(US) 90 dollar Wyse 5070 Thin client/mini-server?

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newabc

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Jan 20, 2019
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There is a $141 comes with the stock GPU on the dell outlet link posted by @cageek . I think it should be a 5070 extended.
 

Bjorn Smith

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Sep 3, 2019
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r00t.dk
If only it was easier to expand storage on these machines I would have an even bigger stack at home.
I did find a seller in the EU that have the extended version for 149 EUR including VAT: Dell Wyse 5070 Extended 8GB DDR4 64GB SSD Intel J5005 Win10 IoT | eBay - and they are very much willing to sell cheaper - when I bought 5 from them they were priced @ 175 and I got it down to 125 ex VAT which is like a 20 EUR discount (after VAT).
 

thetoad

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Feb 10, 2021
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so, my "broken" (or unknown state) 5070 I just plugged in again after a while of not using it (with no ssd and memory installed) and suprisingly it didn't stay amber, but went quickly to a white and then an amber blinking (3 then 2 blinks in repetition). I stuck the 4GB sodimm in and it stayed white or a bit, then seemed to "reboot" (went off, then amber for a moment, then back to white). but I wasn't able to see anything on video and usb isn't seeming to give power to keyboard or a memory stick). I then unplugged it and plugged in a spare 16GB m.2 stick from my 5470 and it has a green led that lights up, so ssd is getting power too.

even more confused now.
 

eas

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May 25, 2022
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I'm having trouble finding the answer to a few questions on the Dell site. Maybe someone here can help.

  1. What chipset is used for the onboard NIC?
  2. What chipset is used for the optional second RJ-45 NIC.
  3. Part number and how to order the optional second RJ-45 interface for a system acquired without one?
Thx!
 

Rttg

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May 21, 2020
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@eas - the onboard NIC is a RTL8111.

Not sure what the optional (Dell-provided option) uses, but there are a wide variety of M.2 A+E key options (on AliExpress in particular). Of the two I tried, a RTL8111-based NIC worked but a miniPCIe (using an adapter to M.2 A+E key) Intel i350 did not.
 

Bjorn Smith

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Part number and how to order the optional second RJ-45 interface for a system acquired without one?
If you scroll up you should find the part numbers - I am 100% certain that I have seen them. Otherwise a tip was to go to dell's wensite - start an order for a dell wyse 5070 and add the optional nic, then on the details list you can see the part number.
 

eas

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May 25, 2022
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I see now that both the onboard and the optional RJ-45 are realtek. I also realize that the price of a used slim + second ethernet port is probably about the same as a refub extended directly from Dell. So, I might as well transfer over the 4-port intel NIC from the t620 I'm currently using as my OpnSense box. I really hope the J4125/J5005 have enough extra power over the GX-420CA to eliminate the CPU bottleneck on my CenturyLink Gigabit connection imposed by FreeBSDs single-threaded PPPoE implementation. If not, it'll be a waste of time and $.
 

eas

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May 25, 2022
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Thanks for the replies.

I see now that both the onboard and the optional RJ-45 are realtek. I also realize that the price of a used slim + second ethernet port is probably about the same as a refub extended directly from Dell. So, I might as well transfer over the 4-port intel NIC from the t620 I'm currently using as my OpnSense box. I really hope the J4125/J5005 have enough extra power over the GX-420CA to eliminate the CPU bottleneck on my CenturyLink Gigabit connection imposed by FreeBSDs single-threaded PPPoE implementation. If not, it'll be a waste of time and $.
 

newabc

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Jan 20, 2019
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Wyse 5070 extended(the fat edition) comes with a low profile PCIe slot.

Personally, for the single-threaded PPPoE case, I will prefer HP T740 which has much better single-core/single-thread performance based on their passmark scores.

Or a Topton box(aliexpress link) with a N6005 cpu(barebone costs $25x.xx + tax). But from some review videos around half a year ago, similar boxes' have an issue that the history of the i225V opensource driver from Intel is not long enough that it may be buggy.
 

eas

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May 25, 2022
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The t740's performance should provide ample headroom, but it is in whole 'nother category wrt to power consumption and price.

I was originally considering something like that Topton box, but it was also more than I wanted to spend. I'd pretty much decided to forgo doing anything about it for a while, until you pointed out that $141 5070 extended.

I can get to about 750Mbps down on the GX-420. The J4125/J5005 have about 1.75x the single threaded performance, so it should be enough to get me to wire speed.

Or I could just install OpenWRT.
 

newabc

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The t740's performance should provide ample headroom, but it is in whole 'nother category wrt to power consumption and price.

I was originally considering something like that Topton box, but it was also more than I wanted to spend. I'd pretty much decided to forgo doing anything about it for a while, until you pointed out that $141 5070 extended.

I can get to about 750Mbps down on the GX-420. The J4125/J5005 have about 1.75x the single threaded performance, so it should be enough to get me to wire speed.

Or I could just install OpenWRT.
You can try OpenWRT with NAT and PPPoE only to test the linux performance on the GX-420.

And the passmark of J5005 vs GX-420MC on single thread, is 1200 vs 700.

I did an iperf speedtest for Mikrotik switch's layer 3 hardware offloading with the 5070 extended(J5005) and a Supermicro brand x520-da2 variant(dual SFP+) and it reached 5.x Gbps and 7.x Gbps (1 port sending and the other one receiving) that are matching the theory limit of PCIe x4 v2.0, 16Gbps(2GBytes/second).

So I think if the 5070 extended does NAT only without PPPoE, with an i340-t4 or i350-t4(intel or its OEM), it probably can reach 2Gbps or more with LACP port bonding.

If NAT and PPPoE only and to save cost, personally I will pick Mikrotik RB4011 or RB5009. But there are much less functions than pfSense/OPNSense.
 
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cageek

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Jun 22, 2018
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I also realize that the price of a used slim + second ethernet port is probably about the same as a refub extended directly from Dell.
I saw someone selling the 2nd ethernet port adapters for $19 + $5 shipping on ebay:


It looks like the right part. There's a vendor that has been auctioning off a trove of Wyse 5070 slims (w/o adapters and stands):


These have ended going for about $45 to $55 + $19 shipping.

All that said, the extended is quite versitile.
 
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Goossens

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May 2, 2020
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I'm having trouble getting my 5070 Extended to work with an Intel X520-DA2 (technically a Dell 942V6). With the NIC installed, the machine does not boot. The same NIC in a different machine works without issue. A different NIC (i350) in the Wyse boots without issue...

With the X520 installed, the amber LED is blinking in a 2,5 pattern, which according to the manual means "Invalid memory is installed". Weird error but to be sure I've changed the memory, but without any effect. I'm on the latest BIOS, and with the original Dell adapter. Any ideas?
 

newabc

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Jan 20, 2019
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I'm having trouble getting my 5070 Extended to work with an Intel X520-DA2 (technically a Dell 942V6). With the NIC installed, the machine does not boot. The same NIC in a different machine works without issue. A different NIC (i350) in the Wyse boots without issue...

With the X520 installed, the amber LED is blinking in a 2,5 pattern, which according to the manual means "Invalid memory is installed". Weird error but to be sure I've changed the memory, but without any effect. I'm on the latest BIOS, and with the original Dell adapter. Any ideas?
Is it possible that the PCIe slot cannot output enough power to the OEM X520-DA2 card?
But the Supermicro AOC-STGN-i2S ver2.0, an X520-da2 variant, can be used on 5070 extended without any problem.
 
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glow

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Mar 22, 2022
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Ran into this exact issue before. No real resolution was achieved, since I could much more simply swap cards into working machines. Dell X520 cards are cheaper on ebay for good reason.

AFAIK, their firmware (dell variant of the firmware and rom [separate, afaik]) instantiates at SMBUS addresses that are normally occupied on regular ATX computers.Sometimes, you're lucky and there is no collision. Sometimes, you are not so lucky. It is a bus with addresses that must be non-colliding, like the old IRQ# you used to have to set for devices/peripherals and traps. However, many SMBUS devices don't really seem to have a way to let the user change their address or r/w commands easily.

You can either tape over the SMBUS pins on the card or somehow get the card to accept a more stock Intel firmware and rom. Intel did not release a stock image into the wild, and most rom+firmware dumps just won't burn using the regular tools. I had over 25 bookmarks saved from various resources w.r.t. doing this, and ended up writing my own tool to help assist this.

In the end, it's just easier to put the dell card where it works*, and remember why pulled Dell X520s are so cheap. Someone probably has a better solution. A really, really bad trick to use is the hotplugging PCIe, which works across reboots. Obviously, it will still fail on a cold boot, which is less viable for a router or any critical device.


*I have an Asrock AB350 ITX that works with the Dell X520 card, so I just use it there. I also have at least two boards that don't work with it.
 
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newabc

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Jan 20, 2019
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I got a Dell OEM x520-da2 for a QNAP NAS and never modded, and its OUI is Intel's.
Thank you, @glow, you made me know such important information.
 

glow

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Mar 22, 2022
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If it helps, the memory sticks have smbus addresses too (where their memory timing profiles and sometimes RGB controllers are accessed). Given both of us saw the white/amber blink pattern give a memory POST code, maybe different sticks of ram may work? Only bother trying this if you already have other ddr4 sodimms, obviously, since this is just a bad idea that I have.
 
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