SOLVED E3-1230 v6 for Supermicro X11SSM-F?

[dakotta]

Hello,

I recently purchased a Supermicro X11SSM-F motherboard for a new build. The Supermicro documentation says, "The X11SSM(-F)/X11SSL(-F) motherboard supports an Intel Xeon E3-1200 v6/v5, 7th/6th Gen Core i3, Pentium, and Celeron series processors in an LGA1151 socket."

I am thinking of an Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 or v6.

The TrueNAS Hardware Recommendations Guide says: "It should be noted that Coffee Lake CPUs are not compatible with Skylake motherboards and vice-versa, despite the socket being identical. This limitation is purely artificial, but it is enforced by not providing CPU microcode for Coffee Lake with Skylake system firmware."

I'm trying to read about the different Intel "lakes", but I'm getting bogged down in a swamp of misinformation.

Will the following work?

Intel Xeon E3-1230 v6 4Core Kaby Lake 3.5GHz 8.0GTs LGA 1151 CPU Processor OEM - $427.04 - New ?
Intel BX80677E31230V6 Xeon E3-1200 v6 E3-1230 v6 Quad-core (4 Core) 3.50 GHz Processor - Retail Pack - $296.25 - Used

I'm a little stunned at the prices. I was expecting the cost to be around $270 for a new processor. (At least that's what my notes from 2 years ago say. )

Cheers,

EDIT - Is there any reason to go with the shiny-new processor instead of the old one?

 

[Spearfoot]

Hello,

I recently purchased a Supermicro X11SSM-F motherboard for a new build. The Supermicro documentation says, "The X11SSM(-F)/X11SSL(-F) motherboard supports an Intel Xeon E3-1200 v6/v5, 7th/6th Gen Core i3, Pentium, and Celeron series processors in an LGA1151 socket."

I am thinking of an Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 or v6.

The TrueNAS Hardware Recommendations Guide says: "It should be noted that Coffee Lake CPUs are not compatible with Skylake motherboards and vice-versa, despite the socket being identical. This limitation is purely artificial, but it is enforced by not providing CPU microcode for Coffee Lake with Skylake system firmware."

I'm trying to read about the different Intel "lakes", but I'm getting bogged down in a swamp of misinformation.

Will the following work?

Intel Xeon E3-1230 v6 4Core Kaby Lake 3.5GHz 8.0GTs LGA 1151 CPU Processor OEM - $427.04 - New ?
Intel BX80677E31230V6 Xeon E3-1200 v6 E3-1230 v6 Quad-core (4 Core) 3.50 GHz Processor - Retail Pack - $296.25 - Used

I'm a little stunned at the prices. I was expecting the cost to be around $270 for a new processor. (At least that's what my notes from 2 years ago say. )

Cheers,

EDIT - Is there any reason to go with the shiny-new processor instead of the old one?

Ha! I can't keep up with the 'Lake' stuff either!

Start with Supermicro's support page for the motherboard: you can download the manual and pore over the gory details here:

X11SSM-F | Motherboards | Products | Supermicro

Very often, Supermicro system boards require a later BIOS version or a particular board revision to support later CPU's. So an earlier X11-SSM-F may not support a v6 CPU without first upgrading the BIOS -- which requires a CPU!

Ask before you buy!

Then you can dig into the CPUs. Here are the E3 v5's:

Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 v5 Family Product Specifications

Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 v5 Family product listing with links to detailed product features and specifications.

ark.intel.com

And here are the v6's:

Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 v6 Family Product Specifications

Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 v6 Family product listing with links to detailed product features and specifications.

ark.intel.com

Comb over the CPUs and look for one that'll suit your needs. You don't need integrated graphics for a TrueNAS server: these usually end in a '5', the E3-1245 v6 for example.

Honestly, you probably won't be able to tell much difference between older vs newer CPUs at similar clock speeds. Compare various CPUs here:

PassMark Software - CPU Benchmarks

PassMark Software - CPU Benchmarks - Over 1 million CPUs and 1,000 models benchmarked and compared in graph form, updated daily!

www.cpubenchmark.net

Good luck to you -- putting these systems together is fun!

 

[etnica]

I bought the same motherboard but I had a G4560(supports ecc) cpu already from an old computer. Was looking at upgrading it to something better but the prices on used cpu's are ridiculous.

You can find used kabylake cpu's on aliexpress easily, but they are expensive... Expensive on ebay aswell atleast here in europe.

Also looked into buying a more modern chipset/cpu but wasn't worth it since I already had a cpu and newer intel celeron/pentium/i3 does not support ecc and Xeon is to expensive.

 

[dakotta]

Good luck to you -- putting these systems together is fun!

Thanks for the links!

As near as I can tell the E3-1230 v6 will work with the X11SSM-F.

I was getting hung up on the 'Lake' stufff, but I really needn't have bothered. I thought that the part number was ambiguous and that there were E3-1230v6 processors available for Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake, Skylake, etc., but now I don't think that's true.

The E3-1230v6 is Kaby Lake, so the Coffee/Skylake warning in the Hardware guide really doesn't apply here.

Thanks for your help!

Cheers,

EDIT - spelling

 

[Etorix]

If you're confused by the names, look at the motherboard's chipset:

C23x, Z270 = Xeon E3 v5/6, Core 6xxx/7xxx (LGA 1151)
C24x, Z370 = Xeon E-2xxx, Core 8xxx/9xxx (LGA 1151-2)
W480/W580 = Xeon W-12xx/13xx (LGA 1200)

Each generation is a different "lake". Although the first two lines use LGAs with 1151 pins the layouts are differents.

The prices you quote are insane. But up to the 9th generation, Core i3 processors can use ECC UDIMM when used with C200 motherboards. If you're happy with 4 cores, you may look into i3-6100/7100 for your X11SSM (Skylake/KabyLake)—that would be i3-8100/9100 for a X11SCx (Coffee Lake) board.