10GbE or multi-gigabit NIC in PCIe 3.0 x1?

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c3l3x

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May 1, 2020
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Are there any >1GbE NICs that use PCIe 3.0 x1 form factor? I believe that is enough for 10GbE, but most I see are PCIe 2.0. I'm trying to get a faster connection from an ITX computer I have to my NAS without buying a new mobo, etc.
 

Mithril

Active Member
Sep 13, 2019
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Not that I am aware of. That being said, there are some not to expensive 10GB cards that are PCI3.0 that will work fine if electrically connected at 1x, so long as the slot is physically big enough or open ended. (All PCIe cards "should" work when connected with less lanes but I've run into the odd one that doesn't). You could also use a flexible PCIe cable, there are some that connect a 16x slot to a 1x mini "card" and depending on how much room you have in your case that might work.
 
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c3l3x

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May 1, 2020
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The 2.5GgE card would fit, but I would hoping for something faster. The QNAP one looks like it is x4 so I would need a ribbon cable and find a way to mount without fitting it in the x1 slot.
 

BeTeP

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Mar 23, 2019
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PCIE3.0 x1 is 8Gbps which is obviously less than needed for 10GbE. There are some rare x1 5GbE cards based on AQN108 chipset but if you would manage to find them in stock - they are listed at $200+ which defeats the purpose.
So just cut the slot (or use the extension cable) and find a regular x4 10GbE card which would work through a single lane. But be sure to pick a PCIE 3.0 one to make the most of that x1.
 
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c3l3x

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May 1, 2020
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PCIE3.0 x1 is 8Gbps which is obviously less than needed for 10GbE. There are some rare x1 5GbE cards based on AQN108 chipset but if you would manage to find them in stock - they are listed at $200+ which defeats the purpose.
So just cut the slot (or use the extension cable) and find a regular x4 10GbE card which would work through a single lane. But be sure to pick a PCIE 3.0 one to make the most of that x1.
If it's cheap enough, this is probably the way I'll go. Even if I only get 6-7 Gbps, that's good enough for me. This computer doesn't need to be as fast as my desktop, which is on 40GbE
 

hlhjedsfg

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Feb 2, 2018
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Recently buy the QNAP QXG-5G1T-111C for 56€ beacause I have a MSI Z97M and only pci-e x1 2.0 not open available. I get 2.90 Gb/s, this is nearly 3x improvement over 1Gbs with PCI-E 2.0, happy with it.

Edit : The QXG-5G1T-111C is PCI-E 3.0, maybe I could make a test in PCI-E 3.0 if you want to know if it saturate the 5Gbe on x1.
 
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blinkenlights

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May 24, 2019
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PCIE3.0 x1 is 8Gbps which is obviously less than needed for 10GbE.
You probably know this already, but manufacturers have been playing that "wink and nod" game for many years. It was especially bad with early quad-port cards. Sometimes the sales guy would try to explain it away by saying you'd never be running at 100% on all four ports...

Just some advice with regards to the Aquantia 10GbE consumer products: make sure they are compatible (at 10 Gbps) with your particular switch/router. I just returned an AQC107 card because it would not negotiate at full speed with my Brocade switch. Intel, Chelsio, and Broadcom have no problem... I fought with the Aquantia card for a few days before giving up.
 

randman

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May 3, 2020
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I've got a somewhat similar issue as the OP. I'm interested in buying a one-port 10 GBe card (VMWare compatible).

My HPE ML30 Gen 9 has 4 PCIe 3.0 slots:

- One slot (x4) is already being used by an x4 NVMe card.

- Another slot (x16) is being used by an Nvidia GPU.

- Two slots are currently empty. These slots have "x1 bus width and x4 connector width".

I just wanted some clarification on using the x1 bus width and x4 connector width" slots:

When buying a PCIe 10 GBe NIC, I assume I can buy either an x1 or x4 NIC for these slots?

If I get an x4 card and put it in an "x1 bus width and x4 connector width"" slot, I assume it will work just fine, but its
performance will be throttled to an x1's performance (~ 8Gbps)?

I suppose the server and the switch will both believe that they are connected via 10 Gbpe connection, but in reality, performance testing will show it's less?

I suppose I can also get a PCIe 10 GBe x1 card (whose performance will also be throttled down to 8Gbps), but
since my empty slots are "x4 connector slots", I assume that I'm better off just getting an x4 card so that in the future, I'll have the flexibility to move it to an x4 slot (on same server or in another server).