Intel X520-DA1 prices have dropped!

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Rain

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james23

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Is there much difference between the above 1 port Intel 10gb adapter and this 1 port mellanox-2 10gb pcie adapter (for 18$ on ebay)?

HP Mellanox 671798-001 MNPA19-XTR 10GB PCI-E Ethernet Network Interface Card FS

Id like to get 2 of either of these and link my server to my desktop at 10gb (but im not too familiar with the various 10gb pcie adapters so i would appreciate any feedback , im running win 2008 server r2 on server side and win7 or win8 on the desktop side)

Thanks
 

Rain

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Is there much difference between the above 1 port Intel 10gb adapter and this 1 port mellanox-2 10gb pcie adapter (for 18$ on ebay)?
Intel NICs generally have better driver support. Performance is probably marginally better as well, but you'd only notice it in specific benchmarks.

The ConnectX-2 cards are not supported by Mellanox anymore. You can still get older drivers, but Mellanox never officially supported Windows 10 for the ConnectX-2 cards (the 8.1 drivers do work on Windows 10 though, see one of my other posts). Intel still officially supports the X520 cards with no "expected end-of-life" date listed yet on ARK.

I don't have any Intel 10GbE NICs but I do have some ConnectX-2 NICs (the same model you linked). Had these Intel cards been at these prices when I bought the ConnectX-2 NICs for $18 a pop, I still would have gone the Intel route, but that's only because I've had great experiences with Intel NICs in general. Intel really does a great job continuing to support older NICs with driver patches and ensuring support under newer OSs.
 
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tby

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At a previous job we had a data center tech who couldn't assemble a pile of Supermicro parts into a server without causing a short somewhere to save his life. We started using his name as a verb. Perhaps he is now working wherever those cards came from...
 

tby

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The ConnectX-2 cards are not supported by Mellanox anymore.
Are they still worth using in Linux? I've got a pair of ConnectX-2 VPI cards that I was planning to use for 10GbE in my storage server, but if I'm better off with something else then I guess now is a good time to buy.
 

whitey

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Ohhh to know what I know now instead of my naive state roughly 2 years ago when I bought my X520-DA2's NIB from newegg for probably $300+ EACH (x3) if memory serves me correct. I'd have a Xeon-D system built if I realized the folies in my ways back then...then again these adpaters weren't that cheap back then even used.

Good luck all, I'm tempted to grab a couple 2-3 just to have on shelf as spares. My dual port versions in each of my 3 hosts are honestly overkill as I have never used them w/ only 4 ports of 10G on my ex3300 switch...now if I had a stack of ex3300's....muuuhahahahahah
 

Rain

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I saw these too, but didn't link them because of the retention clip damage. Sounds like a bunch of racks were decommissioned and the workers tasked with removing the equipment couldn't be bothered to unplug everything and just ripped the cables right out.

Knowing the damage ahead of time, I wouldn't touch these with a 10-foot poll. I'd be worried about micro-fractures in traces on the PCB around the connector - the cards may test fine now, but a few months from now, who knows. For ~$15 more I'd grab cards with no (visible) damage (maybe less if you can an offer through on the 2nd listing I linked in the OP).

Are they still worth using in Linux? I've got a pair of ConnectX-2 VPI cards that I was planning to use for 10GbE in my storage server, but if I'm better off with something else then I guess now is a good time to buy.
Yes, as @Chuckleb mentioned, the ConnectX cards work great in Linux. Assuming you're planning on using a mainstream distro, support for ConnectX cards is compiled into the kernel. My ConnectX-2 cards have performed great in my Linux systems.
 
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briandm81

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That is what I was asking. Thanks! Time to order a pair. Whats the lowest cost option for a crossover?
 

tby

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Will these work with any cable? Or do they require intel coded?
Intel's driver locks out unapproved modules. Seems like many Linux distros have patched it out and I know I've seen a work-around on VMware, but on Windows I think you're stuck.

Mellanox works with anything.

Not sure about the Chelsio cards.
 

jfeldt

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Intel's driver locks out unapproved modules. Seems like many Linux distros have patched it out and I know I've seen a work-around on VMware, but on Windows I think you're stuck.

Mellanox works with anything.

Not sure about the Chelsio cards.
exactly my experience as well. Intel X520 are locked in windows, I've seen the place in the conf file for Solaris where you can tell it to use unbranded SFP+s. My Chelsio cards don't care about which SFP+ you use
 

T_Minus

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exactly my experience as well. Intel X520 are locked in windows, I've seen the place in the conf file for Solaris where you can tell it to use unbranded SFP+s. My Chelsio cards don't care about which SFP+ you use
So which work in Windows?