Differences between Dell branded X710-DA2 and Intel branded ones?

[blunden]

I'm strongly considering buying a Dell branded Intel X710-DA2. I'm still unsure of what differences there actually are between the Intel brand cards, and the OEM versions?

These cards can't be firmware cross-flashed, right?

Do Intel's Windows drivers work properly on these cards?

I looked at the INF files from the Intel driver and saw a bunch of references to OEM cards, but since I don't know the PCI-ID for the Dell version I don't know for sure. Anyone with practical experience?

I've also seen an Amazon review on a listing for the Dell card claiming that they don't work properly. Not sure if that relates only to Synology stuff, or whether it's a general thing.

The Intel card also appear to have a weird cutout in the heatsink that removes a significant chunk of the heatsink fins. That's why I didn't immediately snap one up when there was an eBay seller selling a few of them at the same price as the Dell cards. I was also waiting to see if someone would respond to my other thread here.

 

[CyklonDX]

In most cases dell branded cards were made in a way so they show up in idrac, while non-branded ones do not. (nothing in terms of function)
My exp is around x520-da2 not sure if they can be cross-flashed, but normal drivers work on both - and both dell branded and intel work in non-dell systems.

You will likely struggle hard getting firmware upgrades on the dell one, as it likely will require a dell server/system.

 

[blunden]

In most cases dell branded cards were made in a way so they show up in idrac, while non-branded ones do not. (nothing in terms of function)
My exp is around x520-da2 not sure if they can be cross-flashed, but normal drivers work on both - and both dell branded and intel work in non-dell systems.

You will likely struggle hard getting firmware upgrades on the dell one, as it likely will require a dell server/system.

I see.

The "normal drivers work on both" part is true even for Windows? In Linux I would expect it to work that way, but not necessarily with Windows without INF modding or force-installing from device manager.

I wonder what caused the issues that Amazon reviewer had then. Faulty card?

No, from what I can tell, Dell releases firmware updates for these cards publicly that don't appear to require any other Dell hardware:

Intel NIC Family Version 22.0.0 Firmware for X710, XXV710, and XL710 adapters | Driver Details | Dell US

They don't mention any such requirements at least, unless it's something that is simply implied with all their products. Have you had issues like that with your card?

I did note that they were one firmware version behind Intel according to the release notes though, 9.20 vs. 9.30.

If it's indeed impossible to update the firmware without a Dell server, the card is useless to me as updating the firmware to something somewhat recent seems important in order to fix a few bugs.

 

[CyklonDX]

No need to modify anything even on dell systems you can use normal stock intel drivers - and they work fine.
The dell firmware upgrade packages 99% of the time / often has a check if system is compatible. (and won't run unless its dell)

Dell often re-sells used items as new - keep that in mind when buying dell. Its very likely that the issue issue is more user related, or sfp modules rather than the card itself.

 

[blunden]

No need to modify anything even on dell systems you can use normal stock intel drivers - and they work fine.
The dell firmware upgrade packages 99% of the time / often has a check if system is compatible. (and won't run unless its dell)

Dell often re-sells used items as new - keep that in mind when buying dell. Its very likely that the issue issue is more user related, or sfp modules rather than the card itself.

This is in a home deployment, so I will be buying a used card on eBay (unless I can source one locally, but that's unlikely).

Hmm, that's a bit troubling. It would be great if someone could confirm whether that holds true for their NICs as well, and especially the X710?

Good to know that Dell's own definition of "new" is very flexible.

 

[blunden]

Oh well, I ended up buying a Dell one. I'll report back on whether I'm able to flash Dell's firmware update or not.

 

[blunden]

I finally received the card today. I can confirm that the standard Intel drivers from intel.com can be used.

Regarding the firmware update, since I didn't have an RHEL iso I tried the Windows version of Dell's tool. Trying to install it gave me an error dialogue without any actual message so I tried extracting it and used the install scripts it contained instead. This turned out to be successful.

Basically, I ran these commands as admin:

install.bat
intelfw.cmd u

The first one loaded a driver. The second ran for what felt like a minute or more with no indication of what it was doing until it finally outputted the XML response below indicating that the update was successful. I later verified with ethtool in Linux that it was indeed running the 9.20 firmware.

<SVMExecution lang="en">
        <Device vendorID="8086" deviceID="1572" subVendorID="8086" subDeviceID="0006" bus="5" device="0" function="0" display="Intel(R) Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X710">
                <Application componentType="FRMW" version="22.0.9" display="Intel(R) Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X710">
                        <Package version="22.0.9"/>
                        <SPStatus result="true">
                                <Message id="0">Update success.</Message>
                        </SPStatus>
                </Application>
        </Device>
        <RebootRequired>1</RebootRequired>
</SVMExecution>

I also made sure to unlock it using the tool below:

GitHub - bibigon812/xl710-unlocker: Unlock Intel XL710 / X710 cards for use with any SFP+

Unlock Intel XL710 / X710 cards for use with any SFP+ - bibigon812/xl710-unlocker

github.com

Unfortunately, it still won't link with my H!Fiber DAC cable though. I created a separate thread about that here.

EDIT: It appears that it doesn't like my 2 meter DAC cable. If I try a loop test with my 0.5 meter DAC cable of the same model, it negotiates a 10G link.