10Gb SFP+ single port = cheaper than dirt

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Aluminum

Active Member
Sep 7, 2012
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Twinax SFP+ DACs should be $20 or less, these are thick cables good up to 5 meters usually.

When price shopping typical (<300m) 10Gb LC type transceivers on ebay keep in mind they are $16 new from fiberstore, and they will program the eeprom to your major vendor of choice. Mellanox parts don't seem to care about vendor ids, but cisco/hp/etc switches often do (jerks).

Premade LC-LC om3/4 cables are fairly cheap too, I wouldn't get less than om3 for 10Gb since short runs are practically the same cost and for long runs the spec starts to matter. Plus who knows, in a few years 40/100Gb could be this cheap.
 

J Hart

Active Member
Apr 23, 2015
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In case anyone is looking for another deal for 10Gb adapters, I've gotten a few Chelsio S310E cards from this seller for $24 including a 3M Cisco DAC cable. Chelsio S310E CR 10GIG Ethernet SFP PCIe NIC 110 1107 30 10GbE w Cisco 3M Cable | eBay When you figure that the DAC cable costs ~$18, the card itself is almost free. Originally I got one of these to put in my FreeNAS box since the Mellanox drivers are fubar in the latest FreeNAS stable release, but they work pretty well and don't seem to be particularly picky about the SFP+ you put in them. I tried them with a variety of different SFP+s I had around and they don't seem to have any restrictions as far as copper vs optical vs manufacturers.
 

neo

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2015
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Great deal, wonder which is better, Mellanox or Chelsio - research I have done says Mellanox if you have driver support
I like Chelsio and solely use them across various builds. However the S310 is 2 generations old and is showing it's age. Directly comparing the ConnectX-2 to the S310 - I would choose the Mellanox.
 
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canta

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Nov 26, 2014
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I like Chelsio and solely use them across various builds. However the S310 is 2 generations old and is showing it's age. Directly comparing the ConnectX-2 to the S310 - I would choose the Mellanox.
thanks, almost bite S310.....
 
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PnoT

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Mar 1, 2015
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I like Chelsio and solely use them across various builds. However the S310 is 2 generations old and is showing it's age. Directly comparing the ConnectX-2 to the S310 - I would choose the Mellanox.
I was thinking about trying out FREENAS and have the Mellanox cards, listed here, and some Intel X520s. How are the Intels and if I was to buy a Chelsio which ones should I be looking at :)
 

neo

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Mar 18, 2015
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I was thinking about trying out FREENAS and have the Mellanox cards, listed here, and some Intel X520s. How are the Intels and if I was to buy a Chelsio which ones should I be looking at :)
In my personal FreeNAS server I use a Chelsio T520. Mellanox cards are currently not supported in FreeNAS. Though the Intel x520 should work fine I believe, there were a few driver issues previously that should have been resolved. I've found Chelsio cards to universally have the best driver support for virtually any OS and recommended by FreeBSD developers. For ethernet Rj45 I prefer Intel but for SFP+ I prefer Chelsio.