I started with the sx6036 last year, got 3 for 80 USD each. Then a few months later found a fantastic deal for 6x sx6025 with rails for just 60 USD each. Now I have a few spares, and only use one sx6036, but that is fine. Everything is infiniband.
Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro EN (MCX314A-BCCT)
- Thread starter gb00s
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What's the advantage of the SX6025 over the SX6036 ? Much lower Power Consumption ? And is the License "trick" working the same as the SX6036 ?
I didnt switch them. When I extended my setup I added the SX6025. I was going to run IB anyway, so no need to use the sx6036. Which I may use for something else later, which could be ethernet.
Id assume for 6036, cx3-pro has not been 80ea for years now while 6036 have been in the 80-100 area for some time.
Now they appear as low as 40-50$+shipping like this listing.
Now they appear as low as 40-50$+shipping like this listing.
Yes PLUS 70 USD/each for Shipping from that Seller (to Jetcarrier US !) ... I tried contacting them because then it's better to pay the 100 USD ones with shipping included at that Point (with a bit of Negociation).
wow...these used to go for peanuts! I've bought used ones for ~$60 shipped and brand new ones for $110-120 shipped. That wasn't even that long ago, like Nov/Dec last year.
btw, the CX3 cards work fine even if you can't get some of the more esoteric stuff (like SR-IOV, RDMA, NVME-oF...) working. I mean... they'll saturate 40/56gb easily pretty much OOTB in Linux (with Inbox drivers) with literally no tuning. You just need to have a fast enough storage subsystem (which is not that difficult nowadays).
Yes, there are use cases for the esoteric stuff, but still...40gb cards for less than $10...that too TWO ports... I mean...
Just be wary that the mellanox sx6036 switch is really loud, i bought mine for either 90 or 100 dollars but i ended up spending another 90 dollars to replace its fans with Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX and 3d printed a fan extension for it to keep it the same length as the stock. Fan mod was definitely worth it, it's pretty silent now.The ConnectX-4 QSFP28 are > 50 USD / Piece
I was looking for a SX6036 Switch Yesterday but either they are 100 USD or so (I tried offering 40 ... 60 USD / Piece for 5 x, all auto rejected) or they are 40 USD or so with an Insane Amount for Shipping
Plan is to use them, question is just the Timeline. Pretty sure I bought Infiniband ConnectX-2 (or even ConnectX) VPI together with the Voltaire 4036 and never deployed them due to the Noise and all of the moves I've been going through. So yeah, I definitively need to get it done this Time.
EDIT 1: and yeah, maybe better to just take these 10 and see how it goes and how many more I need
Based on what @kapone said in his Post, it did NOT seem like it was THAT loud:
Pretty sure you could get some 40x40x20mm SUNON Fans that are relatively quiet for a Fraction of the Noctua Price.
Too Bad Arctic only offers S4028-6K (and S4028-15K) and nothing consumer grade in that 40mm Size
.How much are the Stock Fans rated at in Terms of RPM ? A quick Google Search seems to suggest 8'000 RPM ... 12'000 RPM.
If so the Arctic S4028-6K 6000 RPM might be a cheap yet powerful Option. I still need to try these out, I ordered them for another Project and didn't need them ... yet
.EDIT 1: Probably the cheapest would be 6 EUR / Piece for the Arctic S4038-6K:
ARCTIC S4028-6K (5 Pack) 40x40x28mm Server Lüfter 250-6000 RPM PWM PC Kühler | eBay.de
Das Laufrad des S4028-6K wird durch zwei Kugellager gehalten und ist dadurch besonders langlebig, sowie weniger empfindlich gegenüber äußeren Einflüssen wie Hitze und Staub. Der S4028-6K hat einen besonders breiten Drehzahlbereich der über PWM und Spannung reguliert werden kann.
www.ebay.de
SUNON Fans are quite good but unfortunately only available to sale to OEM (and MOQ = 150 Pieces)
Example of Fan Search with SUNON at
The Noctua NH-A40x20 would be directly comparable to the SUNON EF40201B3-1000U-H99 / EF40201B3-1000U-Q99 / EF40201B3-1000U-S99
Too bad that many of these SUNON are MOQ of 150, so even if cheaper not really worth it.
Unfortunately Sanyo Denki has only maybe 1 Fan in that Size that aren't Noisy (with PWM Control at least):
More Choice if you are willing to give up on PWM:
Similar story with Delta unfortunately:
Sure there are also other Brands that manufacture 40mm Fans.
The Issue I see is that you still need some decent Static Pressure (and Airflow of course) and I'm a bit afraid that your NOCTUA will fall short in that regards, besides being VERY expensive ...
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Look at @i386 comment above. After spinning down the stock fans through software control, the SX6036 is one of the quietest enterprise switches I've seen yet.
Is it silent after the change? Nope. It's just a whirrrr at that point. You may not want it under your desk, but after a few feet away, the noise is lost in the ether.
I set the fan speed to 15% which is the lowest that I could set it before it would spinup due to high heat and it was not low enough for me, My rack isn't that far from my desk and there weren't many convenient places for me to put it in my apartment. Your mileage may vary, but my fans were'nt super loud at 15, but the frequency of the noise they made was extremely whiny and it was giving me headaches so much so that I was avoiding my desk which is next to my rack and ended up just turning my sx6036 completely off until i could mod the fans. There might be cheaper fans out there, but I didn't want to experiment I just wanted it silent lmao. My stock fans were SUNON, but who knows how old they are. Fan speed will get you close but it probably won't get you all the way to silent unless you mod it. I would have to press my ear up against it to hear it now.
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I heavily altered an existing 3d model for a noctua fan in order to increase the length of the noctua fan because what I had heard is that the length of the fan is a big difference maker for static pressure. My temps are good and I helped one other person do the same mod as well, but entirely up to you whether the 90 dollars are worth it. I would just buy one and tweak it and see if you can tolerate the whine, then buy more if you need. It is probably a mileage may vary, and theirs may very well be really quiet at 15% but unfortunately it was not the case for me.Based on what @kapone said in his Post, it did NOT seem like it was THAT loud:
Pretty sure you could get some 40x40x20mm SUNON Fans that are relatively quiet for a Fraction of the Noctua Price.
Too Bad Arctic only offers S4028-6K (and S4028-15K) and nothing consumer grade in that 40mm Size
How much are the Stock Fans rated at in Terms of RPM ? A quick Google Search seems to suggest 8'000 RPM ... 12'000 RPM.
If so the Arctic S4028-6K 6000 RPM might be a cheap yet powerful Option. I still need to try these out, I ordered them for another Project and didn't need them ... yet
EDIT 1: Probably the cheapest would be 6 EUR / Piece for the Arctic S4038-6K:
ARCTIC S4028-6K (5 Pack) 40x40x28mm Server Lüfter 250-6000 RPM PWM PC Kühler | eBay.de
Das Laufrad des S4028-6K wird durch zwei Kugellager gehalten und ist dadurch besonders langlebig, sowie weniger empfindlich gegenüber äußeren Einflüssen wie Hitze und Staub. Der S4028-6K hat einen besonders breiten Drehzahlbereich der über PWM und Spannung reguliert werden kann.www.ebay.de
SUNON Fans are quite good but unfortunately only available to sale to OEM (and MOQ = 150 Pieces)
Example of Fan Search with SUNON at
View attachment 45281
View attachment 45282
The Noctua NH-A40x20 would be directly comparable to the SUNON EF40201B3-1000U-H99 / EF40201B3-1000U-Q99 / EF40201B3-1000U-S99
Too bad that many of these SUNON are MOQ of 150, so even if cheaper not really worth it.
Unfortunately Sanyo Denki has only maybe 1 Fan in that Size that aren't Noisy (with PWM Control at least):
View attachment 45283
View attachment 45284
More Choice if you are willing to give up on PWM:
View attachment 45285
Similar story with Delta unfortunately:
View attachment 45286
Sure there are also other Brands that manufacture 40mm Fans.
The Issue I see is that you still need some decent Static Pressure (and Airflow of course) and I'm a bit afraid that your NOCTUA will fall short in that regards, besides being VERY expensive ...
Attachments
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Not sure if I follow your Logic.
If you want to increase Static Pressure, there are usually
- Use a higher RPM Fan (MUCH higher Power Consumption and Noise)
- Put 2 Fans in Series
- Use a thicker Fan (28mm instead of 20mm, 20mm instead of 10mm, etc)
I don't think that simply adding some Length "magically" increases the Static Pressure.
It might prevent cross-interaction (coupling) between the Flow of each Fan, which in turns decreases "Static Pressure Losses" since the Flow can be more "focused".
I don't think that it increases the Static Pressure over what a single Fan can do though.
Shrug, you could very well be right, im not an expert on it at all honestly so you judgment is probably better, I referenced the below thread and fixed it in case it was a potential issue. At the very least the temps are not a concern which i suppose is the main worry.
Edit: ahh we might be on the same page maybe? the noctua fans are 20mm instead of 28mm so i increased it to 28mm with a coupler. idk maybe it helps maybe it doesn't
When I said "thicker Fan" I meant that the Blades are also curved in a Way that they push more Air. They might also have more Blades.
I didn't simply mean "Take a 10mm Fan and add a 18mm Spacer"
.Maybe worth a read, although it's been a long Time since I worked with Bernoulli Principle & Fluid Dynamics
:Axial fan design - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Noteworthy (I should have tried this sooner): for those in Europe, PiosPartsLap accepted 10 EUR / Piece for 20 Pieces here in Europe (including VAT):
www.piospartslap.de
Probably this one also works:
www.piospartslap.de
www.piospartslap.de
Now let's hope that the US Seller rejects my last Offer otherwise I'll have 50 of these soon .
Mellanox CX354A ConnectX-3 QDR InfiniBand 40Gb QSFP+ Dual-Port PCIe x8 3.0 MCX354A-FCCT ohne Bracket - Piospartslap
Mellanox Mellanox ConnectX-3 QDR InfiniBand 40Gb QSFP+ Dual-Port PCIe x8 3 0 ohne Bracket Modell: CX354A MPN: MCX354A-FCCT Technical data
Probably this one also works:
Mellanox MCX354A-FCCT ConnectX-3 Pro FDR IB 40 GbE PCIe x8 QSFP Server Adapter LP - Piospartslap
Mellanox Mellanox MCX354A-FCCT ConnectX-3 Pro FDR IB 40 GbE PCIe x8 QSFP Server Adapter LP Modell: CX354A P/N: MCX354A-FCCT Technical data /
Mellanox MCX354A-FCCT ConnectX-3 Pro FDR IB 40 GbE PCIe x8 QSFP Server Adapter FP - Piospartslap
Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro FDR IB Dual Port 40 GbE PCIe x8 3 0 QSFP+ Server Adapter Modell: CX354A MPN: MCX354A-FCCT Technical data / Technis
Now let's hope that the US Seller rejects my last Offer otherwise I'll have 50 of these soon
.