Supermicro C7X99-OCE (Intel X99) Motherboard Review

Introduction

Supermicro is a well-known company with a solid reputation for reliability and performance in the server ecosystem. Recently, Supermicro has brought to market a few consumer workstation boards that can overclock. The C7X99-OCE is one of these boards, and it is designed to fulfill the needs of consumers who need a server grade motherboard in a desktop or workstation. Supermicro is using their server design techniques and components to retrofit a single socket motherboard that supports both the Xeon and Core i7 families at the same time.

What is interesting about the C7X99-OCE is that it can also overclock. If you toss in a 5960X, the board will accept the CPU and unlock its overclocking features. The motherboard also features a UEFI with a GUI similar to that of the C7Z97-OCE board I reviewed a few months ago. So, let's see what happens when you use server design practices on a motherboard designed to overclock.

Specifications

Here are the manufacturer specifications. The first board I saw with some sort of USB 3.1 claim was the C7Z97-OCE, and it used an ASMedia ASM1042 that could accept 2x PCI-E for 10Gbps of bandwidth for USB 3.1. Not only does Supermicro carry this practice over to their X99 motherboard, but they also used the chip twice for internal and back-panel USB 3.1 support (in the future, of course). While there aren't many USB ports on the back, there are dual Intel NICs and six USB 3.0 ports.

Pricing

There are two versions of the C7X99-OCE, the C7X99-OCE and the C7X99-OCE-F. At the moment, the C7X99-OCE is $304 on Amazon, and the C7X99-OCE-F is $340. The "-F" version carries a VGA port that supports Supermicro's IPMI. However, most users using this board might only grab this motherboard for its build quality and design, so the VGA port with IPMI might not be useful to them.

PRICING: You can find the C7X99-OCE and C7X99-OCE-F for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The C7X99-OCE retails for $304.00 at Amazon, and the C7X99-OCE-F retails for $340.99 at Amazon