Dual Socket X99 that fits a standard case

[TheSkuffedKnerd]

I’m mulling the idea of building a workstation/server using a couple 2667 v2’s or 2697 v2, whichever I can snag a better deal on, they’re pretty cheap on Ebay right now. My issue is I’m not familiar with this platform as far as motherboards god. I would want to find a dual socket option that will fit a standard case that preferably more expensive than the 2 CPU’s together.

My use case is either TrueNAS or Proxmox it and virtualize anything I want to play with. I want to move my currently hosted Minecraft server in house, put a pfsense or something of the sort in place, run a storage array to get rid of the WD Cloud NAS thing I got 4 yrs ago.

[Dutch_Master]

Have a look at the Craft Computing YT channel. Also, try Aliexpress, I’ve seen dual socket X99 mainboard there in the past (can’t tell now, it was a while ago).

[GoldenAngel1997]

Look at server mainboard producers [Tyan, Supermicro, etc.], for some ideas
They’ve squeaked out tidy [enough] packages, along multiple platforms [do read CPU support tho]

Next route would be Aliexpress, for those upstart re-purposed mainboard builders…

[TheSkuffedKnerd]

@Dutch_Master

Have a look at the Craft Computing YT channel. Also, try Aliexpress, I’ve seen dual socket X99 mainboard there in the past (can’t tell now, it was a while ago).

Yeh, I was gonna dig thru his videos later, and maybe learn from his “failed” systems

[drbsg]

I’ve been looking at doing something similar recently. Most of the workstation class motherboards for this platform are SSI-EEB. In the end I opted for getting a barebones Dell PowerEdge T430, but also considered a Dell Precision 7810. That way you get a case that fits the motherboard, hot swap bays and redundant PSUs and replacement parts are cheap. (A replacement motherboard for the T430 is £150, about £200 less than the workstation board). The downside was not being able to boot from NVMe SSD, but that doesn’t matter for me.

[TheSkuffedKnerd]

@drbsg

I’ve been looking at doing something similar recently. Most of the workstation class motherboards for this platform are SSI-EEB. In the end I opted for getting a barebones Dell PowerEdge T430, but also considered a Dell Precision 7810. That way you get a case that fits the motherboard, hot swap bays and redundant PSUs and replacement parts are cheap. (A replacement motherboard for the T430 is £150, about £200 less than the workstation board). The downside was not being able to boot from NVMe SSD, but that doesn’t matter for me.

I’ve considered that as well, but I also know how restrictive Dell and others are about how the BIOS is setup and what options are available to the user to be able to change and support for PCIe pass through etc.