10Gbps NIC on PCI-E 4 x1 slot?

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likelinus

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Mar 9, 2016
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Does a PCI-E 4.0 1x provide enough bandwidth for a 10Gbps NIC? If so, can someone recommend a card that will fit in the 1x slot and runs at PCI-E 4.0? Want something reliable and good quality. This will be for a NAS that stores my video production work. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated it.

It's for a ASUS Pro WS X570-Ace ATX motherboard.
 

nexox

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May 3, 2023
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4.0 x1 provides plenty of bandwidth for a single 10G port (~16Gbps) but I looked around recently and only found x2 and x4 boards (probably so they can get full bandwidth on 3.0 systems,) so you'd need an open-ended x1 slot or an x4 physical/x1 electrical slot.

I believe the best options use an Aquantia chipset, for specific recommendations you need to specify whether you want an SFP+ or 10GBaseT port.
 

likelinus

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Mar 9, 2016
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4.0 x1 provides plenty of bandwidth for a single 10G port (~16Gbps) but I looked around recently and only found x2 and x4 boards (probably so they can get full bandwidth on 3.0 systems,) so you'd need an open-ended x1 slot or an x4 physical/x1 electrical slot.

I believe the best options use an Aquantia chipset, for specific recommendations you need to specify whether you want an SFP+ or 10GBaseT port.
Thanks for the response. Looking for SFP+. The PCIE 4.0 1x has an open back. https://www.asus.com/media/global/gallery/31mog63bxrfwq7ae_setting_xxx_0_90_end_800.png

Hope that answers all your questions. Let me know if you have a recommendation! Thanks again.
 

nexox

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Well I thought I had seen a cheaper 4.0 SFP+ NIC but now I can't find any, best I can find is a dual 10/25G cards like an Intel E810-XXV or a Mellanox ConnectX 5/6 ADAT, somewhere around $200, and while they should work with a single 10G connection in an x1 slot, there have been reports that some Intel server NICs don't behave well unless they get all lanes connected.
 

likelinus

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Well I thought I had seen a cheaper 4.0 SFP+ NIC but now I can't find any, best I can find is a dual 10/25G cards like an Intel E810-XXV or a Mellanox ConnectX 5/6 ADAT, somewhere around $200, and while they should work with a single 10G connection in an x1 slot, there have been reports that some Intel server NICs don't behave well unless they get all lanes connected.
I thought I had read earlier that Aquantia had a PCIE 4.0 version of their card, but I'd have to go back through and find it again. It was like a model 113 vs a 117 or something like that. Maybe someone here knows what I'm talking about. It just needs to support PCIE 4.0 because 3.0 doesn't have enough bandwidth for 10GB and members were saying to get a 4.0 version. I can find quite a few Ethernet 10GB, but no SFP+ so far. ugh.

I use Mellanox in my other machines and I've never had a problem with them. Haven't used an Intel 10G yet.
 
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nexox

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The ACR113 is 4.0 and 10GBaseT, but as far as I can tell it can't do SFP+.
 

likelinus

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The ACR113 is 4.0 and 10GBaseT, but as far as I can tell it can't do SFP+.
Yeah, that's what I've found so far. So, I guess the question is, is there any reason not to use 10GBaseT? I just remember hearing they get really hot or overheat back years ago. Nothing really current and I haven't researched them. Could I just go from BaseT to SFP+ and be done with it?
 

nexox

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10GBaseT uses a little more power and adds a little more latency, but those recent Aquantia chipsets are supposed to run fairly cool. Still by the time you add the cost of a transceiver your almost to the same price of a used ConnectX 6 Lx, which is a much higher quality NIC.
 

Promit

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Sep 28, 2024
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I recently bought, then returned, an Aquantia based card - the TP-Link TX401. It's red and it's the top result on Amazon for a 10G card so you can't miss it. It was really glitchy until I went to the Marvell website and installed the latest firmware and drivers from them rather than TP-Link. That mostly fixed it but there were still issues with power management enabled. Since power management was broken anyway, I sent it back and bought an eBay Mellanox ConnectX-3 instead for quite a lot less money. It does not support power management, did not require a manual driver install, and has been rock solid.
 

nexox

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May 3, 2023
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I recently bought, then returned, an Aquantia based card - the TP-Link TX401. It's red and it's the top result on Amazon for a 10G card so you can't miss it. It was really glitchy until I went to the Marvell website and installed the latest firmware and drivers from them rather than TP-Link. That mostly fixed it but there were still issues with power management enabled. Since power management was broken anyway, I sent it back and bought an eBay Mellanox ConnectX-3 instead for quite a lot less money. It does not support power management, did not require a manual driver install, and has been rock solid.
Those are both PCIe 3.0 cards that wouldn't be able to do 10G in an x1 slot, so they don't address the original issue here.
 
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Promit

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Those are both PCIe 3.0 cards that wouldn't be able to do 10G in an x1 slot, so they don't address the original issue here.
Fair. What I forgot to ask was, are the AQC113 cards (which are all physically x4) dual mode? Meaning they'll do 10G in a PCIe 4.0 x1 slot OR a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot?
 

nexox

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Fair. What I forgot to ask was, are the AQC113 cards (which are all physically x4) dual mode? Meaning they'll do 10G in a PCIe 4.0 x1 slot OR a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot?
All 4.0 cards should be backwards compatible with previous versions, a single 10G port will run fine on 3.0x2 or 2.0x4 unless it's implemented incorrectly.