Project mini micro, where do I find a Intel 2.5gb nic A+E key?

[BroadBandElf]

Hello, I have a dell 1L optiplex with 64gb ddr4, a m.2 2280, a m.2 2230 E key for wifi, and a sata drive slot. it has a 9th Gen i3 T processor, although one of these days I intend to upgrade it to a i9 t 8c/16t T processor.

I am hoping to get started with proxmox and would really really like a 2.5gb nic in the wifi card slot.
Firstly, where the Wi-Fi card slot provide necessary bandwidth for 2.5 GB ethernet?

Does anyone know where to buy this innodisk embedded module?

It states drivers can be found on Intel’s website so that means it has to be a Intel chipset Nic right? However I cannot find one supplier that sells it. The 1 gigabit is around, but not the 2.5.

Several Amazon and eBay listings show a realtek 2.5 Gigabit nic by various brands. Would this one cause issues in a home server kind of environment? Any issues with windows server or proxmox/Linux?

Also on a side note, does x540 10gbe aic nics cause any issues on a 2.5 g Network? What would be the best ethernet low profile 10 GB AIC card that would work with proxmox for 2.5 gigabit? ( I also have a sff hp that allows 2 low profile cards)

Also what’s the best server grade m.2 ssd for proxmox?
I am planning to run all the boot storage for the vms off the m.2.
Kingston’s DC series seems to have a relatively low tbw for being a data center m.2 ? 1pb tbw

Would the msi m470 be better, being at three times the tbw?

MSI SPATIUM M470 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2TB SSD Storage - MSI-US Official Store

3.3pb tbw

Sorry about all the questions!
Thanks!

[Percy]

Hi,

I’m on the same journey! I’ve recently just bought a couple of second-hand Dell micros, one of which I intend to use as a homelab proxmox server and the other as a regular desktop.

The homelab server has 64gb Ram and a i7 8700t 6c/12t processor but, like you, fully intended to upgrade it to an i9 9900t processor and I’ve ordered a similar 2.5gb ethernet adapter to use instead of the intel nic. I’m only planning to run a few VMs like Home Assistant, JellyFin, an Ubuntu Server and a couple instances of PiHole so I think this setup should be good for that.

But I ordered the 2.5gb ethernet adapter mainly for running the JellyFin server as that would be the only bottleneck to serving high bitrate content to multiple external clients and even though I currently (only) have a 1gb synchronous home fibre connection I have the option of upgrading it to a 3gb synchronous connection.

I believe that adapter should work but have you tried it yet?

Also I’m using a 1tb Samsung 980 SSD because of its good reviews but I’m not sure if you would call it server grade. I’ve heard that the 980 PROs might give you even better performance though…