Beware of fake ConnectX-3 Pro (MCX312B-XCCT) from eBay
- Thread starter FelixK
- Start date
Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.
Ty for that, I considered a $46 offer that popped up after browsing around, but I think I'll skip that.
My real Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro is finally here. I disassembled it and found that thermal paste is old and the chip clearly states ConnectX-3 Pro. The number is almost invisible, my camera is poor and was unable to catch it. Another specific thing - rubber feet that keep heatsink away from the PCB are stuck on the heatsink itself, not on the PCB like as on the fake controller. Please see the pictures.
Last edited:
i wanted to thank you all for this thread, which of course i found only after having had the same thing from the same seller happen to me. which was pretty upsetting.
live and learn, from now on i will do a search on all eBay sellers before i a make any major purchases.
for anyone having the same experience as me, i put in for a return and simply stated with evidence that they sent me the wrong model of card.
" Your return was completed and you have been refunded " so at least there is that good news for me. I am now wondering if this seller would have this thread on their radar? should i be posting this? if the consensus is that this will cause more harm than help, i would be happy to modify or remove anything. i just though this might help someone else get a refund and not get ripped off. course its possible that the seller will refuse and you will need to take it to eBay arbitration. everything else i got from that seller was of good quality and legit.
Giving this seller a great deal of "benefit of the doubt", it is possible they got ripped off and were originally unknowingly selling bad cards? Of course even if that was true in the past, they of course are well aware now....but why not create a second account so as not taint their primary one? I don't understand. It must have been a lot more profitable (larger price difference between X-3 and X-3Pro) way back when. because as far as fakes go if you released these when their firmware was already the newest, I probably would have missed it, they are pretty impressive in that regard. Well only if i hadn't also bought two MCX314A-BCCT as well; which took the updated firmware no problem, so unless it's a super fake, its real.
I did a quick search and the 2.40.7000 came out in approximately Nov 2017, and i suppose the price difference would have been ~several hundred dollars or more USD between the pro and non-pro.
so beyond wanting to help others and apparently blab on for a bit, i have a possibly very stupid question.
It is an open question for everyone. Does anyone think there is any possible harm or danger in using these cards? Maybe it's crazy or stupid but what if any, is the likelihood of a backdoor or anything malicious beyond changing the descriptors in the firmware? like uefi/efi bios' can have?
There isn't enough space to flash something like that in a network cards firmware, right?
I'm embarrassed for even asking but i figured better safe than sorry. Now that they are free, ill probably use them anyway, at least for now.
live and learn, from now on i will do a search on all eBay sellers before i a make any major purchases.
for anyone having the same experience as me, i put in for a return and simply stated with evidence that they sent me the wrong model of card.
" Your return was completed and you have been refunded " so at least there is that good news for me. I am now wondering if this seller would have this thread on their radar? should i be posting this? if the consensus is that this will cause more harm than help, i would be happy to modify or remove anything. i just though this might help someone else get a refund and not get ripped off. course its possible that the seller will refuse and you will need to take it to eBay arbitration. everything else i got from that seller was of good quality and legit.
Giving this seller a great deal of "benefit of the doubt", it is possible they got ripped off and were originally unknowingly selling bad cards? Of course even if that was true in the past, they of course are well aware now....but why not create a second account so as not taint their primary one? I don't understand. It must have been a lot more profitable (larger price difference between X-3 and X-3Pro) way back when. because as far as fakes go if you released these when their firmware was already the newest, I probably would have missed it, they are pretty impressive in that regard. Well only if i hadn't also bought two MCX314A-BCCT as well; which took the updated firmware no problem, so unless it's a super fake, its real.
I did a quick search and the 2.40.7000 came out in approximately Nov 2017, and i suppose the price difference would have been ~several hundred dollars or more USD between the pro and non-pro.
so beyond wanting to help others and apparently blab on for a bit, i have a possibly very stupid question.
It is an open question for everyone. Does anyone think there is any possible harm or danger in using these cards? Maybe it's crazy or stupid but what if any, is the likelihood of a backdoor or anything malicious beyond changing the descriptors in the firmware? like uefi/efi bios' can have?
There isn't enough space to flash something like that in a network cards firmware, right?
I'm embarrassed for even asking but i figured better safe than sorry. Now that they are free, ill probably use them anyway, at least for now.
I don't think the ebay seller have the capability to create a backdoor in firmware.
for those that are wanting it. i had already installed one in a windows box, and therefore was using windows. (otherwise i would have used linux), but i managed to flash it to the latest cx-3 (non-pro) firmware using the following command. i was happy to see this didn't effect the GUID's or MAC's.
when i flashed my MCX314A-BCCT it wiped my GUID's but i guess i don't need those since i am doing Ethernet and not IB, should i even bother to try to fix that?
flint -d /dev/mst/mt4103_pci_cr0 -i fw-ConnectX3-rel-2_42_5000-MCX312B-XCB_Ax-FlexBoot-3.4.752.bin --allow_psid_change --nofs burn
it now is seen as mt4099_pci_cr0 on firmware 2.42.5000
i got these instructions from https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...rnet-dual-port-qsfp-adapter.20525/post-200662
the person then recommends 'to turn off bootrom crap'
#turn off bootrom crap
mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4099_pci_cr0 set BOOT_OPTION_ROM_EN_P1=false
mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4099_pci_cr0 set BOOT_OPTION_ROM_EN_P2=false
mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4099_pci_cr0 set LEGACY_BOOT_PROTOCOL_P1=0
mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4099_pci_cr0 set LEGACY_BOOT_PROTOCOL_P2=0
i was wondering what folks think of this? i have read that turning it off can make boot up faster and reduse memory used by the card.
but on the downside if there is an issue with the card then without the bootrom it may not function properly.
so disable it? or don't mess with it?
when i flashed my MCX314A-BCCT it wiped my GUID's but i guess i don't need those since i am doing Ethernet and not IB, should i even bother to try to fix that?
flint -d /dev/mst/mt4103_pci_cr0 -i fw-ConnectX3-rel-2_42_5000-MCX312B-XCB_Ax-FlexBoot-3.4.752.bin --allow_psid_change --nofs burn
it now is seen as mt4099_pci_cr0 on firmware 2.42.5000
i got these instructions from https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...rnet-dual-port-qsfp-adapter.20525/post-200662
the person then recommends 'to turn off bootrom crap'
#turn off bootrom crap
mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4099_pci_cr0 set BOOT_OPTION_ROM_EN_P1=false
mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4099_pci_cr0 set BOOT_OPTION_ROM_EN_P2=false
mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4099_pci_cr0 set LEGACY_BOOT_PROTOCOL_P1=0
mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4099_pci_cr0 set LEGACY_BOOT_PROTOCOL_P2=0
i was wondering what folks think of this? i have read that turning it off can make boot up faster and reduse memory used by the card.
but on the downside if there is an issue with the card then without the bootrom it may not function properly.
so disable it? or don't mess with it?
You can order from ServerSupply. I ordered the HP-branded Mellanox X-3 Pro, they are selling them factory sealed for 80 USD here. They are equivalent to the MCX312B. I will post pictures when it arrives as I want to re-paste it even though its new, as from what I understand these cards can possibly be a few years old and just sitting in warehouses the whole time.
Here is the relevant spec sheet from the HPE reference document on this adapter:
Got in my NIC from ServerSupply. It is indeed an authentic brand-new HP NIC with the Connect X-3 Pro chip:
I bought a card from ebay from seller jiawen2018. I was able to update the firmware,
Does it mean the card isnt fake?
Code:
# 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
Never seen a fake Mellanox card. Generally, chinese fakers need larger demand of something to justify an investment. And also chips from recycling or cheap from grey market. Intel i210 chips from motherboards come to mind, finding new life in ethernet NICs. Mellanox is too fringe and too many OEM cards are in the market satisfying demand imho. AFAIR Mellanox itself switched from Made in Israel to Made in China though.
Its obviously not that the chip itself is fake, butrather the listing that is fake. The vendor in question is selling regular CX-3's as CX-3 Pro's.
Dude actually read the thread instead of just commenting. They're listing the model number of the CX-3 Pro in the listing, as well as pictures of stickers with CX-3 Pro, yet people are pulling heatsinks and they're CX-3's.
Multiple people purchasing from the same seller have gotten the same cards from the same fake listing, and some have returned them yet he keeps selling the faked cards, purposefully, as people still keep getting CX-3's.