Looking for a 10G Nic. I don’t have to have rj-45 and can use SFP+ if I have to.
I saw this on ebay for $42
It seems like a good deal but I wanted to know if anyone had any experience with them. I also want to know if I will need to add more directed cooling for it to keep it from throttling. I’m looking to put one in a Fractal node 804, a small nas project, and then another in my main pc. There won’t be a lot of space in either for additional cooling and I like to limit my fans to keep down the noise. I run slow 140mm fans right now in my main pc, 2-140mm front intake and 2-140mm exhause top and rear.
I’m looking at getting a small 10G switch to mate up with them and have been considering Mikrotic’s products, probably starting with the little 4 port SFP+ model ( Mikrotik CRS305-1G-4S+IN) . If anyone has any experience with inter-compatibility with their stuff that would be great help too. Thanks all!
For the record, I have an old Cisco switch (Catalyst 2960X) with 2 SFP+ ports that I can use to test the nics. It has one blower fan so its rather…loud. I’d rather have something quieter sitting by my desk.
I’m a fan of the Intel x520, which that card claims to be a clone of. Looks a lot smaller than my Intel cards. I paid $65 for a DA1 and $100 for a DA2 genuine Intel, with optics.
I have the 8-port Mikrotik SFP+ switch, works great with every optic I’ve tried in it, HPE, Dell, Intel and 10GTek (white label)… also worked with a white label DAC cable.
You mean you have fiber runs?
I’ve looked at that but I couldn’t find a good guide on how to choose the cable styles and connectors.
I actually work for a company that manufactures fiber and all sorts of other communications cables and would like to try fiber just for the hell of it.
I can’t vouch for the supermicro card, it might be fine but sometimes they do strange things with their pcie pin outs, though that may just be their risers.
In any case, Mellanox and Intel sfp+ cards are solid, being plug and play in both windows and Linux, though there are proprietary drivers available which allow for making use of special features.
For multi-mode transceivers, I use either 10gtek or finistar. The latter was under $8 on eBay a little bit ago. There are also “lots” of transceivers available which may offer even better price per unit.
For switches, the MikroTik 4 port and the 12port (plus 4 rj45 10g ports) were the best options for the price when I looked a year ago.
For fiber cable, look at OM4 multi-mode cable off of amazon or something. Fibercablesdirect and cablematters are solid.
The kind of connection you want is “LC”. For sfp+, this is the most commonly used termination on fiber cables, and will be what most transceivers accept.
Yes, I used pre-made patch cables for my “runs” … LC/LC OM3 … OM3 is good for 10gig up to 2km, or maybe it’s 10km, and 40g up to 300 meters. I bought AmazonBasics OM3 patch cables, cheap and easy.
You combine the OM (optical multimode) cable with cheap MM optics often called “SR” or short range.
@vljio That looks good. I thought getting a multiport card would end up with more heat generation and would require better cooling. I’d rather not add another fan just to blow air on a pcie card. In your experience, will this card need some additional cooling?
@JediAcolyte no, there are active models with a a fan, but as long as your case has some airflow it should be fine.
I’ve been using it both behind a 2070 super in a Sliger SM560 and against a 2080 in a Lian Li Dynamic XL. I haven’t seen the temps get to anything worrisome.
Let me do a quick stress to get everything hot in the Sliger and report back.
EDIT: Looks like I can’t get the temp reading on Win10 with AIDA64 or HWiNFO.
EDIT2: 38C on Arch downloading on a single interface at 700mbps.
Thanks, @vljio.
That doesn’t sound bad at all. I’ve got a standard atx case Phanteks P400 with 2 140mm intakes in front and I can feel some air coming out of the pcie slots in the back.
I bet if you have a 2 port card with a bigger heatsink and only use 1 port that might be a little better on heat management also.
I’ve ordered 2 of these, and I’m waiting for them to be delivered. Did I jinx myself?
They have an Emulex Blades-Engine 3 (BE3) controller which seems to be supported in Linux.