Pcie x1 10Gbit NIC

[Octopuss]

I might need to remove the Mellanox ConnectX-3 card from my PC because of a potential graphic card upgrade that would cover the slot the NIC is in, and since I don't want to lose 10Gbit connection, I am trying to figure out whether Pcie x1 slot cards exist. The Mellanox is x4 or whatever the slightly longer slot is.
Obviously this is for Windows.

 

[bugacha]

which PCIe version are we talking about ?

Your mobo would need to support PCIe 4 to make x1 support 10gbps

But regardless, its such a niche use-case I doubt anyone bothers making PCIe 4 x1 single port 10gbps cards.

Have you tried m2 to pcie adapter ?

 

[Octopuss]

Oh, looks like the chipset lanes are Pcie 3 only I underestimated how old my motherboard was. Bah.
Of course, I could just go back to Realtek gigabit until I upgrade my PC again in a few years, because I don't think I will miss out on the graphic card for that price.

 

[MountainBofh]

A realtek 5gb card may be the best option for you.

https://www.servethehome.com/iocrest-5gbe-pcie-adapter-review-realtek-rtl8126-nic/

 

[Octopuss]

Uh, not Realtek. Ever.
Besides, my switch is not multi-gigabit, unfortunately. Maybe there are passive ones with at least few of those SFP+ ports by now though. There were none a few years ago.

 

[nexox]

If that x1 slot is open-ended (or you're willing to open it yourself,) then you can run a 10G NIC in it, you just won't get full bandwidth (but still better than 1G and potentially more than 5G.)

 

[Octopuss]

Heh, that's a funny hack. I'd rather not, lol. I will want to sell the motherboard at some point.
I guess I will start looking into potential new switch.

 

[nexox]

Depending on your available space and configuration you could likely also find a riser/flexible connector that would do the x1 to x8 or x16 without and permanent modding. I thought I had seen a straight riser that would fit directly under a low profile card like a typical NIC, but I couldn't find it in a brief search.

 

[Octopuss]

How would that work? I know a riser is supposed to let you connect a card that's not directly plugged into the slot, but I don't understand your description. What exactly do you mean? A picture might help.

 

[nexox]

Something like this (selected at random, no idea if this particular one is any good): https://www.newegg.com/p/17Z-00PR-009J7

It's got an open-ended slot, so you plug that into the x1 slot you have and find a spot to connect the other end where it can fit your NIC. That kind of requires something like a micro ATX board in a standard ATX case or some more creative modding. Come to think of it you may also be able to find an x8 version that's low-profile enough to sneak into the slot under the GPU cooler and give you all the lanes.

 

[Octopuss]

Yep, the question is where to mount the card it in the case afterwards, heh.

 

[necr]

Had the same issue, tried PCIe x1 extension cable, still it didn't sit great under GPU - the male end is too high, and if you remove the screws, it's going to fall apart. It was not the issue to put the card on the bottom of the case though.

In the end I modified that last slot with a multi-tool to make it open-ended for whatever future experiments. Similar cost would be to buy a used mobo with open-ended PCIe slots like ASRock.

And finally, I switched to a water-cooled 1 slot GPU, for better cooling and longevity of the hardware, it works great and there's a lot of space!

 

[Octopuss]

I can't even use the last slot because Sound Blaster AE-5 sits there

I might just not buy the graphic card (Radeon 7900 XTX behemoth) and go for something slower that only uses two slots instead. This is just ridiculous, lol. And it seems I would need to upgrade the entire system to Zen 4 if I want more Pcie slots anyway, and the 5800X I have is perfectly enough for my needs.

 

[jok2]

there is a nic from iocrest based on the aqc113 with a pcie 4x1 interface, see this review IOCREST PCIe 4.0x1 10GbE NIC Review He tested it also with pcie 3x1 and got about 6.5 Gb/s

 

[MountainBofh]

there is a nic from iocrest based on the aqc113 with a pcie 4x1 interface, see this review IOCREST PCIe 4.0x1 10GbE NIC Review He tested it also with pcie 3x1 and got about 6.5 Gb/s

Shame they also don't make one in SFP+ format - that would be absolutely killer.