cheap dual port 10 gbe NICs for most homelab OSes?

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digity

Member
Jun 3, 2017
53
1
8
54
I seldom re-purpose my homelab equipment and servers. Having to work around my mix of 10 GbE SFP+ NICs not working with a particular OS is frustrating. Is there a cheap (eBay) dual port 10 GbE SFP+ card that is stable, works out of the box or requires little effect to get working with FreeNAS, ESXi 6.7 uX, Linux (mainly Debian/Ubuntu), Windows Server 2019+ (driver required okay) and Windows 10 (driver required okay)?? If that's too much to ask how about out of the box stable with at least FreeNAS and ESXi?
 

Spartacus

Well-Known Member
May 27, 2019
788
328
63
Austin, TX
I personally use CX322A since I had it in a Dell system (its just the Dell OEM version of the CX312A though)
The CX312A can be had for under $50 shipped on ebay, I use DAC with them.
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,727
3,075
113
33
fohdeesha.com

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,727
3,075
113
33
fohdeesha.com
Noob question - why buy the 649281-B21 and flash to MCX354A-QBCT when you could just buy the MCX354A-QBCT off of ebay? What am I missing?
I think you mean flash to a MCX354A-FCBT (40gb Ethernet unlocked). It's because when that post was made, the QBCT was at least twice as cheap (35 vs 80+), so you could save a lot of money buying one then flashing to FCBT firmware. However now that you've got me looking it seems some sellers have caught on that they're the same physical card with different firmware, and it seems the FCBTs have come way down in price. Just buy whichever is cheapest, either way you'll need to follow that post to flash the latest FCBT firmware (even if you buy a native FCBT card, the firmware they come with off eBay is ancient)