10GBASE-T NIC in PCIe gen 2 slot? Will it work?

[TheNatural]

I'm downsizing the PC in my home office. I'm looking at mATX boards to maintain 4 DIMM slots and planning to use a single GPU (a 1080 ti I already have). But I insist on 10GBe. It looks like I can save some cash and have more options by using an add in card rather than getting a board with 10GBe built in. But! The slot I will have available would be a gen 2 PCIe from the chipset (x16). Is that sufficient for a 10GBASE-T add in card? And, if so, any recommendations for an affordable NIC that is "pretty"? It'll probably be going in a glass gamer style case with lots of other pretty things.

I'm looking at AMDs 3900X in a B450 board.

 

[elag]

Mellanox Connectx-2 is PCIE2x8 if I remember correctly, but even a Mellanox ConnextX-3 (PCI3x4) will work (I have that in my old workstation on a Asrock X77 Extreme with an i7-2600K that only does PCIE2. No problem, speed is 10Gb: PCIE2 has 5GT/s transfers per lane, so you should be fine with either Mellanox card. I have no experience with other cards, but I would assume that something similar applies

 

[TheNatural]

Thanks. I've briefly used the Mellanox cards you mentioned; aren't they all SFP+? Great to hear you've had success with full 10GbE using the old workstation with PCIe2 though!

I'm thinking twisted pair to go along with the new NAS and cat6 I ran through all the walls last renovation. I used to use fiber directly between workstation and server in the next room, but changes in computing needs means I've ditched the power hungry server for a lil NAS box.

 

[Deslok]

Thanks. I've briefly used the Mellanox cards you mentioned; aren't they all SFP+? Great to hear you've had success with full 10GbE using the old workstation with PCIe2 though!

I'm thinking twisted pair to go along with the new NAS and cat6 I ran through all the walls last renovation. I used to use fiber directly between workstation and server in the next room, but changes in computing needs means I've ditched the power hungry server for a lil NAS box.

Fiberstore sells these for 10GbaseT Cisco SFP-10G-T-S 10GBASE-T RJ45 SFP+ Transceiver Module which should work with a Mellanox card although I generally find fiber better from a performance standpoint for anything other than very short runs.

 

[TheNatural]

Fiberstore sells these for 10GbaseT Cisco SFP-10G-T-S 10GBASE-T RJ45 SFP+ Transceiver Module which should work with a Mellanox card although I generally find fiber better from a performance standpoint for anything other than very short runs.

Awesome! That gives me another option!

Strictly performance speaking I agree with fiber, but most runs in my small house are 40 feet or less. The workstation to NAS run that I'm most concerned with is only about 15 feet. The 10GBASE-T built into the NAS sways the decision a lot too.

I also found some more info on a fairly inexpensive NIC from Gigabyte that confirms it will run fine on PCIe2 x4.

I have my answer and some product options. Thanks all!

 

[Deslok]

Awesome! That gives me another option!

Strictly performance speaking I agree with fiber, but most runs in my small house are 40 feet or less. The workstation to NAS run that I'm most concerned with is only about 15 feet. The 10GBASE-T built into the NAS sways the decision a lot too.

I also found some more info on a fairly inexpensive NIC from Gigabyte that confirms it will run fine on PCIe2 x4.

I have my answer and some product options. Thanks all!

I'm curious what gigabyte card you found, remember though that connectx2 and connectx3 cards are cheap enough on ebay
Mellanox 10Gbps ConnectX-2 2-Ports Adapter PCI-E x8 MNPH29D-XTR 692753248725 | eBay

Mellanox ConnectX-3 EN CX312A Dual Port 10GB SFP+ MCX312A-XCBT Bracket Options 132017822914 | eBay

Also remember Pcie will always negotiate down since these are 8x cards you'd have to go back to pcie 1.x to see a negative impact and even then only if you're fully saturating both 10Gb links

 

[TheNatural]

I'm curious what gigabyte card you found, remember though that connectx2 and connectx3 cards are cheap enough on ebay
Mellanox 10Gbps ConnectX-2 2-Ports Adapter PCI-E x8 MNPH29D-XTR 692753248725 | eBay

Mellanox ConnectX-3 EN CX312A Dual Port 10GB SFP+ MCX312A-XCBT Bracket Options 132017822914 | eBay

Also remember Pcie will always negotiate down since these are 8x cards you'd have to go back to pcie 1.x to see a negative impact and even then only if you're fully saturating both 10Gb links

It's a gigabyte gc-aqc107 and they're around a hundred bucks. It's just a single port and clearly (by the price) not a high end or server grade card, but reviews I've seen were positive. It also has a fancy aluminum heat sink that will blend in aesthetically with the rest of the gamer-esque build.

 

[Deslok]

oh it's an AQC107 so it's just a custom version of this at best(probably just the heatsink)

https://www.amazon.com/Aquantia-NIC-5-speed-Ethernet-Network/dp/B07B3G4S4J


Personally I'd take the mellanox over that but having to order the transceiver shifts the math.

 

[TheNatural]

oh it's an AQC107 so it's just a custom version of this at best(probably just the heatsink)

https://www.amazon.com/Aquantia-NIC-5-speed-Ethernet-Network/dp/B07B3G4S4J


Personally I'd take the mellanox over that but having to order the transceiver shifts the math.

That's the one. A reviewer mentioned that it was basically the reference card with a fancy heat sink so I think you nailed it. Apparently the ASUS version is also essentially the same but with a red heat sink.

The Mellanox would end up about the same price with one transceiver. I can't argue with it probably being better. But also .. most builds I wouldn't care much, but my workstation is my home office's central "art" piece, so pretty heat sink on a black PCB gets the win as long as it will do the job.

 

[Deslok]

That's the one. A reviewer mentioned that it was basically the reference card with a fancy heat sink so I think you nailed it. Apparently the ASUS version is also essentially the same but with a red heat sink.

The Mellanox would end up about the same price with one transceiver. I can't argue with it probably being better. But also .. most builds I wouldn't care much, but my workstation is my home office's central "art" piece, so pretty heat sink on a black PCB gets the win as long as it will do the job.

Yeah with the AQ107 every motherboard vendor rushed to have one that matches the color scheme of their boards, sub 100 is enough to offer it as an accessory just not build it into the boards apparently.
Aquantina has a "gaming" version of the card themselves with some special software at 89 although I don't know how much the software really helps just like the old killer gaming software.
www.amazon.com/Aquantia-NIC-5-speed-Ethernet-Network/dp/B07C5VLVFF