Intel X550-T2 vs. X710-DA2

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M

mietzen

New Member
Dec 25, 2023
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Hey,
I'm currently building a Lenovo M720q based Proxmox server and decided to go with 10 GBit/s Ethernet.
My switch is a Zyxel XMG1915-10EP with two SFP+ Ports.

Currently I'm running a Intel X550-T2 with two HiFiber SFP+10GBASE-T modules, I went with the X550 series because a I got the card for under 100€ and I read that the X710 series is really unreliable.

But seeing the power consumption of the X550 including the HiFiber modules, I'm questioning my decision.
There is a deal for a X710 for 140€. If I sent back the HiFiber Modules and sell the X550 again for the same Price, I could switch without making a loss.

My hope would be two save ~20 Watts in total (10 Watts from the X550 under load and 5 Watt per SFP+ Module).

Is the X710 really that unreliable? Are the FW bugs fixed?

Cheers

Edit: ASPM is crucial for me, this is why the X520 is not a option.
 
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M

mattventura

Well-Known Member
Nov 9, 2022
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The X550 is mainly desirable because it supports 2.5/5g in addition to 1 and 10g, which the older X540 does not.

There are a lot of SFP+ 10g cards that generally work fine, like the X520, or various Mellanox cards. It's definitely using more power than you need to if you're hooking it up to an SFP+ switch.

As for the X710, in Linux you can generally disable most of the stuff that gives it a bad reputation (like the hardware-level LLDP), but IMO it's just not worth it, especially not when the X520 and others are so cheap.
 
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M

mietzen

New Member
Dec 25, 2023
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mattventura said:
The X550 is mainly desirable because it supports 2.5/5g in addition to 1 and 10g, which the older X540 does not.

There are a lot of SFP+ 10g cards that generally work fine, like the X520, or various Mellanox cards. It's definitely using more power than you need to if you're hooking it up to an SFP+ switch.

As for the X710, in Linux you can generally disable most of the stuff that gives it a bad reputation (like the hardware-level LLDP), but IMO it's just not worth it, especially not when the X520 and others are so cheap.
Click to expand...
Sorry I forgot to mention that I would like to keep ASPM support, that is the only reason I haven't picked the X520.
 
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zachj

Active Member
Apr 17, 2019
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I’d like to know what your results are. I too would prefer lower power but the ROI on the T4L is essentially “never”…

Pretend it’s an extra 20w…how long to pay off $400?
 
M

mietzen

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Dec 25, 2023
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zachj said:
I’d like to know what your results are. I too would prefer lower power but the ROI on the T4L is essentially “never”…

Pretend it’s an extra 20w…how long to pay off $400?
Click to expand...
Roughly 6 Years when I calculate with 40 ct/kwh, but we are no back at 25 ct/kwh, so it would be more like 8-10 Years :D
 
M

mattventura

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Nov 9, 2022
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Would the T4L ever pay itself back? Using copper is almost certainly going to use more power than DAC, even if the copper card has ASPM and the SFP card does not.
 
M

mietzen

New Member
Dec 25, 2023
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I'm back with results:

X550X710
Idle10 -11 Watts8 -9 Watts
Load (iperf3 --bidir -t 0)68 Watts57 Watts
Switch16 W continuously8 W continuously

I setup two VMs, passed through one nic to each and ran iperf3.

So my savings in total (Switch + M720q) are 10 Watts at idle and 18 Watts under load. I going to stick with the X710 and DAC cables.

Only the savings at idle are about 25€/a at the current electricity prices.
 
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matt_slow_86

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Sep 9, 2024
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mietzen said:
I'm back with results:

X550X710
Idle10 -11 Watts8 -9 Watts
Load (iperf3 --bidir -t 0)68 Watts57 Watts
Switch16 W continuously8 W continuously

I setup two VMs, passed through one nic to each and ran iperf3.

So my savings in total (Switch + M720q) are 10 Watts at idle and 18 Watts under load. I going to stick with the X710 and DAC cables.

Only the savings at idle are about 25€/a at the current electricity prices.
Click to expand...
does your x550 have ASPM enabled in lspci ?
i bought one with firmware 2.0 unfortunately the ASPM is disabled. my C-state jump to C3 instead of C8. Updating firmware to 3.6 did not help ... :(
 
M

mietzen

New Member
Dec 25, 2023
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Yes both cards had aspm enabled. I sold the x550, I’m not sure which fw I was running. If it is a oem card you may need to cross flash it to intel stock fw, my card was a genuine intel card, but be sure to make a backup of the spi flash rom.
 
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matt_slow_86

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Sep 9, 2024
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mietzen said:
Yes both cards had aspm enabled. I sold the x550, I’m not sure which fw I was running. If it is a oem card you may need to cross flash it to intel stock fw, my card was a genuine intel card, but be sure to make a backup of the spi flash rom.
Click to expand...
the card was supposed to be from lenovo. i checked with aspm with firmware 2.0 and aspm was disabled. downloaded firmware and nvmutility from intel flashed it with newest fw and aspm is still disabled.

Looking for ideas how solve it. I did found post on Intels forum where somebody had similar problem, where x550 with firmware 1.x had enabled aspm but 2.x and above had aspm disabled, unfortunatly the intel did not provide any solution to him.
 
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bandit8623

Member
May 25, 2021
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matt_slow_86 said:
the card was supposed to be from lenovo. i checked with aspm with firmware 2.0 and aspm was disabled. downloaded firmware and nvmutility from intel flashed it with newest fw and aspm is still disabled.

Looking for ideas how solve it. I did found post on Intels forum where somebody had similar problem, where x550 with firmware 1.x had enabled aspm but 2.x and above had aspm disabled, unfortunatly the intel did not provide any solution to him.
Click to expand...
www.intel.com

Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Update Utility for Intel® Ethernet Network Adapter X550 Series

Provides the Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Update Utility for Intel® Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X550 Series
www.intel.com www.intel.com

3.7 any change?
 
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