5 things you should know before buying a cheap X99 motherboard for your server PC

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Once you venture into the market for old and used server components, there's no turning back. From solid processors costing less than $25 to affordable ECC memory sticks, you can save a lot of money on buying outdated server parts. But if you've spent as much time as I have chasing good deals on server PCs, you may have come across some unbranded, generic X79/X99 motherboards.




Having purchased one of these for my home lab server, I can attest that they are quite reliable – but only if you are aware of certain issues that plague these motherboards.

5 It can be difficult to find the right documentation

The same applies to BIOS updates

A server-grade Intel Xeon E5-2650 v4 processor

While many PC enthusiasts throw away manuals when they purchase a new component, documentation is incredibly handy when you run into problems. Unfortunately, non-branded X99 motherboards don't come with proper user manuals, and it's just as difficult to find online documentation for these motherboards.

So sites like Manuals+ are your best bet for finding user manuals for your server motherboard. In the BIOS, the situation is largely the same, as I found two firmware updates for my X99 motherboard from completely different companies.


4 The VRM and chipset cooling provisions are downright terrible

You should invest in decent heatsinks to extend the life of the motherboard

A person holds an X99 server motherboard with two Intel Xeon CPUs.

When buying a motherboard for your gaming computer, you should pay attention to the VRM heatsinks. Unfortunately, X99 motherboards from no-name manufacturers do not have sufficient cooling options for the VRM or the chipset.

As you might have guessed, the lack of proper heatsinks can result in high VRM and chipset temperatures when trying to run demanding virtual machines and containers on your server PC, something you'll want to avoid if you care about the longevity of your home lab.

3 E-ATX cases are practically a necessity

How else would you accommodate those oddly shaped motherboards?


While this statement may not hold true for certain mini-ITX X79 motherboards, you will need a spacious PC case to accommodate bulky X99 boards, and with dual-CPU and multi-GPU setups, your fully loaded server may not even fit in the average ATX case.

As someone who has wasted hours trying to cram their server motherboard into a regular case, I can attest that it takes some Dremel skills to fit the unusually large motherboards into an average case. And that's without even considering the better airflow and extra drive bays that E-ATX cases offer.

2 Dealing with IOMMU can be difficult

Assuming you can even turn it on

The command to check interrupt remapping in Proxmox

Interrupt remapping, a necessary IOMMU setting, is difficult to enable on X99 boards


Support for PCI passthrough can be a crucial feature for hardcore virtualization enthusiasts – and for good reason. If you plan on gaming on your server machine (which is entirely possible, by the way), you'll need a motherboard compatible with the Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU) feature.

Although some of the branded X99 motherboards support IOMMU, the situation is a bit messy on the cheap no-name boards. Even if you happen to find a rare cheap X99 motherboard that supports IOMMU, you may encounter certain compatibility and performance issues when setting up PCI passthrough for your expansion cards.

1 ECC memory is either mandatory or completely incompatible

And it is rarely an optional addition


ECC memory compatibility is one of the biggest advantages of server systems as it provides an additional layer of protection against data corruption. Unfortunately, ECC RAM compatibility is even more tricky than IOMMU support on the affordable X79/X99 motherboards.

For example, the specific board I bought for my setup refused to boot with regular DDR4 memory, even though the obscure manual I found for the motherboard said it supported both non-ECC and ECC memory. To make matters even more confusing, I've heard that many of these generic boards are not compatible with compatible ECC RAM kits and will only work with non-ECC memory!

Nevertheless, there are many reasons to choose the affordable X99 boards


Despite their inherent flaws, non-branded X99 boards have some advantages over their more expensive counterparts. For example, the cheap board I use has a Q-Code display, as do three other generic motherboards I shortlisted before purchasing the current one. This may be quite surprising considering it's a feature you'd usually find on the most expensive gaming motherboards. Plus, they come at incredibly affordable prices, especially as combo sets with CPU(s) and memory sticks, making them ideal for beginner home lab environments.

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