HP T730 8GB RAM 32GB Storage Thin Client

[Sealside]

Hi. Sorry, old post but I’m looking to install a x520-da2 into a t730 too. Can you give any more detail on this? Does this Need to be done on all x520-da2 in a t730? So just mask pins 5 and 6 in the pci pins yes?

how warm does the x520-da2 run for you?

I've done this. You need to mask pin 5 and 6 as you said. Still with my x520 cards, tested 3 of them and latest bios, it successfully boots 1 out of 3 attempts and does not feel reliable.

I wouldn't build a fw with that hardware. Better to look at other options. T740 or lenovos.

 

[Antec]

I've done this. You need to mask pin 5 and 6 as you said. Still with my x520 cards, tested 3 of them and latest bios, it successfully boots 1 out of 3 attempts and does not feel reliable.

I wouldn't build a fw with that hardware. Better to look at other options. T740 or lenovos.

Hi. Thanks. So with no take mask it won’t boot at all. But with pins 5 and 6 it’s still boots 1 out of 3 times?

good to know thanks.

ive gone for a Mellanox Connectx3 for the t730. Il let you know how that is.

 

[Sealside]

Hi. Thanks. So with no take mask it won’t boot at all. But with pins 5 and 6 it’s still boots 1 out of 3 times?

good to know thanks.

ive gone for a Mellanox Connectx3 for the t730. Il let you know how that is.

Correct about the boot.
My mellanox x3 pro would not work at all in t730.

 

[Antec]

Correct about the boot.
My mellanox x3 pro would not work at all in t730.

damn! il give it a go anyway, im trying to also look at alternatives, dont want to pay big money for T740 (cheapest on ebay right now is £350!), it looking like il just get a Aliexpress 4 port 2.5ghz router pc

 

[Sealside]

damn! il give it a go anyway, im trying to also look at alternatives, dont want to pay big money for T740 (cheapest on ebay right now is £350!), it looking like il just get a Aliexpress 4 port 2.5ghz router pc

If it is a regular non pro x3 it.might work.

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/mellanox-connect-x3-pro-not-recognized-by-t730.36276/

Have you looked at lenovo m920q and similar? Hp tend to be more expensive as far as I have seen.

 

[Antec]

If it is a regular non pro x3 it.might work.

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/mellanox-connect-x3-pro-not-recognized-by-t730.36276/

Have you looked at lenovo m920q and similar? Hp tend to be more expensive as far as I have seen.

hi, yes, i read about the pro, this is the normal one I have, no idea what fw it will be on, got it from ebay and should arrive any day now, its a MCX312A-XCBT

i intend to use one port with a SFP-10G-T (rj45) to my provider supplied modem which has a 2.5gbe port, then the other port on the Mellanox will have a 10Gb DAC cable that will go into a Zyxel XGS1210-12 switch.

Il check out the m920q

 

[WANg]

Hi. Sorry, old post but I’m looking to install a x520-da2 into a t730 too. Can you give any more detail on this? Does this Need to be done on all x520-da2 in a t730? So just mask pins 5 and 6 in the pci pins yes?

how warm does the x520-da2 run for you?

Looking for some help and advice. I've had a T730 in the shelf for quite some time. Going to replace my current pfsense box with it, as of 2022 what sort of NIC should I try to get?
Solarflare, Mellanox or similar. I need SFP+ 10G but I guess it could work with a QSFP+ card with a converter. I think WANg wrote something about the Solarflare cards are running hot in this box, would an intel X520-Da2 work?

Depends on your needs. If all you need is a cheap-and-cheerful 10GbE SFP card, a SolarFlare SFN5122 will work just fine...just remember that some of the more fun features (SRIOV/VF) are not available to you (Solarflare/Xilinx...wow, I guess they are owned by AMD now) does not/will not have modern drivers for you if you want to do SRIOV. The APU will also not have support for that (you'll need a t740, and even then it's limited to 7 VFs on a more modern card).
The SFN5122 is a PCIe 2.0 card and runs at a ~5w thermal envelope, so it'll sit on that t730 all day with no issues - the same should apply as well with the X520-DA2. The DA2 will require you to tape over pin 5 and 6, but the Solarflare will not. As for the SolarFlare roasting the thin client, that's only for the SFN7122, which is a PCIe 3.0 card and designed to put out much more heat. The issue in general isn't which make or model - it's more because certain cards simply generate more heat, and in the t730 (and to a certain extent the t740), the only airflow is over the APU and not on the slot itself, and on the t730, the RAM slots are directly above where the card would be. Also, remember that the card should be as generic as possible - nothing brand specific, no wacky firmware, and make sure you read the spec sheet - anything that mentions 11w+ thermal/electrical...is probably not going to work. That slot was originally meant to work with something like a Radeon RX540 GPU (well, the E9173 Radeon card, but same tech/same thermal+physical envelope).

The SFN7122 for example will work if you can put a slimline fan on top of the heatsink and zip tie it onto the card. I also had no issue with an X540-T2 or a Mellanox ConnectX3-FCBT (MCX354A), which is a 40GbE card - Those tend to run cool on both the t730 and t740 chassis.

 

[Antec]

Depends on your needs. If all you need is a cheap-and-cheerful 10GbE SFP card, a SolarFlare SFN5122 will work just fine...just remember that some of the more fun features (SRIOV/VF) are not available to you (Solarflare/Xilinx...wow, I guess they are owned by AMD now) does not/will not have modern drivers for you if you want to do SRIOV. The APU will also not have support for that (you'll need a t740, and even then it's limited to 7 VFs on a more modern card).
The SFN5122 is a PCIe 2.0 card and runs at a ~5w thermal envelope, so it'll sit on that t730 all day with no issues - the same should apply as well with the X520-DA2. The DA2 will require you to tape over pin 5 and 6, but the Solarflare will not. As for the SolarFlare roasting the thin client, that's only for the SF7122, which is a PCIe 3.0 card and designed to put out much more heat. The issue in general isn't which make or model - it's more because certain cards simply generate more heat, and in the t730 (and to a certain extent the t740), the only airflow is over the APU and not on the slot itself, and on the t730, the RAM slots are directly above where the card would be. Also, remember that the card should be as generic as possible - nothing brand specific, no wacky firmware, and make sure you read the spec sheet - anything that mentions 11w+ thermal/electrical...is probably not going to work. That slot was originally meant to work with something like a Radeon RX540 GPU (well, the E9173 Radeon card, but same tech/same thermal+physical envelope).

The SFN7122 for example will work if you can put a slimline fan on top of the heatsink and zip tie it onto the card. I also had no issue with an X540-T2 or a Mellanox ConnectX3-FCBT (MCX354A), which is a 40GbE card - Those tend to run cool on both the t730 and t740 chassis.

thank you for the detailed reply

with your Mellanox ConnectX3-FCBT (MCX354A), was there a specific firmware that you needed to use? i assume its plug and play with pfsense 2.6?

 

[WANg]

I've done this. You need to mask pin 5 and 6 as you said. Still with my x520 cards, tested 3 of them and latest bios, it successfully boots 1 out of 3 attempts and does not feel reliable.

I wouldn't build a fw with that hardware. Better to look at other options. T740 or lenovos.

Eh, I had my t730 running as my office firewall for at least 18 months, what with an Intel i340 quadport, even got it to run warm-warm failover on a pair of Gigabit connections, do OpenVPN SSLVPN and 1-to-1/double NATing Session Border Controller VoIP traffic for MS Teams telephony. It's probably not the t730 but rather the card.

 

[WANg]

thank you for the detailed reply

with your Mellanox ConnectX3-FCBT (MCX354A), was there a specific firmware that you needed to use? i assume its plug and play with pfsense 2.6?

Stock firmware on ETH mode. Fairly plug-and-play.
Never used it for pfsense - it was used with a pair of DAC cables for connecting to my iSCSI storage machine. For pfsense it's either a Broadcom Tigon quadport, or an Intel i340-T4. The t730 is probably okay for sustaining gigabit traffic (it's handling dual pipes now in the office), but for packetpushing 10GbE and beyond, it might not be so great for sustained traffic. When I had them as iSCSI connectors with a pair of SATA SSDs they were only tested for up to ~450MB/sec. That's not sustained for very long.
I would go t740 just for a little more firepower.

 

[Antec]

Stock firmware on ETH mode. Fairly plug-and-play.
Never used it for pfsense - it was used with a pair of DAC cables for connecting to my iSCSI storage machine. For pfsense it's either a Broadcom Tigon quadport, or an Intel i340-T4. The t730 is probably okay for sustaining gigabit traffic (it's handling dual pipes now in the office), but for packetpushing 10GbE and beyond, it might not be so great for sustained traffic. When I had them as iSCSI connectors with a pair of SATA SSDs they were only tested for up to ~450MB/sec. That's not sustained for very long.
I would go t740 just for a little more firepower.

thanks, yep my T730 i bought in 2019 and been riunning a Intel i340-T4 no issues what so ever, handles 1Gb no issues, thought id upgrade to 2.5gb/10gb and will see what the T730 can do. Hence the connectx3 purchase. if it gets too hot in the T730 (and it works), il look at other options.

 

[Samir]

...just get a Aliexpress 4 port 2.5ghz router pc

For the same price as that crap you can probably get a netgate or firewalla...

 

[WANg]

For the same price as that crap you can probably get a netgate or firewalla...

Like the Atom N6000 industrial boxes that @Patrick has been showing off? Probably. Although depending on your needs, you can probably use a Wyse 5070 "fat" (with a PCIe slot), park a quadport in there, get similar results, and not have to deal with dropshipping from .cn.
Although seriously, we really need more interesting small boxes out there. The Seeed Studio Tiger Lake box almost did it for me, but it can use a PCIe slot. HPe, Y U NO MICROSERVER GEN 12?! All I see out of that Microserver Gen 10 v2 compared to the v1...is 1000 dollars worth of air contained in the packaging.

 

[Samir]

Like the Atom N6000 industrial boxes that @Patrick has been showing off? Probably. Although depending on your needs, you can probably use a Wyse 5070 "fat" (with a PCIe slot), park a quadport in there, get similar results, and not have to deal with dropshipping from .cn.
Although seriously, we really need more interesting small boxes out there. The Seeed Studio Tiger Lake box almost did it for me, but it can use a PCIe slot. HPe, Y U NO MICROSERVER GEN 12?! All I see out of that Microserver Gen 10 v2 compared to the v1...is 1000 dollars worth of air contained in the packaging.

There's so many products out there so cheap in the used market. Real fortigates, junipers, and more. You just have to patient and search for the deal. I missed getting in on some watchguard m200 that were new in box for $50/ea! Sure they're eol at the end of the year, but that's not going to stop them from working, and they're more bang for the buck than anything in the consumer realm that rarely has updates or any real support.

 

[Sealside]

Eh, I had my t730 running as my office firewall for at least 18 months, what with an Intel i340 quadport, even got it to run warm-warm failover on a

Yes I'm running my t730 with an Intel ethernet rj45'nic as well and it's super stable. I was referring to unstable with an Intel x520 da2 sfp card.

 

[Samir]

I was referring to unstable with an Intel x520 da2 sfp card.

There's so many of these cards out there that are fakes, that's why I'm thinking you have 1 one working and 2x that don't. The fakes were always marginal since the original STH article on Intel fakes.

 

[Sealside]

There's so many of these cards out there that are fakes, that's why I'm thinking you have 1 one working and 2x that don't. The fakes were always marginal since the original STH article on Intel fakes.

You might be right. I have tested two different cards though. One fujitsu and one hp. Which both have been working nicely in a server environment same story for both cards.

Let me know if it works better for you .
But yes both have been picked up on eBay so no guarantee that they are not fakes.

Regards s

 

[Samir]

You might be right. I have tested two different cards though. One fujitsu and one hp. Which both have been working nicely in a server environment same story for both cards.

Let me know if it works better for you .
But yes both have been picked up on eBay so no guarantee that they are not fakes.

Regards s

Generally, I've found that on ebay nearly 100% of Intel stuff that's new is fake and 90% of the used is fake. For Dell and HP, it's a bit better, but the scammers have caught onto this too for new stuff. Used stuff can be legit, but even that's only 50% these days unless it's clearly used or very old.

Originally how I found STH was a thread on a detailed comparison between a fake and genuine Intel card. The modifications are subtle, just cheaping out on components and whatnot that yields a card that is 100% functional with normal network activity, but that will mess up on more detailed operations within its spec like iscsi, san, pxe, etc, which separates the fakes from the real.

And it's sad that fakes can even get into the supply chain of major recyclers. I still have to swap out a pair of lga771 cpus that I found out were fake only after 2 years after I was trying an intel cpu test program since the cpus always seemed sluggish compared to what I expected.

 

[cromo]

(a bit of a shameless plug: I am selling my t730, having upgraded to Lenovo p340: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/eu-pl-fs-hp-thinclient-t730-amd-64gb-ssd.38512/)

 

[Antec]

incase of any future google searches

This card works fine in a T730: Dell Mellanox CX3 10Gb Dual Port Low Profile Network Card - Y3KKR - CK322A

tested with pfsense 2.60 and drivers are already included in in this version.