ASUS P9X79 Pro compatible with E5 2660 v1 Xeon?

[redwraith94]

Asus lists a bunch of E5 v2 Xeons as compatible here:
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P9X79_PRO/HelpDesk...
Normal P9X79, same list:
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P9X79/HelpDesk_CPU...

The Intel spec doesn't even list Xeons as supported for the X79 chipset:
http://ark.intel.com/products/64015/Intel-BD82X79-PCH

Officially supported E5 2660 v2:
http://ark.intel.com/products/75272/Intel-Xeon-Processo...

Unknown E5 2660 v1:
http://ark.intel.com/products/64584/Intel-Xeon-Processo...

The v2 has 'OS Guard', 'Secure Key', and slightly higher memory bandwidth. The newer one also lists not having TSX-NI, but neither do. The supported one has 2 more cores...

I found the v1 available for $120, instead of like $1k. Hoping for a cheap upgrade to PCIe 3.0

2660 v1 not listed:
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/P9X79_PRO.html

2660 v1 listed as supported, so maybe the v1 requires ECC?:
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/P9X79_WS.html
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/P9X79-E_WS.html

 

[DaveB]

I have an HP X79 mATX motherboard in my backup system I picked up for $70 on eBay. HP only lists the usual Sandy Bridge-E chips as compatible - i7 3820, i7 3930K, i7 3960X. I'm currently running an E5-1620 (4C/8T), which is effectively an i7 3820 with PCI-e 3.0, and have also used an E5-2670 (8C/16T) with no problems. The E5-2670 is only $63 shipped on eBay and runs at 2.6 GHz with a max turbo boost of 3.3 GHz vs. 2.2 GHz with max turbo boost of 2.7 GHz for that E5-2660. I'd go for the faster E5-2670 for $63 and really can't see it not working on your Asus X79 mobo.

 

[micboule]

I have an HP X79 mATX motherboard in my backup system I picked up for $70 on eBay. HP only lists the usual Sandy Bridge-E chips as compatible - i7 3820, i7 3930K, i7 3960X. I'm currently running an E5-1620 (4C/8T), which is effectively an i7 3820 with PCI-e 3.0, and have also used an E5-2670 (8C/16T) with no problems. The E5-2670 is only $63 shipped on eBay and runs at 2.6 GHz with a max turbo boost of 3.3 GHz vs. 2.2 GHz with max turbo boost of 2.7 GHz for that E5-2660. I'd go for the faster E5-2670 for $63 and really can't see it not working on your Asus X79 mobo.

Hi, would you please confirm what version of BIOS do you have with your P9X79 Pro motherboard and your XEON CPU?

Thanks,
Micboule

 

[DaveB]

I have an HP X79 board as stated above. It has a non-UEFI BIOS from 2012.

 

[jianC]

I actually found out which BIOS revision works, the hard way.

IPIWB-PB2 (MoBo Revision 1.09) does not boot/post with E5-2660 (It presumably comes with a UEFI BIOS but I have no way of checking).
However, IPIWB-PB (MoBo Revision 1.08) with BIOS revision 7.15 DOES work with my E5-2660 and presumably all similar processors.