Fujitsu i350T4 NIC Compatibility?

[TrevorX]

Hello,

I have what seems like a fairly stupid question, even to me, but better to ask a stupid question than make a stupid mistake. I'm looking for an Intel i350T4 NIC for my Hyper-V server. A genuine Intel i350T4V2 is fairly stupid money (even wholesale) but OEM cards are significantly cheaper. I've found a Fujitsu i350T4 for less than half the price of a genuine Intel card, but I've never tried using an OEM i350 in a non-matching, non-certified system before, so I thought it would be a good idea to check if this would be ok? The server it's going into is custom built, Hyper-V Server 2016 on an Intel S2600CO4. Should this be ok?

 

[TrevorX]

No one? Does anyone have any experience with OEM i350 cards in different brand systems? I believe Dell, Lenovo, HP, Toshiba all have their own i350 flavours; are there compatibility limitations with those? I've spoken to the supplier about it, their response is that there 'should' be no compatibility issues, but they can't guarantee it will operate in a non-Fujitsu system, and they won't accept a return of an open product. I'm willing to take a punt, but I'd like it to at least be a fairly educated one... Thoughts/experiences appreciated.

 

[RTM]

I can't say for that exact NIC, but I have used two models of i350AM4 based NICs that were not Intel branded or Intel rebrands:
Fujitsu D3045-A11
Silicom PE2G4I35L

Both models worked just fine, well except that the seller that sold me the Silicom NICs shipped me NICs which had clear signs of corrosion, but that is hardly the fault of the manufacturer.

You haven't specified where you intend to buy the NICs from, so here is a friendly warning.
There are many NICs in the retail market that are sold as Intel I350T4 NICs that are not genuine, you should be careful where you buy from, as someone may try to sell you one of those cheap ones as a fujitsu or whatever NIC.
The cards may work fine, and they may not, at the end of the day, if you don't need the same build quality, perhaps you are better off buying a cheap NIC yourself.

Also as i recall, Supermicros 4 port i350AM4 NICs are also quite affordable from various resellers.

 

[TrevorX]

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply RTM. Yes, my expectation is that it should work, but when everyone you talk to is being deliberately obtuse about it and refusing to confirm it, it just makes me nervous. I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised, this is normal behaviour in enterprise computing - Intel won't even admit their own cards will work in non-certified configurations (for example, putting a 750 SSD into any server, as the 750 is 'consumer' grade). But having seen the way Intel hardware literally doesn't work together (try connecting a server chassis to a non-certified mainboard and lose control of the fans and PSU because the firmware won't recognise it and freaks out) and all companies implement whitelisting (connection of a non-whitelisted device bricks the system until it's removed) I've seen the way the industry can deliberately limit interoperability.

As for purchasing, this is stocked by the national distributor, so it's a fully authorised distribution channel and will have come directly from Fujitsu. There are absolutely no concerns there, which is kind of why I was leaning towards this particularly card - because I get wholesale pricing, it's in the ballpark price of these no-name 'OEM' or just straight up copy cards on Amazon. Why would I buy into that much risk and uncertainty when I can buy something I know will be designed well, with full manufacturer warranty? The only uncertainty is around whether it will run at all in this system, but if that doesn't seem to be a concern and people have experienced OEM cards from the likes of Dell, Supermicro, Fujitsu, HP etc working outside their respective ecosystems, then I shouldn't have much to worry about.

 

[Evan]

Should not need to worry I think the reason nobody has said no issues is Fujitsu is not as common and somebody with experience has not read the thread, if HPE,Dell,Lenovo then you would have lots of confirmations of correct operation.

 

[TrevorX]

Thanks Evan. Yeah I bit the bullet and ordered it today, I should have it next week. I'll post an update to confirm it's working once I've got it running.

The only reason I didn't go with a Dell, Lenovo etc part is my distributors aren't showing stock of any of them

 

[TrevorX]

I can confirm that not only does it work fine, there is absolutely nothing to distinguish the Fujitsu i350-T4 from the genuine Intel i350-T4. It has the same specs and features, but importantly exactly the same physical appearance, layout, components, even branding. There is zero Fujitsu branding on it. I'm using genuine Intel drivers. The only two things to separate this from the genuine Intel card are the fact that it ships with a single-page 'Inform' sheet from Fujitsu, entitled 'Customer information about optional components', which is a generic sheet included in every Fujitsu Primergy component and option; and the price, which is 42% of what the i350-T4 costs from the same national distributor (comparing wholesale costs).

 

[MiniKnight]

It'll work.

 

[RTM]

I can confirm that not only does it work fine, there is absolutely nothing to distinguish the Fujitsu i350-T4 from the genuine Intel i350-T4.

My guess is that it is probably a rebranded Intel manufactured card given the name (like the IBM/Dell/HP cards), the Fujitsu D3045 card that I have (which is based on the same chip) is visibly different and I doubt they would make 2 different versions that are not official Intel designs.