Beware of fake ConnectX-3 Pro (MCX312B-XCCT) from eBay

[Stephan]

@chrisdm Apologies, thank you for reminding me. I just did read from the beginning. So some chinese seller is selling Pro-labelled cards but chip is non-Pro, got it. I still think it wasn't the seller who put the Pro-label on the card, but the factory in Israel. Not fake, but factory error is what I am thinking. If you use the word "fake" I associate PCB cloned, sub-par components, and recycled main chip, instead of labelling error. Might be just me.

Seller must fully well know by now of course. But he/she wants to offload what inventory he has got.

 

[chrisdm]

@chrisdm Apologies, thank you for reminding me. I just did read from the beginning. So some chinese seller is selling Pro-labelled cards but chip is non-Pro, got it. I still think it wasn't the seller who put the Pro-label on the card, but the factory in Israel. Not fake, but factory error is what I am thinking. If you use the word "fake" I associate PCB cloned, sub-par components, and recycled main chip, instead of labelling error. Might be just me.

Seller must fully well know by now of course. But he/she wants to offload what inventory he has got.

Agreed on offloading the inventory, probably replacing the ones who complain with legit ones and just hoping the rest are fine with it working enough to not notice.

I personally don't even need the Pro features but it was the cheapest plug and play card I could find with my ThinkStation P360 that I was able to get brand new. $80 ain't bad for a factory sealed one.

 

[FelixK]

My fake card was replaced with another fake card. So even those complaining won't necessarily get the thing they thought they were buying.
And I say fake because I think the factory/labeling error theory doesn't line up. Why would there be these obvious solder marks on the U17 chip that stores the model information on both of my fake cards? There must be a business case for spending time, money and effort on hand reprogramming and soldering EEPROMs to sell these cards at a higher price.
These cards were purposely modified to appear as something they are not, when they, in the labeling error case, could simply have ignored the incorrect label and left the model information for the non-Pro version on the U17 chip intact.
A theory, that in my mind sounds more likely, is that this seller is dumping inventory from a fraudulent non-Pro to Pro rebadging operation that's no longer lucrative because the product is way past its prime. I don't think hand soldering chips to defraud people is a winning business proposition at less than $50 a pop shipped from China.

 

[chrisdm]

My fake card was replaced with another fake card. So even those complaining won't necessarily get the thing they thought they were buying.
And I say fake because I think the factory/labeling error theory doesn't line up. Why would there be these obvious solder marks on the U17 chip that stores the model information on both of my fake cards? There must be a business case for spending time, money and effort on hand reprogramming and soldering EEPROMs to sell these cards at a higher price.
These cards were purposely modified to appear as something they are not, when they, in the labeling error case, could simply have ignored the incorrect label and left the model information for the non-Pro version on the U17 chip intact.
A theory, that in my mind sounds more likely, is that this seller is dumping inventory from a fraudulent non-Pro to Pro rebadging operation that's no longer lucrative because the product is way past its prime. I don't think hand soldering chips to defraud people is a winning business proposition at less than $50 a pop shipped from China.

Get your money back and get the HP OEM X-3 Pro, its only $80 from Server Supply brand new. Got mine from there and it works beautifully.

 

[mach3.2]

Might as well buy a 25G dual port CX4 for $80...

 

[chrisdm]

Might as well buy a 25G dual port CX4 for $80...

The X-4's get too hot, at least for the P360 Tiny which I have. I don't need that many ports and I know the X-3 Pro stays plenty cool enough so I personally wouldn't chance it.

EDIT: Thought the CX-4 was a quad port, misread that. However, the CX-3 Pro I mentioned is brand new at $80 and the cheapest CX-4 brand-new that I could find was close to $250, excluding one from eBay as I personally wouldn't buy NICs from ebay.

 

[klui]

I decided to buy some dual-port 40/56G ConnectX-3 Pro EN (MCX314A-BCCT_C11_Ax) for $30 each from semsotaiusainc on eBay because they are pretty reliable. Took off the heatsink and confirmed they are 3-Pros.

​

The interesting things about these cards:

• They run ~5-10° hotter than the ConnectX-3 installed in this test system. Here the CX3 has an AOC connected in loopback mode and nothing inserted in the CX3-Pros. The Pros will go up to 70°C with just link.

  root@localhost:~# mget_temp -d /dev/mst/mt4099_pci_cr0 ; mget_temp -d /dev/mst/mt4103_pci_cr0 ; mget_temp -d /dev/mst/mt4103_pci_cr1 
  [*]59
  54
  51

• They have FW 2.43.7028 which I can't find on Mellanox (Nvidia) website; current is 2.42.5000
  • PXE 3.4.0662 (on my CX3, it is 3.4.0752)
  • UEFI 14.9.0090 (the CX3 has none)
• They are well used; the half height brackets are oxidized, but no rust
• Made in China

 

[chrisdm]

I decided to buy some dual-port 40/56G ConnectX-3 Pro EN (MCX314A-BCCT_C11_Ax) for $30 each from semsotaiusainc on eBay because they are pretty reliable. Took off the heatsink and confirmed they are 3-Pros.

View attachment 30488​

The interesting things about these cards:

• They run ~5-10° hotter than the ConnectX-3 installed in this test system. Here the CX3 has an AOC connected in loopback mode and nothing inserted in the CX3-Pros. The Pros will go up to 70°C with just link.

  root@localhost:~# mget_temp -d /dev/mst/mt4099_pci_cr0 ; mget_temp -d /dev/mst/mt4103_pci_cr0 ; mget_temp -d /dev/mst/mt4103_pci_cr1
  [*]59
  54
  51

• They have FW 2.43.7028 which I can't find on Mellanox (Nvidia) website; current is 2.42.5000
  • PXE 3.4.0662 (on my CX3, it is 3.4.0752)
  • UEFI 14.9.0090 (the CX3 has none)
• They are well used; the half height brackets are oxidized, but no rust
• Made in China

I believe it should be Made in Israel. I personally wouldn't get one of these off ebay, you don't know how bad it was beaten up from previous usage as well as too much sketchy, fake, network stuff on there. I personally would recommend getting it brand new.

 

[klui]

I recall new ConnectX-3 Pros are ~US$80? In my opinion that is too steep for an EoL network card. I recently got some PCIe x8 CX4 EN 40/56G for $40 and they're better supported at this time. They'll be EoL soon I admit, but I was curious whether if the CX3-Pros run as cool as CX3s. The Pros run as hot as CX4s (both x8 and x16).

The Pros still work with current WinOF(1) under Windows 11 22H2.

 

[cmoscertified]

This is a Mellanox 312b HPE card.

Can you guys check your cards (pro or not) and see if the pcb is a bit bent or it's just my card?

Seems in good condition otherwise but the slight curve near the chip area is worrying me.

Purchased used from ebay, not tested yet.

 

[xtrap225]

This is a Mellanox 312b HPE card.

Can you guys check your cards (pro or not) and see if the pcb is a bit bent or it's just my card?

Seems in good condition otherwise but the slight curve near the chip area is worrying me.

Purchased used from ebay, not tested yet.

personally i wouldn't worry about such a slight bend in the pcb. i would check for good contact on the heat sink with clean and fresh thermal compound. if the card functions well that is all that matters.

 

[cmoscertified]

I removed the heatsink to replace the thermal paste. Also I noticed that without the heatsink the pcb isn't bent that much, but still it's noticeable.

 

[cmoscertified]

Well unfortunately the card seems dead, I can't see it in lspci. I'm so done with used ebay NICs.

 

[kevindd992002]

I bought a card from ebay from seller jiawen2018. I was able to update the firmware,

# mstflint -d 01:00.0 -i fw-ConnectX3Pro-rel-2_42_5000-MCX312B-XCC_Ax-FlexBoot-3.4.752.bin  burn

    Current FW version on flash:  2.36.5000
    New FW version:               2.42.5000

Burning FS2 FW image without signatures - OK
Restoring signature                     - OK

# mstvpd mlx4_0         
ID:      CX312B - ConnectX-3 Pro SFP+
PN: MCX312B-XCCT
EC: A8
SN: MT1639K04306
V0: PCIe Gen3 x8
V1: N/A
YA: N/A

# mstflint -d 01:00.0 hw query
HW Info:
HwDevId 503
HwRevId 0x0
Flash Info:
Type M25PXxx
TotalSize 0x200000
Banks 0x1
SectorSize 0x1000
WriteBlockSize 0x10
CmdSet 0x80
JEDEC_ID 0x157120

Does it mean the card isnt fake?

Were you able to confirm that the card you got from this eBay seller is legit?

 

[TheWired]

Checked 2 of mine, both PCBs are straight. Both are from ebay. Return it or ask for refund/replace, maybe the seller is honest

 

[mobiustrip]

Just to muddy the waters. I ordered a MCX312B-XCCT ConnectX-3 EN Pro from Nhlfy411which arrived yesterday. Took the heatsink off and the chip was etched ConnectX-3 Pro. Checked with mstflint and it looked good.

# lspci -d 15b3:
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Mellanox Technologies MT27520 Family [ConnectX-3 Pro]

# mstflint -d 01:00.0 q
Image type:            FS2
FW Version:            2.36.5150
FW Release Date:       27.7.2016
Product Version:       02.36.51.50
Rom Info:              type=PXE version=3.4.740
Device ID:             4103
Description:           Node             Port1            Port2            Sys image
GUIDs:                 24be05ffffac6c30 24be05ffffac6c31 24be05ffffac6c32 24be05ffffac6c33
MACs:                                       248a07bea804     248a07bea805
VSD:
PSID:                  MT_1200111023

Grabbed fw-ConnectX3Pro-rel-2_42_5000-MCX312B-XCC_Ax-FlexBoot-3.4.752.bin from Nvidia, and flashed with
mstflint -d 01:00.0 -i fw-ConnectX3Pro-rel-2_42_5000-MCX312B-XCC_Ax-FlexBoot-3.4.752.bin b

Successful, no warnings. Reboot and all seems good.

# mstflint -d 01:00.0 q
Image type:            FS2
FW Version:            2.42.5000
FW Release Date:       5.9.2017
Product Version:       02.42.50.00
Rom Info:              type=PXE version=3.4.752
Device ID:             4103
Description:           Node             Port1            Port2            Sys image
GUIDs:                 24be05ffffac6c30 24be05ffffac6c31 24be05ffffac6c32 24be05ffffac6c33
MACs:                                       248a07bea804     248a07bea805
VSD:
PSID:                  MT_1200111023

I think the one I got is legit.

 

[FelixK]

Just to muddy the waters. I ordered a MCX312B-XCCT ConnectX-3 EN Pro from Nhlfy411which arrived yesterday. Took the heatsink off and the chip was etched ConnectX-3 Pro. Checked with mstflint and it looked good.

[...]

I think the one I got is legit.

At this point I am personally certain that eBay dealer nhlfy411 is selling only fake ConnectX-3 Pro cards.

Thanks for the update.

In fairness, I will correct my above statement from "selling only fake cards" to "selling mostly fake cards".

 

[mobiustrip]

In fairness, I will correct my above statement from "selling only fake cards" to "selling mostly fake cards".

I wasn't angling for a retraction, just thought it was an interesting data point. My totally uninformed wild speculation is that the seller is getting these cards in batches from somewhere, and just moving the stock he gets. Probably see legit and fake cards in waves. Still a risky buy, or as you eloquently captured, "selling mostly fake cards."

The missing context was I ordered this card and then found this thread. Wasn't feeling great as I waited for delivery.