Anyway to test a CPU without motherboard?

[Nitrouspeed]

Ok so I built a 6850K/X99 system many years ago and probably toward the start of 2020 I was having some memory errors and was no longer able to use my XMP profile without constant bluescreens. I was able to run pretty stable again by turning off XMP so I thought bummer my memory is dying. About 6ish months after the memory issues I started to get a boot error with the code on the motherboard referring to "CPU North Bridge", I had an undervolt applied to my chip but I thought okay something must be wrong with my CPU to have memory errors and can no longer use the same undervolt settings. I went another couple of months with factory settings on my cpu/memory/gpu with no problems until one day I couldn't boot again with the same CPU North Bridge error code.

I was busy with school so I just went ahead and bought a new CPU/mobo (9700K/Z370) to get going again. To my surprise, the new system was able to run XMP on my old memory and has still been going strong for a year with no errors. I would like to sell my 6850K or my X99 board but I don't know which one was the source of the issues and I can't test one without the other.

[AbydosOne]

5 minutes ago, Nitrouspeed said:

but I don't know which one was the source of the issues

5 minutes ago, Nitrouspeed said:

"CPU North Bridge"

AFAIK, Northbridges are on the CPU now, so that's where my money is.

[Shimejii]

Just gonna be honest, selling that board and cpu knowing it has issues is a pretty scummy thing to do. I would just give it to a Electronics recycling area and let them go through the breaking it down.

 

You can always try to see if a local computer store has x99 stuff you can test on, but besides that there really isnt a good way to test besides getting another known good board.

[Zando_]

4 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Just gonna be honest, selling that board and cpu knowing it has issues is a pretty scummy thing to do. I would just give it to a Electronics recycling area and let them go through the breaking it down.

If you say they're working then yeah that would be scummy. Just list them as for parts/not working and there's no prob. 

5 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

AFAIK, Northbridges are on the CPU now, so that's where my money is.

If you mean the IMC then yeah, mem controller is on CPU now, has been since I forget what chips, I think the Core series so 2008-ish. X99 was first gen DDR4 and had a lot of teething issues, Haswell-E IMCs were poor and I don't know if the Broadwell-E ones were markedly better. I haven't really looked into it too much as I haven't gotten into messing with memory yet. 

13 minutes ago, Nitrouspeed said:

I would like to sell my 6850K or my X99 board but I don't know which one was the source of the issues and I can't test one without the other.

You'd have to get your hands on a cheap X99 board (honestly even the knockoff chinesium ones would probably work for CPU testing) or else list the combo as for parts/not working. If you're in the continental US and willing to trust a random internet stranger, you could ship the CPU to me and I can test it on my known working boards, and either ship it back or buy it off you (depending on the price, I haven't looked at what these CPUs are worth used since I got my 6950X - from a quick peek at eBay sold listings it looks like $50-130 is the general range) if it works. 

[Nitrouspeed]

56 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Just gonna be honest, selling that board and cpu knowing it has issues is a pretty scummy thing to do. I would just give it to a Electronics recycling area and let them go through the breaking it down.

 

You can always try to see if a local computer store has x99 stuff you can test on, but besides that there really isnt a good way to test besides getting another known good board.

That is why I would like to figure out a way to test them because I would sell the good item and recycle the bad one.

[Nitrouspeed]

44 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

If you say they're working then yeah that would be scummy. Just list them as for parts/not working and there's no prob. 

If you mean the IMC then yeah, mem controller is on CPU now, has been since I forget what chips, I think the Core series so 2008-ish. X99 was first gen DDR4 and had a lot of teething issues, Haswell-E IMCs were poor and I don't know if the Broadwell-E ones were markedly better. I haven't really looked into it too much as I haven't gotten into messing with memory yet. 

You'd have to get your hands on a cheap X99 board (honestly even the knockoff chinesium ones would probably work for CPU testing) or else list the combo as for parts/not working. If you're in the continental US and willing to trust a random internet stranger, you could ship the CPU to me and I can test it on my known working boards, and either ship it back or buy it off you (depending on the price, I haven't looked at what these CPUs are worth used since I got my 6950X - from a quick peek at eBay sold listings it looks like $50-130 is the general range) if it works. 

The point of this thread was to find out if there was a way to maybe touch two magic jumpers or something that would prove the motherboard was broken or not. Based off everyone's response I think there's no way around needing a working X99 board to test.

I honestly trust most people on this forum so I'll keep you in mind but I think I'll do some asking around my school and local area first to try find someone with a working X99.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Nitrouspeed said:

Ok so I built a 6850K/X99 snip* Error snip* "CPU North Bridge" snip*

PCH, formerly known as Northbridge, takes the function of South Bridge and Northbridge. 

That big heat sink on your motherboard is the PCH chip, what you might call a south bridge for Sata controller, but no. It's a PCH. 

X99 Chipset Platform Controller hub does the functions of both the northbridge and south bridge. 

 

No, the "NorthBridge" isn't in the CPU because a Northbridge technically doesn't exist on this platform. 

 

Therefor the motherboard is the issue unless something was wrong on the QPI (Quick path interconnect) link on the CPU side.

 

 

 

[Nitrouspeed]

19 minutes ago, Guest 5150 said:

PCH, formerly known as Northbridge, takes the function of South Bridge and Northbridge. 

That big heat sink on your motherboard is the PCH chip, what you might call a south bridge for Sata controller, but no. It's a PCH. 

X99 Chipset Platform Controller hub does the functions of both the northbridge and south bridge. 

 

No, the "NorthBridge" isn't in the CPU because a Northbridge technically doesn't exist on this platform. 

 

Therefor the motherboard is the issue unless something was wrong on the QPI (Quick path interconnect) link on the CPU side.

 

 

 

Thanks for teaching me this. It gives me hope that my chip is most likely not dead.