Question 1

Are these boards shipping with BIOS version 3, with E5 v2 Ivy Bridge support? Or will a Sandy Bridge be required to updgrade the BIOS?

Accepted Answer

That's a good question! The board I purchased back in April did not have BIOS v3. Furthermore, in order to update the BIOS it was necessary to boot to DOS first - so you'll definitely need a CPU on the board to accomplish that. Whether it'll limp along or simply not work at all with E5 v2 Ivy Bridge, I cannot say. We're using Sandy Bridge CPU's. Supermicro's support department was surprisingly responsive when I phoned them with an issue a few months ago - had a live TECH on the phone within two minutes.

Question 2

Which case will fit this motherboard?

Accepted Answer

I tried several cases that didn't fit, and finally managed to get it into this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119252

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