Has anyone ever dabbled in the Xeon combo kit side of Ali-Express?

[Devoid Of Knwoledge]

I know Ali-Express is a sketchy place but I'm interested in the multiple (Xeon[8c/16t, 10c/20t, 12c/24t]+ Motherboard + Cooler + Ram and sometimes a GPU) Combos for really alluring prices with shipping included.  I was just wondering if anyone has any past experiences/stories with these type of listings.

[Latvian Video]

6 minutes ago, Devoid Of Knwoledge said:

I know Ali-Express is a sketchy place but I'm interested in the multiple (Xeon[8c/16t, 10c/20t, 12c/24t]+ Motherboard + Cooler + Ram and sometimes a GPU) Combos for really alluring prices with shipping included.  I was just wondering if anyone has any past experiences/stories with these type of listings.

I havent bought the combos from there, but mostly, aliexpress has been good so far, but the most expensive thing I have ordered was like 50eur

[BobVonBob]

Don't be surprised if things take quite a while to arrive, like 3-4 months, and you'll need to do extra research on compatibility with old hardware. For example, Intel X79 can't boot from NVMe drives.

 

Other than that things from Aliexpress are generally functional if they aren't demolished in shipping.

[WkdPaul]

* your thread was moved to the Programs, Apps and Websites section *

[Devoid Of Knwoledge]

3 minutes ago, BobVonBob said:

Don't be surprised if things take quite a while to arrive, like 3-4 months, and you'll need to do extra research on compatibility with old hardware. For example, Intel X79 can't boot from NVMe drives.

 

Other than that things from Aliexpress are generally functional if they aren't demolished in shipping.

Yeah I kind of expected that due to my location. Tanks for the heads up on compatibility.

[Radium_Angel]

I bought an x99 combo, with RAM, 12c/24t Xeon (Xeon E5-2678 v3), mobo.

Arrived very quickly to the USA and he only issues I've ever had (I don't bother trying to OC anything) is the system will hard lock trying to run the AIDA64 sensor suite, but has no issues running rainlender and it's suite of sensors.

 

Been rock solid otherwise.

 

[Radium_Angel]

@Latvian Video @Devoid Of Knwoledge

 

A tad more info I should have posted, and I apologize for the delay.

 

The x99 boards vary *highly* in quality, with the best ones being average, especially when it comes to VRM cooling (I went with an Open Frame design and a downdraft CPU cooler to help with the VRM temp issues) and the worst ones catching fire.

 

A fantastic resource for understanding these systems is a YT channel called MiyConst Hardware. The Russians are huge into these systems (because they are cheap over there coming from AliExpress) with all kinds of resources.

 

If you are serious about going an x99 board route, I really encourage you to watch his channel

https://www.youtube.com/c/Miyconst

 

The system games fine and the temp monitors that are enabled (not all will give accurate info) are well controlled.

I choose the JGinyue X99M-Plus D4 mobo based on the above videos.

Here is a pic of my system

 

 

 

 

[Devoid Of Knwoledge]

3 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

@Latvian Video @Devoid Of Knwoledge

 

A tad more info I should have posted, and I apologize for the delay.

 

The x99 boards vary *highly* in quality, with the best ones being average, especially when it comes to VRM cooling (I went with an Open Frame design and a downdraft CPU cooler to help with the VRM temp issues) and the worst ones catching fire.

 

A fantastic resource for understanding these systems is a YT channel called MiyConst Hardware. The Russians are huge into these systems (because they are cheap over there coming from AliExpress) with all kinds of resources.

 

If you are serious about going an x99 board route, I really encourage you to watch his channel

https://www.youtube.com/c/Miyconst

 

The system games fine and the temp monitors that are enabled (not all will give accurate info) are well controlled.

I choose the JGinyue X99M-Plus D4 mobo based on the above videos.

Here is a pic of my system

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much.

[Biohazard777]

31 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

If you are serious about going an x99 board route, I really encourage you to watch his channel

https://www.youtube.com/c/Miyconst

Specifically this video @Devoid:

I recently thought about going the X99 route for a friend that needs the cores...
Since pretty much every Chinese X99 has one of these problems: stability / vrm / sensors / BIOS / questionable longevity... I looked up some reputable board manufacturers (like MSI or Asus) and those boards cost 200$ or more, used...
So I scrubbed the idea, because in the end a new Ryzen 3700X + a good new B550 board would cost  ~450$ while the 4-5 year old Xeon + X99 system would cost ~300$, and that old system has no upgrade path plus if something fails chances are it will be out of order for a month until a replacement arrives. With B550 and Ryzen a part can be easily replaced in a few days at most, and in a few years (when the price drops) I can easily plop in a 5950X if more cores are needed.

 

[Radium_Angel]

13 minutes ago, Biohazard777 said:

while the 4-5 year old Xeon + X99 system would cost ~300$

Not that I disagree with your logic, but the board/CPU and RAM combo set me back 244$, shipped.

That kind of bang for the buck is hard to pass up.

And for me, that's what this was, a cheap n cheerful experiment. Aside from the sensor locks using AIDA64, I've not had an issue with the system (I know, data point of one....) and it does exactly what I bought it for.