MACHINIST X79 Micro ATX Motherboard, LGA 2011 (Intel 3th Gen) Server Gaming Motherboard (PCIe 3.0, NVME/SATA M.2, Dual Channel DDR3, SATA 6Gb/s) for Intel Xeon E5 V1/V2, Core i7 Processor

Long story short, I had a bunch of extra server parts laying around. Xeon 2667 V2, 16gb of DDR3 ECC memory, a NVME drive and even a RTX2060, 2k monitor, 850W PSU, and case. Saw the price of the board and was like heck, I could build a decent PC with all these old parts lying around. Well holy heck, not only did it work, but it worked really well. I was beyond impressed. Posted on first try and windows installed easily and quickly. I just learned about X79 boards but wish I knew about them two years ago. Would have bought one of these boards sooner. The nvme speed and quad channel memory are on par with my modern gaming computer. After Windows 10 goes out, I will make it a nice Linux machine.

Tried 3 different CPUs and 8 different memory modules. Nothing will get it working again, not popping out the CMOS battery, new storage, booting of a USB, nothing. Because I missed the 30-day return window trying to make it work by ordering more memory and CPUs to make it work, I'll just pick another board from a different brand. I will point out that the CPUs and memory do work in other boards just fine and that the PC did indeed boot up and almost finish installing Windows 10, so the parts were indeed 100% compatible.

This board worked great after a few doublechecks and making sure I had everything right. First boot didn't come up, shut it down, turned it on and everything was perfect Windows 11 just set itself up! Still need to go through BIOS, but everything seems to be running fine.

At the end of the day the mother board worked great. Great price. Drivers downloaded fine with fresh windows install. But for the lack of a manual I would have given 5 stars. I strongly suggest you print out the product pictures at the top of the ad to help decipher the proper connections. Due to the lack of a manual, this board is probably not appropriate for beginners. Be aware that there is no built in video connection or WiFi and only one pci slot. This board allowed me to resurrect an older PC using cannibalized parts: CPU, video card, ram and drives.

I have purchased 2 ea of this PCB. I cannot get the front panel expansion USB 3.0 to work on either PCB. This is the green color motherboard, the orange color motherboard does not offer USB 3.0 on the expansion. The USB 3.0 works on the rear panel. I have asked the vendor for support and only given an explanation of the sockets and performances of those sockets. I have not received an answer on how to make the expansion USB 3.0 sockets work. Keep this in mind, you will need to install software from the rear panel.

First off, if you’re buying this, you know what you’re doing with computers. This board is stable, and uses the unconventional server chipset with custom bios. Linus discussed this in a video; it’s an effective way to recycle bad server boards and reduce eWaste. I’m using a cheap quad core Xeon to use as a basic machine at my work for iTunes, backing up hard drives, and other assorted pc/phone tech support things. Have had no issues with this board, nor other Machinist boards I’ve encountered in the past.If you’re looking to recycle some old parts and make a functional machine for home use (gaming would also be good with the right CPU, a 3930k or something) then this will tick all the boxes.

I came back to edit my review, because I'm having trouble with this mobo now. I stand beside what I said below, but I'm now having trouble with one of the 2 I have, and the other doesn't get used as much. Now the PC reboots randomly and sometimes never gets past the BIOS POST before rebooting. To be fair, it could be my power supply, but it cost me more than the mobo if I remember correctly. I've swapped out the CPU once and the DIMMs several times, since I have spares. The seller does not seem to be taking questions any more, and the links at the top of their store page don't work. I guess I'm stuck. Well, Machinist, I hope to be getting my hands on an E5-2680 or 2690 and DDR4 soon, and I WILL NOT be buying a Machinist mobo to put those in. (Your mileage may vary....)Original Review:I now have 2 of these boards, one running Windows 10 and one running Windows 11. They have 10-core Xeon E5-2670 v2 CPUs and 64GB of DDR3-1866 RAM, and one boots off a SATA M.2 stick. They do not provide a printed manual with the board. Make sure you read all the info in the listing, and especially all the Q&A if you are going to use a SATA M.2 or NVMe M.2 stick - the jumper settings they show seem to be reversed. Also, since the board has no onboard video, you'll need a PCIe video card. Some of the components near the CPU socket made it so one heat sink I already had wouldn't fit so I had to buy one. I don't know if I'd recommend this board to a complete beginner, but for anyone with some experience building PCs it is a breeze to get going.

Installed easily, micro ATX form factor. 4 slots for DDR3 memory, PCIe 2.0 for video card. After I repaired the wiring that the rat ate in my last motherboard, this Machinist went in smoothly and posted, runs good with Windows 10.