Xeon E5

Last week MSI introduced its new X99A Workstation motherboard, part of the X99 refresh we've seen over the past couple of months following the launch of the Broadwell-E processor line. Despite the name 'workstation', this board is based on the consumer-grade Intel X99 PCH rather than the server oriented parts, and as a result it supports overclocking. Part of the 'Workstation' feature set means that it has qualified support for NVIDIA Quadro PCIe cards, compatibility with ECC memory, and a U.2 connector for storage. The manufacturer claims that the mainboard uses special components that can improve the endurance of the board, although the warranty is still listed as three years. Typically, workstation-class motherboards for Intel Xeon E5 v3/v4 processors in LGA2011-3 packaging are based on...