Chelsio T420-BT (dual port 10Gbase-T NIC)

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

sachem87184

Active Member
Feb 3, 2015
168
31
28
I like the cards. Rich for my taste though. Would be good for someone with a 10gb copper switch.
 

Jon Massey

Active Member
Nov 11, 2015
339
82
28
37
It's more that FreeBSD doesn't support the more common Mellanox Connect-X 2 cards which are a popular choice round here for cheap 10G
 

saivert

Member
Nov 2, 2015
138
18
18
40
Norway
Are you kidding me? Now that I just purchased two ConnectX-2 cards, SFP+ modules and fiber patch cord, this comes around?
 

zhoulander

Active Member
Feb 1, 2016
181
46
28
Wow. I'm impressed with these cards. Need to pick up a couple of XS708Ts (or ES-16-XGs if they ever get fixed) and I'll be set.

Win10 test box w/T420-BT (QOS disabled) -> 10 ft CAT6 patch cable -> Monoprice CAT6 tool-less keystone -> approx. 90 ft (guesstimate) run through my 2 storey house walls/attic of STRANDED "CAT6E" 600MHz cable -> Monoprice CAT6 tool-less keystone -> 10ft CAT6 patch cable -> Win7 test box w/T420-BT (driver signing disabled, QOS disabled)

I followed zero "best practices" in my home environment. Monoprice recommends tool-less jacks to use solid CAT6 and punch-down with stranded.

Code:
C:\Files\iperf>iperf -c 192.168.10.1 -w 1m  -t 60
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.10.1, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 1.00 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[156] local 192.168.10.2 port 49191 connected with 192.168.10.1 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[156]  0.0-60.0 sec  65.7 GBytes  9.41 Gbits/sec

C:\Files\iperf>iperf -c 192.168.10.1 -w 1m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.10.1, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 1.00 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[156] local 192.168.10.2 port 49185 connected with 192.168.10.1 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[156]  0.0-10.0 sec  10.8 GBytes  9.28 Gbits/sec

C:\Files\iperf>iperf -c 192.168.10.1 -w 1m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.10.1, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 1.00 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[156] local 192.168.10.2 port 49186 connected with 192.168.10.1 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[156]  0.0-10.0 sec  10.9 GBytes  9.31 Gbits/sec

C:\Files\iperf>iperf -c 192.168.10.1 -w 1m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.10.1, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 1.00 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[156] local 192.168.10.2 port 49187 connected with 192.168.10.1 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[156]  0.0-10.0 sec  10.8 GBytes  9.29 Gbits/sec

C:\Files\iperf>iperf -c 192.168.10.1 -w 1m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.10.1, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 1.00 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[156] local 192.168.10.2 port 49188 connected with 192.168.10.1 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[156]  0.0-10.0 sec  8.74 GBytes  7.49 Gbits/sec
 
  • Like
Reactions: Patrick and pyro_

Jeff Robertson

Active Member
Oct 18, 2016
429
115
43
Chico, CA
I was thinking about picking up a couple of the cheap mellanox cards, what is the benefit of these chelsio cards? I have a few server 2016 end points and a couple windows 10 machines, would there be any benefit to using the chelsio cards? I use hyper-v pretty heavily if that makes a difference.

Thanks!
 

pyro_

Active Member
Oct 4, 2013
747
165
43
Will probably be cheaper to go with the Mellanox cards as getting switches with SFP+ ports on them is considerably cheaper that ones with 10gb Base-t ports
 

Jeff Robertson

Active Member
Oct 18, 2016
429
115
43
Chico, CA
Will probably be cheaper to go with the Mellanox cards as getting switches with SFP+ ports on them is considerably cheaper that ones with 10gb Base-t ports
I agree, I misread the first post and assumed it was a chelsio sfp+ card, oops! I plan on purchasing the new ubiquiti switch that has both sfp+ ports as well as four copper ports but will use sfp+ whenever possible. So I suppose my question is how do the mellanox sfp+ cards compare to the chelsio sfp+ cards? There is a huge price difference, are the chelsio cards noticeably better? I would like something that handles sr-iov and rdma, at least for the server 2016 nodes.

Thanks!