Ideas between a Supermicro X9DA7 and MEG Z590I UNIFY - Increase the speed

[mko!]

Hello, Pros

I have a Supermicro X9DA7 Unraid server and a MSI MEG Z590I UNIFY desktop. I wanted to increase the speed between the two which is now just a LAN.

The MSI has no PCIe available so constraint #1 - But has Thunderbolt 4 I/O available
The Supermicro has many PCIe available available at x4 and x8

Any ideas about what is possible?

 

[mko!]

I could get the MSI from Thunderbolt 4 to SFP+ (via a QNAP T-310G1S)
Then
I could get the Supermicro PCIe to SFP+ (via a Mellanox card)

This is like $400 though - Any cheaper ideas welcome

 

[name stolen]

Cheaper? Your MSI board has 2.5GbE i225-V. Get a X550-T2 (or similar) for your Unraid box. Or if you know it's supported by your kernel, you could try an even cheaper 2.5GbE card for your server. It's a fraction of PCIe speed, but it's better than gigabit.