Fujitsu D2755-A11 (intel x520-da2) 10GB SFP+ NICs - $30ish

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autoturk

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Limited quantity of FUJITSU D2755-A11 - Dual Port 10Gbp/s PCIe x8, SFP+ NICs. These are OEM Intel X520-DA2s according to our handy-dandy OEM guide here, though they do seem to have a different component layout than the Intel version, but it seems flashing them w/ the intel firmware is easily done according to the above.

There are 8 available. I bought 2 and the seller accepted $25/each. Total of 33 per card w/ shipping and tax. Seller seems to have lots of different 10 GB NICs, so might be worth following.


In case the above doesn't work out, here's a seller selling 2 @ $75 for both with free shipping:
 

tjk

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Nice find! I need to get some full profile brackets for em now.
 
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Himay

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Tangentially related…that seller is selling a lot of dual-port 10Gb Intel NICs (the Silicoms are also OEM Intels) at a similar 20% off sale (not sure what offers they're accepting at, however). Here are just the first four I saw but they're also selling HPE, Solarflare, and Mellanox NICs as well.
SILICOM PE210G2SPI9-SR - Dual Port 10 Gigabit PCIe Server Adapter Intel® 82599ES | eBay — SILICOM PE210G2SPI9-SR @ USD$30.40
SILICOM PE210G2SPI9A-XR - Dual Port 10 Gigabit PCIe Server Adapter Intel 82599ES 689192540114 | eBay — SILICOM PE210G2SPI9A-XR @ USD$38.40
INTEL E27466 - 0CYK8V, Dual Port 10G PCIe x8 SFP+ Ethernet Adapter | eBay — INTEL E27466 (Dell part no. 0CYK8V) @ USD$55.20
INTEL E27466 - 0T645H, Dual Port 10G PCIe x8 SFP+ Ethernet Adapter | eBay — INTEL E27466 (Dell part no. 0T645H) @ USD$55.20
 
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Himay

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I had 4 @ $25 apiece (for the Fujitsus) get accepted awfully quickly, despite eBay recommending me to go up to $27 (and noting there were 5 competing offers at the time). YMMV.
 
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autoturk

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Tangentially related…that seller is selling a lot of dual-port 10Gb Intel NICs (the Silicoms are also OEM Intels) at a similar 20% off sale (not sure what offers they're accepting at, however). Here are just the first four I saw but they're also selling HPE, Solarflare, and Mellanox NICs as well.
SILICOM PE210G2SPI9-SR - Dual Port 10 Gigabit PCIe Server Adapter Intel® 82599ES | eBay — SILICOM PE210G2SPI9-SR @ USD$30.40
SILICOM PE210G2SPI9A-XR - Dual Port 10 Gigabit PCIe Server Adapter Intel 82599ES 689192540114 | eBay — SILICOM PE210G2SPI9A-XR @ USD$38.40
INTEL E27466 - 0CYK8V, Dual Port 10G PCIe x8 SFP+ Ethernet Adapter | eBay — INTEL E27466 (Dell part no. 0CYK8V) @ USD$55.20
INTEL E27466 - 0T645H, Dual Port 10G PCIe x8 SFP+ Ethernet Adapter | eBay — INTEL E27466 (Dell part no. 0T645H) @ USD$55.20
oh sweet, didn't know the Silicom's were also Intels. Might want to add it to the OEM thread above!
 
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RTM

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the Silicoms are also OEM Intels
What makes you say that? Silicom is known to make their own designs, I would be a bit surprised if this is accurate.

While it uses the same controller (82599) as the X520 card, the "metal rail" that on Intel cards are the same length as the card is a bit shorter on the Silicom ones you have linked to (compared to other X520 cards I can find on eBay).

Note, I personally don't see much point in differing between Intel made cards and vendors that make their own designs (like Silicom and Supermicro) if they use the same controller. For the most part I consider them more or less equally good (and certainly good enough for the both of them), but I would not consider a Silicom/Supermicro card with an Intel controller to be Intel OEM. The only exception to being more or less equally good, is that firmware updates for cards that require this (like the X550 based ones) can be an issue.
 
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Himay

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What makes you say that? Silicom is known to make their own designs, I would be a bit surprised if this is accurate.
My apologies: I believe I've misinterpreted a little bit on their information. Silicom makes hardware for others (similar to Intel) for OEM companies; I misread that as Silicom being an OEM user of Intel's hardware. The fact that the hardware just identifies itself to my systems as Intel hardware didn't help clarify my confusion of that. :oops: But yes, using the same controller puts them on pretty even footing.

In retrospect…Ishould have realized Silicom isn't an OEM Intel. I long ago had to reflash an old passthrough Silicom NIC and it most certainly wasn't Intel firmware to do so. Oops.
 
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autoturk

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What makes you say that? Silicom is known to make their own designs, I would be a bit surprised if this is accurate.

While it uses the same controller (82599) as the X520 card, the "metal rail" that on Intel cards are the same length as the card is a bit shorter on the Silicom ones you have linked to (compared to other X520 cards I can find on eBay).

Note, I personally don't see much point in differing between Intel made cards and vendors that make their own designs (like Silicom and Supermicro) if they use the same controller. For the most part I consider them more or less equally good (and certainly good enough for the both of them), but I would not consider a Silicom/Supermicro card with an Intel controller to be Intel OEM. The only exception to being more or less equally good, is that firmware updates for cards that require this (like the X550 based ones) can be an issue.
By this argument the Fujitsu above also isn’t an Intel OEM, no? It seems there’s a totally different PCB layout at least from what I can tell.

not trying to go against what you’re saying, just trying to learn.
 
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RTM

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By this argument the Fujitsu above also isn’t an Intel OEM, no? It seems there’s a totally different PCB layout at least from what I can tell.

not trying to go against what you’re saying, just trying to learn.
Yes, Fujitsu is also known to make their own cards.

Of course it should also be mentioned, that just because a vendor makes their own cards, it does not exclude them from also using Intel OEM cards.

And... while we are at it, just because some of the cheap "chinese" cards use the same controller, I would not put them in the "enterprise" category (with Intel, Silicom etc.), obviously they are cheaper for a reason.
 
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itronin

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Of course it should also be mentioned, that just because a vendor makes their own cards, it does not exclude them from also using Intel OEM cards.
And like most good chip makers the chip author also usually release a reference design which is often times a significant portion of a vendor's released card.

Code isn't the only thing that gets re-used. Sometimes the only significant differentiator is the assembly line or facility that output the card.
 
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autoturk

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And like most good chip makers the chip author also usually release a reference design which is often times a significant portion of a vendor's released card.

Code isn't the only thing that gets re-used. Sometimes the only significant differentiator is the assembly line or facility that output the card.
if you had a choice between this Fujitsu and say an Intel made X520, any reason you'd choose one over the other?

Asking b/c I ended up with 4 NICs, 2 x Fujitsus and 2 x IBMs (but intel manufactured)
 
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RTM

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if you had a choice between this Fujitsu and say an Intel made X520, any reason you'd choose one over the other?

Asking b/c I ended up with 4 NICs, 2 x Fujitsus and 2 x IBMs (but intel manufactured)
I know you didn't technically ask me, but here's my take on it:

First of all, I would not be worried about the "X520" generation, there isn't really any firmware to update on the cards, which can be a bit of a problem with the newer cards.

There are a number of potential issues (mostly minor) with each:
- Intel OEMs are more likely to be fake
- If there is some kind of unreported issue with the Fujitsu where it differs from Intel OEM, you are less likely to find help (though I doubt you will experience such issues)
- It may be more difficult to find a different bracket if you need one for the Fujitsu card (an example: Supermicro's X520 2-port card, AOC-STGN-i2S, does not use the same bracket that Intel uses - I do not have any Fujitsu X520 cards, so I can not tell you if the same is true for Fujitsu cards)

If the two cards cost the same, and the Intel card was real, I would probably prefer the Intel.
But as the 2nd is difficult to tell for sure (it's mostly a matter of trusting the seller), I would say it's about even.
 
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Samir

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Most Intel cards on ebay are fakes even when they say real--so hard to find genuine Intel NICs unless they're used and much older ones. But even then the fakers were there, with fake boxes, and more. I actually just go for oem cards since at least they're genuine when used (for the most part). But it does seem like Dell and HP now have a problem of their factories dumping their part numbers so who knows if those are legit anymore either.

All of this because of global outsourcing...if the cards were still just made in Texas like they originally were, I don't think this problem would be this bad.
 

autoturk

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I know you didn't technically ask me, but here's my take on it:

First of all, I would not be worried about the "X520" generation, there isn't really any firmware to update on the cards, which can be a bit of a problem with the newer cards.

There are a number of potential issues (mostly minor) with each:
- Intel OEMs are more likely to be fake
- If there is some kind of unreported issue with the Fujitsu where it differs from Intel OEM, you are less likely to find help (though I doubt you will experience such issues)
- It may be more difficult to find a different bracket if you need one for the Fujitsu card (an example: Supermicro's X520 2-port card, AOC-STGN-i2S, does not use the same bracket that Intel uses - I do not have any Fujitsu X520 cards, so I can not tell you if the same is true for Fujitsu cards)

If the two cards cost the same, and the Intel card was real, I would probably prefer the Intel.
But as the 2nd is difficult to tell for sure (it's mostly a matter of trusting the seller), I would say it's about even.
Thanks, this is helpful. I'm 99.99% sure the IBM cards I have are real as it came w/ the invoice from IBM and has the original documentation + CD.

Now what to do with 4 x X520s... maybe I'll bridge some ports and turn my pfsense appliance into a 10gb switch and annoy quite a few folks.

I ended up with the two IBM cards because a seller thought their package was lost so refunded me but it eventually showed up at my place a month later. Once I heard it was lost I ordered two of the above cards.
 
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Magnet

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Any suggestions for x520 cards that might not be real? I don't care either way and my use is homelab which is very tolerant of problems.

I just want a cheap option that works.
 
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Samir

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Any suggestions for x520 cards that might not be real? I don't care either way and my use is homelab which is very tolerant of problems.

I just want a cheap option that works.
See, the problem in the realm of 'cheap fakes' is that the fakers goal is to provide as minimal 'working' as possible, ie 'just a nic' so you might as well just buy a genuine realtek instead.
 

Joshh

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Any suggestions for x520 cards that might not be real? I don't care either way and my use is homelab which is very tolerant of problems.

I just want a cheap option that works.
There are plenty of cheap x520s on ebay. The deal above was pretty good but you can get close to it just by keeping an eye on ebay. Regarding them being legit or not... not sure how you ensure that.