Replacement for Mellanox ConnectX-2 10Gb NIC

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beatle

Member
Mar 23, 2017
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I just have a single server, a Dell R510 running Server 2016, and a desktop linked by a pair of Mellanox ConnectX-2 10Gb NICs. No switch. The NIC in my desktop just failed, so I am looking for a replacement. These cards have always been just a little wonky for me, forcing me to disable/enable the NIC in the R510 week or two when the connection mysteriously thinks the cable is disconnected. I guess that could be due to my cheap FS brand SFP+ transceivers, but the Dell also occasionally boots up with a PCIe training error. This is solved by reseating the server's HBA. From what I can tell, this is due to some level of incompatibility with a card on the PCIe bus, though after reseating, everything works.

Anyway, these problems were not bad enough for me to buy a new card, but since I'm looking at a replacement anyway, what do you recommend? I see the ConnectX-3 is just a bit more than another X2, but there are also Broadcom based Dell branded NICs, and there are Intel 82599 based cards as well. I'm leaning towards the Dell card to keep it "all in the family" and hopefully ensure better compatibility, but this is basically blind faith.