Question 1

Does this motherboard use standard LGA 2011 mounting points?

Accepted Answer

Yeah seems to fit just fine my old 2011 style cpu 4930K
The mounting is not what changed, its the compatibility of ram and cpu
This board was really hard to find
Dont worry about the fans going full blast and beeping on first turn on, they will settle down after about a minute. It kind of reminds me of a rack server boot
Also make sure it can sleep and wake up
This board is the best for the server type, has uefi, usb plug, led screen. Only thing missing would be the reset and power button, as I dont use cases anymore.

Question 2

OS: Windows Server 2016
I know this is listed as a "Server MB"; however, I've looked on the ASRock Website and the supported Windows OS only goes up to Windows 2012.  Is Windows Server 2016 supported?
NOTE: Apparently there is also a disconnect with supported memory speed... is 1866 really supported... or is that a Newegg misprint?

Accepted Answer

Windows Server 2016 works with no issues on this board. I have 1866 memory sticks but the board will only run them as fast as 1600.

Question 3

Specifications say this board will run W10,yet there are no W10 drivers on ASRock support page. Does anyone have success (or otherwise) running W10 (64bit) on this board?and what (if any) problems have you encountered?

Accepted Answer

I am running Windows Server 2016 on this board with no problems (Similar Kernel to Windows 10), so Windows 10 should run fine.  However, I would download the latest Intel RSTe drivers from Intel's website to install the drivers for the SCU port.

Question 4

What would be the "narrow type CPU cooler" that the manufacturer's product page calls for? And specifically which of these does Newegg sell?

Accepted Answer

I got the Noctua Nh-U12dx i4 version which is bigger than the Noctua NH-U9DX i4 but comes with one less fan.  The heat pipes are not copper but aluminum or steel or whatever it is.  Including an extra fan is optional (not included) for the bigger one.  The motherboard only has one cpu fan connection as noted by Joshua so you can't regulate the cpu fan speed individually obviously if using a two to one splitter for that one cpu fan connection.  For some reason my original shipment from this site was missing two of the mounting springs so I had to deal with 5 dropped calls and eventually had to talk with the manager to deal with the situation because I had ordered next day shipping.  Anyway, Noctua does well against other cpu coolers in terms of effectiveness and low sound generally when looking at benchmarks, and so it works well for this motherboard.  The Noctua cpu cooler also came with two sets of LGA 2011 narrow mounting brackets (comes with square mount LGA 2011 standard - probably not compatible for LGA 2011-v3 but I haven't checked) so you can choose the fan/airflow direction to be vertical or horizontal.  The fan is held on by a clip, so you can change the direction of the fan for push or pull configuration as well.  It also comes with another set of mounting brackets for one other socket, so you get 3 sockets to choose from.  Comes with thermal paste but no thermal paste spreader.  The motherboard comes with 8 memory seats and the cpu cooler blocks at least 4 of them after installation for my case but fits fine in my Antec P100 case.  Product description says copper base after checking but it doesn't look like copper bronze.  NH-U12DX comes with a low-noise adaptor to set the rpm to 1200, from 1500rpm.  I haven't used it enough to find out how it fares but it comes with a six-year warranty.  I hope this helps.

Question 5

I need 4 X 8gig memory for this board with a 2630 v2 CPU. I prefer Kingston though others are OK. What does Newegg have in stock that is compatible?

Accepted Answer

I once had an AMD server motherboard and so I got AMD branded memory for it but that didn't work.  For this motherboard, there are compatibility checking webpages out there.  I used KVR16LE11/8 from Kingston 2x for 16GB total and it works fine. 1.35V memory but they run fine on most motherboards according to various websites and presumably the less power draw the better for me...

Question 6

Does this motherboard support regular desktop memory? I have 32GB of AMD performance RAM lying around.

Accepted Answer

base on the specs page from AsRock 
"8 x DIMM DDR3 1866/1600/1333/1066 LR / Registered /ECC/ UDIMM".

seem like it does regular desktop ram (DDR3)

Question 7

what bios version does the mobo come installed with?

Accepted Answer

it comes with American Megatrends  version 2.15.1236- EUFI version EPC602D8A - p1.28

do I know what version #'s those are and what CPU's it supports? no.
but it is very easy to manage your cpu monitor you hardware , change boot order and ect
its very easy and straight forward

Question 8

Hi
I ordered a Intel E5-2603 processor by mistake and need a board for it.
Will my processor work with this board and what of memory will it require.?.
Thanks
Greg

Accepted Answer

I have the E5-2670 v1 (version 1 - PCN/MDDS: SR0H8) and Intel's page says that the PCN/MDDS Information for E5-2670 v2 is SR1A7.  The manual states in 1.2 Specifications Processor System CPU: E5-1600/2600/4600 & v2 series.  My version 1 works fine.  Searching for "Intel 2600 v2 family" lists E5-2603 v2 as part of that 2600 series so v1 should work as well.  I don't know about v3 or higher and I forgot if the manual or website says whether it can support anything higher than v2.  Max possible included cores in the 4600 series is 12 I think with HyperThreading for 32 threads total.  Use a RAM compatibility wizard online by perhaps Kingston or others, or see my answer if included now below for what I'm using.

Questions & Answers