertop auto config, however it would cause the NIC to stop working.

[@mzmatze]

@@1138jazz Which Post for full details? 70W would be too much for me letting it run 24/7 since Electricity is relatively expensive in Germany. But this depends on what exactly you are running on your system. If the Board itself with CPU and RAM, without Drives connected would idle at around 20W, it could be worth it.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm taking notes, will try these in the follow up video. Stay tuned

[@Dvalin21]

@@TechnicallyUnsure FYI, this youtube builds from scratch bios for x99 motherboards www.youtube.com/@BIOS-Engineer

[@mzmatze]

@@TechnicallyUnsure just to let you know, i found a little bit more detailed description at the Homepage of bkhd to this Motherboard. The translation from chinese to english said something about 4 SATA and three "double Layer" SATA ports. Maybe this means, that four SATA ports are native and the other six are ports, where two connectors share one native port. But this is more or less just guessed.

[@moto_random_stuff]

I find this motherboard couple months ago. Almost bought it but I also think I may miss something :D I'm extremly curious what is power consumption of only mobo + this CPU and 10Gbe?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Sorry about that... I will measure the power consumption today/tomorrow and post it here.

[@sebastianknapek1467]

@@TechnicallyUnsure thank for the Video. looks like a decent base for NAS. i built on MSI Z490A pro and I5 + 64gb ram. 6x12 TB and power consumption is approx 80 W

[@affieuk]

@@TechnicallyUnsure Were you able to test the idle power consumtion? Can you test with only one 2.5gb cable connected and with two, so that we can understand how much power each NIC port will consume. I'm currently running some networking services on my smashed up surface pro 3, at idle it's only using a few watts.

[@chrisbird4913]

The CMOS battery isn't there because of shipping restrictions in some countries.

[@lllongreen]

Good price might almost even out the x99 chipset and platforms power usage on that ancient x99 platform and antique Xeon 😅 funny they took ancient c246 chipset and added some modern 2.5 gb ethernet PHYs and then got cheap used dimms and cpu from a hoster datacenter that phased these old platforms out and sold it all on aliexpress 😅

[@xyz8460]

They don't include the button cell bios battery because of shipping restrictions afaik

[@Starshooter216]

The reason it takes so long to boot up is the motherboard has to check everything, including all of the hardrives and everything that is hooked up, and then the actual boot takes place.

[@GriffonWalker]

So what really gives you better nas performance this old Xeon and this board or the more pricey AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS 7940HS 9-Bay NAS Motherboard. I have a micro and full size chassis I’m trying to decide what to build in 😂

[@kirksteinklauber260]

Nice video!! Can you test if Wake On LAN works? I have configured other X99 chinese board and this functionality doesn’t work. Others complains about hibernation, change clock speeds of the memory and CPU. It will be good if you can test that!

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

I will check this as well as power consumption and let you know

[@kirksteinklauber260]

@@TechnicallyUnsure nice!! I am interested in this motherboard to buy for myself but I am intrigued on potential issues or glitches like this. My current X99 doesn’t work well the WoL but I have deployed a work around using a Shelly 1

[@kirksteinklauber260]

Also I am very interested to know if this board supports (and actually works) doing PCI-E bifurcation. For example splitting the x16 into 2 x8 x8 and use one subset slot for a 10 Gbps NIC (like in your video) and the other to attach another type of card (i.e., Video card for local AI, additional PCI-E to NVMe, etc.). It will be nice if you can do a follow up video to see if these features really work (aside that the option exists to enable at the BIOS level). Thanks again!!

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

@@kirksteinklauber260 Please see the pinned comment, I'll definitely do a follow up video, please stay tuned, if you have any other ideas/suggestions, please share. Thank you

[@kirksteinklauber260]

@@TechnicallyUnsure Will do thanks!!!

[@SB-qm5wg]

I use those hynix ecc sticks in my projects.

[@moto_random_stuff]

I may ask for too much but maybe it's good opportunity to make : "BKHD-C612NP-21 Part II" video with couple more test. Mainly with power consumption, it's quite interesting how does it handle C-states and show it in powertop. Also test with some ProxmoxVE and Unraid (i suppose that Unraid will work just fine if the Ubuntu work without any problem). The next case is Aspeed AST2400 controller, it should be a IPMI controller and support remote console for management for this mobo but it also may just use integrated graphic which is pretty poor even compare with some intel desktop processor integrated graphic. This mobo with some low voltage/TDP Xeon E5-2650LV4 might keep the power consumption in reasonable values - I living in Poland where currenty electricity bills is highest in whole Europe :( So power efficiency is extremely important for people making HomeLAB in my country.

[@moto_random_stuff]

I've try to add some links for some datasheet of BMC controler and also for bios files and detailed spec for this mobo but youtube blocked my comment :(

[@gomergomez1984]

I bought one of these for a cheap game pc since already have a 3.4 ghz cpu to use with it.

[@YuNherd]

this is cool, maybe they could sell it without the cpu version so i can use a lower TDP xeon ones

[@anchilot]

please try test using pico psu on that board too

[@joseph3164]

FYI typically these chinese x99 mobo's temperature sensors are off by about -20C. My Jingsha x99 motherboard is off by ~22C. I noticed when you stressed the system that cores only rose to 60C, with that small of a cooler and 14 cores/28 threads all beings stressed I think your mobo might also be off by a 20C delta. There are fixes to this with custom bios, and injected drivers. You might google miyconst hardware or bios engineer for some of those custom bios.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Oh really? I did not know about that. I'm going to research this. Thanks for sharing.

[@dktol56]

You could test if suspend-to-ram (S3) works.

[@feralkid9315]

How are you getting video without a GPU? Xeon doesn't have an iGPU. Is there a VGA chip on the motherboard? This looks like a very interesting motherboard with a lot of connectivity. For the price, I'm considering buying one. My only reservation is that I will be wasting my time chasing bugs on an unstable, unbranded, Chinese piece of junk when I could just pay a little more and get a new AMD B550 motherboard, 5500 CPU, and i/o adapters. I've subbed and watched both of your videos on this mobo. Could you do another one where you test the throughput on all of the rear i/o and a long term stability test? Essentially I'm asking you to make a video where you try to kill this motherboard.

[@0xKruzr]

>best it supports is Broadwell oooooffffffffffff. I think we found the gotcha, man.

[@URackADisciprine]

Are all the NIC's the same brand/model? I only saw that you tested the one and TrueNAS is picky about drivers. I would want to aggregate them to make a 10GB link. With that CPU I am sure the energy consumption is terrible. Would be worth it though to buy the board with just the CPU and get a different one as well as some ECC memory. No ECC in a NAS intended for long-term storage, especially flash based, is a bad idea. Only concern I would have is longevity of the MB. Those cheap knockoffs are notorious for failing after a year or two.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Thanks for sharing this. Yes, definitely needs ECC memory for NAS and/or Proxmox setup. There's an option to buy the motherboard only or without memory. As for ethernet, yes, they are all same brand/model. As for longevity, you are right, I have no clue if this would last

[@URackADisciprine]

@@TechnicallyUnsure Thanks for the info. I don't see any option to buy just the MB. Only options for me are MB & RAM, MB & CPU or all three. For me, bet would be MB & CPU then swap out the CPU and get some ECC. Cheapest way for me to get a power efficient system with ECC.

[@r0galik]

Wow, how did you get so much stuff? Is this partly for work?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Let's just say this is all my hobby and that's why I decided to start a YT channel to share it all with you :-)

[@leonidiakovlev]

Does this system has a separate GPU for mediaserver transcoding?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Unfortunately no

[@AvisTechno]

What model is your 10gb pcie adaptor ?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

This is what I'm using www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/AOC-STG-i2T.pdf

[@AvisTechno]

@@TechnicallyUnsure thanks

[@john-leezeelie8358]

Once i have some spare cash flow i think ill give this a go

[@michaelglass1386]

Can the network ports be link aggregated?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Will try in the follow up video. Stay tuned

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

The gotcha with those Xeon motherboards is they take decommissioned server motherboards when businesses replace them and scavenge the chipset for new motherboards. The board is new. The chipset isn't. Also, these are made on a budget, so you're not gonna get the same functionality from a Supermicro, ASRockRACK or similar server motherboards. This motherboard you have uses an Intel C612 chipset, which was discontinued in 2019.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Thanks for sharing, I agree with what you said, but to a regular user, who just wants to build a NAS, I think this would work without issues, it won't be SuperMicro, yes, but its still great buy I think for setting a powerful NAS/Proxmox server

[@Reflexiony]

I get my ASUS MB Asus Z10PA-U8 C612 with 1x USB unRAID and 3x LAN 4x 16GB 2133 MHz RAM and a Xeon E5-2630L v4 to idle: 35Watt, Switched off: 6-8Watt ...IPMI... eats. With the China Huananzhi Gaming X99-TF with the BIOS from iEngineer even at least 8 NVMes. PCIE bifurcation 2x16 to x4x4x4x4 is possible, so that at least 8 NVMe M.2 can be accommodated, perfect for ZFS under unRAID, for example. Thanks to the additional PCIE 3.0 x4 lanes, the lowest slot can take over the Gt1030 image output. Without GT1030 2GB DDR5 and without VRAM cooler Idle: 32Watt Switched off: 0.9 watts. It would be interesting to know what watts the BKHD C612 consumes under ‘similar’ conditions in idle mode, only LAN/USB stick with unRAID.

[@bell1602]

what about link aggregation with the 2.5 ports

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Didn't really work with my Unifi switch, I prob didn't configure something properly, but I tried LACP and it didn't work and I moved on, didn't really try to fix it.

[@nick-leffler]

I don't have one of these, but I have a AliExpress n5095 Mobo and did LAG/LACP no problem to my OLD HP switch. AFAIK the hardware really doesn't matter all that matters is the software supports it and the NICs are the same speed.

[@JibunnoKage-cj2kz]

TPM support? UEFI support?

[@toematoe]

the time control word is the brand of the board.

[@erafien]

Most zion dont have igpu. How u started it without graphic card ?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

There's an ASPEED chip as you can see in the video, that chip provides the VGA signal. I just used VGA to HDMI converter

[@painkiller895]

I ordered one hope it's not a fire hazard .

[@scudsturm1]

BKHD is the brand, thats the manufacturer

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Thanks for letting me know, I did not notice that.

[@honahwikeepa2115]

I have an old HP Z440 E5 1650V4 64g ddr4 K2200 Quadro gpu. $230 Australian. The 32g 2400 is between $80 and $120 here. CPU $40. Be good to play around with for a novice like me who loves Xeon's.

[@_Sepherial]

I just want to confirm that this is a Mini-ITX motherboard, because I might buy it. I see it on Ali-Express as "Home Nas X99 Motherboard Combo LGA2011 C612 for NAS Router Sever 6x2.5GbE I226 10xSATA Support Raid Intel Xeon E5-V3 V4 ". The combo comes with 32 Gb of RAM, but it can handle 64 Gb of RAM. If I decide to put in 64 Gb, do you have a link to those RAM cards? The specs say "2x DDR4 DIMM slots, up to 64 GB, supports ECC ".

[@w3isserwolf]

It looks like an dtx board. So its a Bit longer

[@yourpcmd]

But is that ECC ram? And where did you get the cooler?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

That RAM is ECC, but this motherboard requires registered memory, in the coming video I'll explain more. Stay tuned. As for cooler, I'm using this: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MVLMDCZ

[@bmfairweather]

I wonder if they have this with 3x M.2 on the board

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Don't think so, but you can always use PCIe M.2 carrier board

[@Robert-sj8ld]

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@johnnydepp4114]

what about mesuring power consumptions ?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Sorry about that... I will measure the power consumption today/tomorrow and post it here.

[@joosep6598]

@@TechnicallyUnsure It would be good to know what is the power usage without any drivers attached.

[@johnnydepp4114]

@@TechnicallyUnsure dont be sorry... i think you found a golden option here for a very budget friendly 10 bay NAS / Server :) :) but if the powerconsumption is too high, i wont look this way... but that is a personal perspectiv :) If you can try to to load the cpu as well ... so we get consumption at idle, 20, 40, 60, 100 % load ? maybe a few vm's as well... if you have the time in both truenas scale and proxmox ? :) Thanks again for great review :)

[@w3isserwolf]

@@TechnicallyUnsurehey, have you already mesured the power consumption? Like with only the 7 ssds and the nvme connected?

[@ZaoNations]

where to find the original intel cooler?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MVLMDCZ

[@jyt5249]

Is it ECC memory compatible?

[@moto_random_stuff]

AFAIK its 100% compatibile with ECC

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Yes, as @moto_random_stuff said, it's ECC compatible

[@noth606]

"isn't that crazy?" No, no it is not. But as for deal, well I have a Dell Precision T5810 that cost me €180, so including power supply, 32gb ram and a 1Tb drive. Bought a 14 core xeon for it for 30bucks, 128gb ram for €120, quad gigabit for €50 or so, then nvme adapter for like 30, 2Tb nvme was 100 about. But mine isn't a NAS, it's my sorta server/lab box. Calling this a NAS is silly imo, it's also not really budget since there are NAS appliances for less than this setup. You might as well make it a home server and run a bunch more of stuff on this, including windows server.

[@sebastianknapek1467]

i got same board. but my does not boot, replaced the CPU with same from amazon and ram, still does not work. they f...d me on the aliexpress with the claim and as i wrote last thing i bought on aliexpress. be careful. anyway the specs looks amazing for the amount of money. now i am building server based on the msi 450 pro, plus m2 slot to 6 SATA and should be fine.

[@zeroturn7091]

I'm waiting on my case and PSU, and looking back I would've been better off buying a workstation with higher capacity HDDs and a 10 Gbe NIC.

[@zeroturn7091]

I like what I’m seeing, too bad that towers for this type of setup are nearly extinct. Edit: finally purchased, and hope that I can get 10 years out of it.

[@Dvalin21]

The ones that are out there are expensive

[@comiumapedra5397]

3d print one

[@GriffonWalker]

Ecc support?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

it has to be RDIMM or Registered ECC, will explain more in the upcoming video, stay tuned

[@Dvalin21]

Ok, so youtube deleted my comment, but if you check the reviews for this board, there was a customer who verified that you need to make sure that whatever ram you get it has to be RDIMM ECC (if you want to use ECC) and 2400mhz. He tried to a higher mhz and then tried to under clock to 2400, but the system kept freezing.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Sorry about the comment, just to be clear, I didn't delete the comment, I never delete comments. As for the RAM, I will see if I have any faster than 2400 RDIMM ECC memory. Will see if I can get it to work, but remember, based on even Intel's specs for this CPU, maximum RAM speed Xeon 2560v4 can support is 2400

[@1138jazz]

@@TechnicallyUnsure I can confirm on my board that Samsung 32GB 2666Mhz RDIMM's (M393A4K40BB2-CTD6Q) clocked down to 2400Mhz will post, however the system freezes when loading a Linux kernel.

[@Dvalin21]

@@TechnicallyUnsure Sorry, I didn't mean you deleted, I meant youtube. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[@Dvalin21]

​@@TechnicallyUnsureAlso, I've seen some Chinese motherboards support more ram than mentioned. It was usually with mini PC mobo, but it does make me wonder if this one might be the same.

[@samiboukhalfa9040]

I thought xeon cpus don't have integrated graphics

[@zeroturn7091]

They don't this is 2D from the chipset.

[@DesocupadoXtremo]

If i throw a GPU in that Pcie slot can i game on it?

[@Nalianna]

Unsure, but you can put 4(or 8, depending on pcie bifurcation)... more m.2 SSD's on it :)

[@nick-leffler]

I don't see why not. It's fairly beefy CPU. Passmarks for 17k. Just be aware it's 115 watts so it's a power sucker. 😊

[@zeroturn7091]

I wouldn't buy this board for gaming unless you're talking about emulation. Is this board even Pcie 3.0?

[@lthartly21]

yeah old xeon are cheap due to it being a cpu from server farms. There always upgrading and the amount of stock they upgrade too is massive taking up warehouses and that something a server company doesn't want to do is be dealing with there old hardware and storing it and its way cheaper to sell this tech at pennies on the dollar with large stock pills. The upgrade it self is already saving server farms by providing more performance while using less power. Its just better to sell fast and cheap to not waste time money on old not used hardware witch gives us great deals on this hardware

[@raulrodriguez1665]

el xeon tiene graficos esta estrano

[@Dvalin21]

It's not the xeon, it doesn't have igpu. It's a weak internal just enough to give display

[@lhxperimental]

Its a 12 year old CPU that supports only DDR3

[@cam_934]

Not sure its that great a MB as the CPU is an Intel Xeon Processor E5-2680 v4 (ok 40 PCIe lanes) but it has a 120watt TDP and no Quick Sync and appears no intel processor with that MB socket FCLGA2011 support intel quick sync. You even mentioned Plex so now extra expense and power for a dedicated graphic card or all CPU transcoding?

[@inspirit999]

That's not mini ITX form factor. It looks wider....

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

This would be more similar to the Mini-DTX format, which is slightly taller than Mini-ITX and may have 2 expansion slots instead of 1.

[@alexey.stenin]

It looks like the cooler in your PSU is dead! 💀

[@w3isserwolf]

Or Not so much power pull from the System and the PSU is in silent Mode

[@Miyconst]

With all my respect to your work, I have to point out that the review is filled up with empty talking while missing crucial testing points. For example: CPU C and turbo states, idle/load power consumption, VRM temps, smart fan, wake on LAN, restore on power loss, ECC mode were not tested nor mentioned. It's also good to verify Intel ME integrity, BIOS read/write protection, American Mega Trends license for the BIOS supplied, and of course, IPMI if it's even there.

[@Miyconst]

Additionally it's nice to check Clear CMOS, RAM Timings, and Sleep Mode features.

[@1138jazz]

Huge Fan, would love to see what you think of this board. Although I'm kind of glad I purchased it before watching your NAS video as it might of scared me off. Also Slava Ukraini

[@Miyconst]

@@1138jazz People keep spamming me about this and the Jginyue X99i motherboards, the sad reality is that both of the options have absolutely atrocious BIOS, scrolling through the AliExpress reviews you can find all sorts of complains, some report that even Clear CMOS function does not work. @BIOS-Engineer detected corrupted or infected Intel ME in the X99i BIOS but he refuses to make a proper BIOS for this boards unless I pay him. Glory to the Heroes!

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Thanks for the suggestions, as promised, I'll take care of these in the follow up video

[@BIOS-Engineer]

😱 But this board is a full crap, I’ve already seen it, I’m not even sure whether it will be possible to create an acceptable BIOS for it.

[@GriffonWalker]

What’s wrong with the default bios

[@BIOS-Engineer]

@@GriffonWalker What are you testing then if you don't understand what I talking about?

[@AfroJewelz]

just add a bifurcation card to x16,split into two x8 or 1x8,two x4, add an 40Gbe NIC with RDMA ,use it as pure storage backend with 40Gbe cache pool and all can boom fast brainless.

[@Dvalin21]

If you don't mind me asking, how long have you had this board and also does it restart on its own if there is a power failure? Thanks

[@ICgasm]

BKHD Industrial Solution makes the motherboard.

[@entjaz930]

Chinese communist spyware baked into the firmware bruh.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Stay tuned for the upcoming video, I'll explain more there