SUPERMICRO C7X99-OCE Motherboard Review

Features and Motherboard Layout

Features

Courtesy of SUPERMICRO

• Single socket R3 (LGA 2011) supports Intel® 4th gen. Core i7 series, Xeon® processor E5-2600 v3, E5-1600 v3
• Intel® X99 chipset
• Up to 64GB non-ECC UDIMM DDR4, frequency up to 3300MHz (OC); 8x DIMM slots
• 4 PCI-E 3.0 x16 (run at 16/16/NA/8 or 16/8/8/8), 2 PCI-E 2.0 x1 (in x4)
• Intel® i210-AT Dual port GbE LAN
• 10x SATA3 (6Gbps)
• 1 x COM, 1x TPM, 8 x USB 3.0 ports (6 rear + 2 via header)
• HD Audio 7.1 channel connector by Realtek ALC1150
• Supports 2/3/4-Ways nVidia SLi

Motherboard Layout

The SUPERMICRO C7X99-OCE motherboard features a black PCB with black and blue colored ports and heat sinks. While the surface of the board is chock full of components and chips, the integrated ports are spaced out well an remain accessible under most circumstances.

The back of the motherboard does contain some chips and circuits spread across its surface to be mindful of when installing the board into your case. There is also a line of circuity in close proximity to the CPU backplate, directly underneath the CPU VRM power circuitry.

SUPERMICRO includes the following ports integrated into the C7X99-OCE's rear panel assembly: a PS/2 keyboard / mouse port, six USB 3.0 ports, two Intel I210 GigE RJ-45 ports, an optical audio port, and five analogue audio ports. The two USB 3.0 ports beneath the PS/2 port are tied to an ASMedia USB 3.0 controller, while the four USB 3.0 port underneath the LAN ports are tied to the Intel X99 controller. Note that by default both the rear panel audio ports and the front panel ports are enabled, requiring additional configuration in the audio settings control to ensure sound routes through the proper speakers.

The C7X99-OCE motherboard has a total of six PCI-Express device ports – four PCI-Express x16 slots, one PCI-Express x4 slot, and one PCI-Express x1 slot. For the PCIe x16 slots, the board supports full x16 bandwidth with a single or dual card, x16/x16/x0/x8 mode with three cards, and x16/x8/x8/x8 in quad card mode. Note that PCIe x16 slot 4 and the PCIe x4 slot are automatically disabled with a 28 PCIe lane CPU installed in the board.

Directly above the primary and secondary PCI-Express x16 slots are the audio enable jumper (JPAC1) and the CMOS reset button (S8). The audio enable jumper enables the integrated audio headers with the jumper shorting pins 1-2 (default setting).

A USB 2.0 header, standby power header (JSTBY1), the manufacturing mode headers (JPME2), PCI Slot SMB enable jumpers (JI2C1, JI2C2), BIOS recover switch (JBR1), power button (S4), memory oveclock button (S10), user-defined overclock button (S7), 20-25% overclock button (S6), and 15% overclock button (S5) are located in the upper left corner of the board. The manufacturing mode headers are used for internal board validation. The BIOS recover switch allows for booting into the BIOS using the secondary BIOS boot block when switched to the left (shorting internal pins 2-3). Pressing the DEL key after system initialization will bring up the main BIOS screen, allowing for BIOS recovery via an attached USB device. The BIOS file must be named SUPER.ROM on the root of the attached USB drive. The memory overclock, 20-25% overclock, and 15% overclock buttons activate the board's BIOS-assisted automatic overclocking mode.

The memory oveclock button (S10), OC3 (user-defined settings) button (S7), OC2 (20-25% overclock) button (S6), OC1 (15% overclock) button (S5), Home button (S9), OC front panel header, and front panel header are located along the outside edge of PCIe x16 slot 4. The OC3 button load the settings saved to the special OC3 profile in the UEFI. These settings are saved by selecting the "Save Setting to OC3" link from the Save & Load menu. The Home button automatically resets all active automated overclocking modes, returning the board to its default speed configuration. The OC Front Panel header can be used to connect the board to an optional OC Panel device allowing for board speed and voltage manipulation from the front of the system.

The front panel header, Watch Dog jumper (JWD1), the trusted module port header, the internal speaker header, and the USB 3.0 header are located in the lower left corner of the board. The Watch Dog header can be used in conjunction with the Watch Dog BIOS settings to automatically reboot the system when a software-based system hard lock is detected. Watch Dog mode is enabled with pins 2-3 shorted.

The Intel X99 chipset is covered by a large black and blue aluminum heat sink with the SUPERMICRO corporate logo embedded into its surface.

To the left of the X99 chipset heat sink are the BIOS Restore button, chassis intrusion header, 2-digit diagnostic display, and on-board speaker. The BIOS Restore button can be used automatically update the system BIOS from an attached USB device. The BIOS file must be named SUPER.ROM on the root of the attached USB drive. The 2-digit diagnostic display can be used to troubleshoot system initialization issues by cross referencing the displayed code with this PDF file on the AMI support site.

To the lower right of the X99 chipset heat sink are a 4-pin system fan header and a DOM (Disk-On-Module) power connector (JSD1). The DOM power connector can be used to provide a 5V power feed to a DOM-type SSD device connected to the board's SATA ports.

SUPERMICRO integrated a total of ten SATA 6Gb/s ports into the C7X99-OCE, all tied into the Intel X99 chipset controller.

The C7X99-OCE board has a total of eight DDR4 memory slots (four above and four below the CPU socket) with support for up to 64GB of memory across all slots. Quad Channel memory mode is enabled with memory modules seated in like colored slots. The primary memory slots are the blue colored slots in both the top and bottom sets. Note that memory speeds above 2133MHz are considered overclocked speeds and are outside of the official Intel stock memory speed specifications. The 24-pin ATX power port and a 4-pin system fan header are located below the lower DIMM slot set.

To the upper left of the upper DIMM slot set are the front panel audio header, a 4-pin system fan header, and a LAN port enable jumper (JPL2). When the jumper is disabled (shorting pins 2-3), the left-most RJ-45 GigE port in the rear panel is disabled.

To the upper right of the upper set of DIMM slots are a LAN port enable jumper (JPL1), a 4-pin system fan header, and the USB wakeup function jumper (JUSB1). When the LAN port enable jumper is disabled (shorting pins 2-3), the middle RJ-45 GigE port in the rear panel is disabled. Shorting pins 2-3 on the USB wakeup function jumper disables the ability to wake the system from sleep/hibernation via devices attached to the on-board USB ports.

The CPU socket area is clear of obstructions with more than enough side space provide. While the DIMM slots are closer than normal in proximity to the top and bottom of the socket, we found no issues with using air or water coolers with the board.

The CMOS battery is located to the left of the CPU socket, in between it and the primary PCIe x16 slot. This allows for easy access to the CMOS battery even with mutiple PCIe cards populating the board. However, you may have to remove the CPU cooler depending on the size of the cooler used with the board.

The 4-pin CPU fan header and 8-pin ATX12V power connector are located to the right of the CPU VRM cooler, along the right edge of the board.