Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4 1.1 booting with E5 2670 processor
Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4 1.1 booting with E5 2670 processor
I purchased this board at a low price used and attempted to use it with an e5-2680 v2, but it only booted without video output. It seems the board probably ran an older BIOS version that wasn’t compatible. I bought an e5 2670 for $5 and intended to upgrade it. Now I have the second CPU installed, yet it continues to cycle through boot states. I’ve changed the RAM, swapped the GPU, and tested the GPU in all 16x slots except the top one (the CPU cooler blocks access). Any suggestions?
I think the board might be exhausted since it keeps looping with the E5-2670 in version F4 of the first release BIOS, and it seems compatible with that CPU unless the chip list on Gigabyte is wrong. The BIOS F4 mentions support for Ivy Bridge-E processors, not EP Xeons, which BIOS F7 clarifies adds support for E5 series Xeon CPUs. The best option would be to try a socket 2011 i7 that supports updates, or if that fails, consider returning the purchase since it likely wasn't working as advertised.
At this point I think I'll just sell the motherboard as broken since I got it for $20, and spend a little more on a known good one on ebay. I could spend a bit on an i7 but there's a good chance it wouldn't work anyways