Which 10 Gigabit network card?

Networking Networking Hardware
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which_10 gigabit network card
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Hi. I have 2 desktop PCs that I want to network directly with a cable (without a switch)

  • the computers will live right next to each other, so a short network cable is all that is needed
  • I have found some enterprise network cables that were tossed out (see pic). If the 10 gigabit network cards use any of these cables, then I can omit ‘esoteric’ cable costs, so it’s just the cost of the cards themselves I need to concern myself with
  • I can’t remember exactly what these two types of network optical cables are called so I decided to attach a picture so they can be identified (I have zero experience with them but I have seen them on the internet in the past)
  • both computers have spare PCIe slots
  • I am willing to buy new or used

Which inexpensive 10 gigabit network cards would you recommend I take a look at?

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Looks closest to the first one.

You could also go 40gig on the cheap:

For example: not sure if these can be flashed with Ethernet (mellanox website and serve the home forums usually have more info).

[ Edit: sorry, eBay links are horrible I have no idea what I was pasting]

mellanox has PDFs describing each of their series of cards with a table that decodes the model to a feature set at the beginning of the PDF … There should be 40gig cards for 30-50 a piece.

This would be the cable for those cards (40gig): https://www.fs.com/de-en/products/30884.html

3

Just for your info, the picture at the top looks like a DAC, a direct attached cable, which incorporates the transceivers.
The other two are types of fibre cable, which would need both a transceiver and a network card for each end.

I would recommend starting with the top cable, and either a Mellanox nic. Or Chelsio nic. Either should accept SFP+ transceivers.
If you went 40gigabit, you might need QSFP+ transceivers, depending on the card.
Q is just quad (4) Times SFP+ (small format pluggable) which looks like an extra wide version of the metal plug in the top picture.

Anyway, there should be enough buzz words to google for now…

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You would use a DAC (Direct Attach Copper/Cable) if going with one of the SFP variants. Those cables are relatively cheap (compared to transciever + fiber).
This is not of concern when going RJ45.

There are two types of fiber:

  • Single-mode (SMF)
    – Usually in a yellow sheath
    – Used for long range connections

  • Multi-mode (MMF)
    – Usually a blue sheath
    – Used for “short” distance (< 300m/900ft)

If you want to read more about it

Intel X540-T1 or T2 can be found for cheap used.
10GB cards usually need PCIe2 x8 (half a GPU) of lanes.

2 Likes
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Thanks to all of you for the helpful replies. I still haven’t decided on a set of cards but I’m shopping. Much appreciated.