$138 (or less) MicroTik CCR2004-1G-2XS-PCIe 2xSFP28 25GBe Router on a PCIe Card

[J Hart]

This is the cheapest I've seen these CCR2004-1G-2XS-PCIe. I didn't try to see how low they would go as I wanted one to experiment with. The card came absolutely new in original factory sealed packaging with both regular and low profile brackets.

The CCR2004-1g-2XS-PCIe was reviewed previously on the main page.

 

[J Hart]

I had been interested in these for a while as they should be one of the cheapest options for a 10GBe or 25GBe router. I didn't want to deal with the slow initialization and honestly didn't care about using this as a network adapter at all.

I hooked this card up with one of those PCIe risers that cryptocurrency folks would use that converts a 16x slot into a 1x PCIe over a USB cable. I just wanted to power this card to see if it would boot and function without a host. I can report that these cards will boot and function completely independently of a host attached via PCIe and only need power to start up. One booted, the device can be configured using the 1GB Management port using the regular Microtik configuration tools.

This means these cards can be "easily" used as a router that is capable of 10GBe+ speeds. This card doesn't use a switch ASIC so maximum throughput is something like 35gbe combined bandwidth. That is plenty for my purposed for ~ $150 with the riser and power supply.

 

[iraqigeek]

At first I read that as $38, and thought getting a couple would be fun to play with. But then read your $150 with PSU and double checked the listing. Now my Sunday is ruined.

 

[Civiloid]

IMHO cheapest 10/25G router option would be half height bluefield-2, they quite often goes for less than a 100$ and if you are willing to setup them yourself. Connectx-6 is capable of routing more than 50G without any issues.

 

[etorix]

The CCR2004-1g-2XS-PCIe was reviewed previously on the main page.

However there never was the promised follow-up with a full STH review.

This means these cards can be "easily" used as a router that is capable of 10GBe+ speeds.

Key being the quotes around "easily", I suppose…
You already pointed that it is not capable of full dual 25Gb/s. As 10G router, what's the benefit over OPNsense on a X10SDV board?

 

[Jeffrey1910]

I guess the main feature will be it runs MikroTik router os, there plenty of those who prefer it over the usual flavors BSD and Linux firewall systems.
And fills a niche for space constrained setups when only 1 system or 1u space is viable, and still wants a dedicated router.
Power constraints included, the MicroTik max usage is 29W, Bluefield 2 is recommended 75W at minimum.

Very specific use-case I know, it's the best I could make of it.

 

[Civiloid]

Power constraints included, the MicroTik max usage is 29W, Bluefield 2 is recommended 75W at minimum.

I've mentioned here before, that I've measured my MBF2H532C (2x25G full height with 32GB of RAM) to actually consume ~38W idle and ~42W under full load with DAC cables attached to both ports. Also that is recommendation for the slot, not TDP. TDP for them was never public. AFAIR, PCIe Standard defines only three options for the slot - up to 10W, up to 25W and up to 75W, so recommendation of 75W means that 25W is not enough under full load with transcievers, etc.

 

[autoturk]

I guess the main feature will be it runs MikroTik router os, there plenty of those who prefer it over the usual flavors BSD and Linux firewall systems.
And fills a niche for space constrained setups when only 1 system or 1u space is viable, and still wants a dedicated router.
Power constraints included, the MicroTik max usage is 29W, Bluefield 2 is recommended 75W at minimum.

Very specific use-case I know, it's the best I could make of it.

have you measured actual usage from the wall by any chance?