Der8auer Mods EPYC CPU to Work on X399 Threadripper Mobo

Der8auer’s EPYC Threadripper Saga

Roman “Der8auer” Hartung, the famed overclocker who pointed out the VRM cooling inadequacies on Intel motherboards several months ago is back with a neat new experiment. Initially set out to find out that AMD‘s Threadripper desktop CPUs and EPYC server processors are identical. He even went to great lengths to make his video from January 21. Including buying an EPYC CPU and a 1900X CPU to take apart and analyze.

Threadripper is not a Epyc processor. Different substrate, different dies. 2 dies work, other 2 have no path to operation. Basically rocks.

— James Prior (@cavemanjim) September 17, 2017

Although AMD’s James Prior has claimed that Threadripper and EPYC are not the same, Roman wanted to verify for himself. You can watch the English version of the video yourself below to see why it took him months to find out. Not only did he take apart and looked at the dies, he also X-rayed it to see closer inside. This is necessary since even if the capacitor positions are different on first glance, it could still be manufactured and connected the same way. Eventually he did find out that they are two different processors.

Will an EPYC CPU Work on an X399 Motherboard?

In the video above, commenter Timmy Joe PC Tech asked Der8auer if an Epyc will boot on a Threadripper motherboard. He likened it to a Xeon on an X99 motherboard. Initially, Der8auer was resistant, stating “Why?” with a smiley face. “The Epyc is more expensive so not really interesting I think.” he adds.

However, a week later and it appears that Der8auer has actually been working on getting an EPYC to boot on an X399 motherboard. Specifically, on an ASUS X399 Zenith Extreme. It is not just a matter of dropping in an EPYC CPU on a Threadripper motherboard however.

It appears that one specific pin ID’ing the processor. So he needed to block that particular pin. Moreover, BIOS modification is also necessary to get it fully functioning on the ASUS X399 Zenith Extreme motherboard. Although it technically works, it is doubtful that manufacturers will begin offering full EPYC support on these desktop boards officially. It is nonetheless interesting to see the whole journey play out just to get to the truth.

You can follow more of Roman “Dar8auer” Hartung’s overclocking adventures by following his YouTube channel to see what he does next.