So, the 10Gbit x1 cards...

[Octopuss]

I am a bit behind, but I am aware Realtek came out with the RTL8127 chipset about a year ago or so.
I would definitely like to upgrade the connection to my PC to 10Gbit and x1 slot is exactly what I need. For desktop use this chip seems to be perfectly fine.
BUT
Do you think this could work for a home server too?
I have virtualized server running XCP-ng that's mostly used as a NAS/seedbox (plus some minor stuff like management platform for the wifi network), and since I wanted a fast NAS connection back then, I had no choice but to buy the rather expensive Intel X710-DA2 card (there are older and cheaper but I decided to go with more modern stuff).
Would you say the Realtek should be problem-free in this environment?

Also
I did a very basic google search and it seems like there are even SFP+ cards with this chip. That might just be what I want for the server. Does anyone have any experience with that by chance?

 

[etorix]

Copper or fibre is a matter of PHY. What you're asking about is a matter for the driver of the actual NIC behind this PHY.

Historically, Realtek drivers have been heavily tilted towards browsing and gaming (single user stuff) under Windows, and known to collapse under the kind of heavy multi-user load that a Unix server can throw at them. (Mind you, I can confirm that at home by just trying to move several movies simultaneously from my Enigma2 STB to a NAS: Two is usually still fine but three or four will crash the RTL driver and drop speed to single-digit bits/s. )
You may try, but if you want "trouble-free" you'd better stay with server-grade NICs.

 

[BoredSysadmin]

Yeah, Realtek drivers for Nix-based OSes aren't great. Your best bet is to use an Intel NIC. There's nothing wrong with older models, since newer ones focus on features you likely never use at home.

 

[boerni666]

Problemfree if you use a Kernel >= 7.0. Runs in my homeserver (debian 13) without any hickups since ive done the kernel upgrade.

Don't mess around with the Realtek DKMS driver. just use the kernel module.


And i've done several backups since than, heavily pushing multiple Terabytes in the 6-7gbit/s (thats where my bottleneck, the spinning rust starts). no problems.and yeah, also a webserver which runs multiple services for multiple people, and a seedbox...

 

[Octopuss]

Well, I am still hoping to find smaller than Micro-ATX motherboard where I don't suppose x8 slots would be available, and maybe a big card like the Intel won't fit in relevant case, so I'm thinking about something more compact too.
Really, why does everything have to be PCIe 3.0 damnit?

 

[boerni666]

older cards, especially old intel server cards are way older than PCIe 4 or even 3.0...

 

[etorix]

Well, I am still hoping to find smaller than Micro-ATX motherboard where I don't suppose x8 slots would be available, and maybe a big card like the Intel won't fit in relevant case, so I'm thinking about something more compact too.

X10SDV (Xeon D-1500) and (some) A2SDi (Atom C3000) motherboards provide onboard 10 GBase-T in mini-ITX size and make great small NAS. No need for a x1 NIC card.

 

[MountainBofh]

Keep in mind the 1x cards want pcie 4.0. For pcie 3.0 you'll want a 2x variant.

 

[peaceman]

I bought the 4x1 10 Gbit Nic from Kalea Informatique, works great in a Windows machine, and is available at Amazon.
They also have the SFP+ variant if you need it. Sadly, I cannot say anything about Linux performance.