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Bought cheap Oculink via Amazon. Had errors, hangs and disappearing drives on POST. Got Supermicro cables and they are rock solid after over of year of operation.
Fortunately, it's no longer available: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09C1WKLF8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Fortunately, it's no longer available: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09C1WKLF8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I go like this when it comes to cables: supermicro -> hba/raid controller vendors cables -> third parties (oem branded versions of the first two ones) -> unknown brands
I usually look up parts and part numbers on supermicros website (reading manuals, parts list etc) and then use google (and geizhals) to find places that sell these parts and setup ebay searches for the part numbers.
I usually look up parts and part numbers on supermicros website (reading manuals, parts list etc) and then use google (and geizhals) to find places that sell these parts and setup ebay searches for the part numbers.
Supermicro OEM should be good. Any OEM like IBM, Lenovo, Oracle, Dell, HPE will do. I usually search ebay or geo-ship.com for things like "sff-8088 oracle" and extract the OEM magic numbers of the cables I am interested in from the search. Here "Oracle 7023009" for example. Then I look for that specifically in a second search. I go through the major OEMs and some will usually be 15 bucks for a cable that was 150 new. Which tells me they just want to get rid of it. Glad to help out.
I am not buying from Amazon anymore, unless I am certain the product is standardized, cannot be faked economically, is shipped by and sold by Amazon so returns are not a major PITA, AND I cannot get it from anywhere else for a similar price. Like some Asrock Rack 3647 board. For deeper background I can recommend to read Pluralistic: Tiktok’s enshittification (21 Jan 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
For specialty cables like SFF to QSFP for Netapp shelves, I used 10GTek before, bought from their ebay outfit. Liked price and quality: About Us - 10Gtek Got to stay critical though.
I am also one of those guys who reads datasheets and manuals, looking for certified cables lists and other useful info. With a bit of diligence me guessing around, buying wrong gear and headaches went down close to zero.
I am not buying from Amazon anymore, unless I am certain the product is standardized, cannot be faked economically, is shipped by and sold by Amazon so returns are not a major PITA, AND I cannot get it from anywhere else for a similar price. Like some Asrock Rack 3647 board. For deeper background I can recommend to read Pluralistic: Tiktok’s enshittification (21 Jan 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
For specialty cables like SFF to QSFP for Netapp shelves, I used 10GTek before, bought from their ebay outfit. Liked price and quality: About Us - 10Gtek Got to stay critical though.
I am also one of those guys who reads datasheets and manuals, looking for certified cables lists and other useful info. With a bit of diligence me guessing around, buying wrong gear and headaches went down close to zero.