FS: Motherboard Intel DH87MC ATX Motherboard

[rsaeon]

Expected Price (Rs)

2775

Shipping from

Hyderabad

Item Condition

2 out of 5

Payment Options

1. Cash
2. Bank Transfer

Purchase Date

Jan 31, 2021

Shipping Charges

Included in cost

Have you provided two pics?

1. Yes

Remaining Warranty Period

None

Invoice Available?

No

Reason for Sale

Downsizing

I purchased this from a refurbishing dealer on OLX about a year ago, but I never had the chance to put it in long term operation. I used it as testbed for memory validation. CPU socket has at least one bent pin and at least one broken pin but all four memory slots are operational. Audio is untested. Ethernet works, as does at least one of the SATA ports, the rest are untested. MSATA is also untested, as are the expansion slots.

BIOS is senile, I haven't been able to enter it or update it. The actual chip may need to be replaced or reflashed. This motherboard does not support Haswell Refresh or Broadwell processors. There are ways to add support, but it is a convoluted process that requires flashing the Management Engine seperately.

Price is Rs 2775 and is non-negotiable. No testing warranty, no returns, no refunds.

Shipping will be within a day of payment.

Thanks.

 

[rsaeon]

The BIOS issues is because of data degradation, or bitrot, which happens with BIOS chips that are several years old. This can be resolved with a reprogramming of the BIOS chip with an external programmer, or in some cases by replacing the chip entirely with a new one. They usually go for under Rs 100 at electronics component stores.

 

[rsaeon]

bump

 

[rsaeon]

Some updates: both full length slots are tested working, as is the MSATA connector:





The other slots are detected fine, so they should also be working.

 

[rsaeon]

bump

 

[rsaeon]

price drop to 1775 or best offer!

 

[rsaeon]

price jump back to 2775

 

[tech.monk]

@3ther looking for one

 

[3ther]

Z87 needs bios flashing. From the OP post I understand bios is inaccessible? Also bent pins is a deal breaker.

 

[rsaeon]

I have about half a dozen ddr3 era motherboards in 24/7 use, almost all of them have bent or broken pins but they work fine with expansion cards and 32gb of memory installed (4x8gb). These boards are close to seven or eight years old at this point and are well past any reasonable expectation of finding one in pristine condition.

That said, I do have a MSI Z97 Guard Pro with m.2 slot in pristine condition (from a 2020 RMA, just before the lockdown) but that's paired with an Intel i5 5675C processor. Broadwell processors need Z97 motherboards and I'm never going to find another Z97 motherboard for under 5k, so I'll have to sell it together as a combo, if I ever do sell it.

I also have a Gigabyte Z97 UD7 with Thunderbolt but no m.2 but that also has bios issues, settings are not saved across reboots even with a fresh battery. And it won't post with a cold boot unless if BIOS is cleared. But once it's running, it's a beautiful thing:



For this Intel motherboard, I'll try replacing the BIOS chip sometime this month to fix it's BIOS issues. Or if someone wants to give it a try, this is the BIOS chip:

 

[rsaeon]

I finally managed to swap out the BIOS chips, it's been an adventure. The BIOS is now accessible but the Management Engine is faulty so now there's no easy way to update BIOS. Because of the way Intel packages their BIOS update files, the binary was over 9MB which wouldn't fit on the 8MB BIOS chip. So I had to hunt down a BIOS dump which wasn't easy and the one I found was of version 0047. The latest BIOS is 0164.

Considering these issues, that the board is stuck on a very old BIOS and that the socket isn't in the greatest condition with bent pins and rust and perhaps a little sentimental value that this is now the first motherboard I've successfully repaired, I'm going to keep this motherboard. Maybe I'll figure out a way to undervolt it and set it up as adblocking DNS server (pihole on x86).

@micki9559

 

[micki9559]

Great job! Yaay! Yes, seems fitting that you keep this as a memory. Meantime, I've found a Z77 Mobo that suits my needs!