Urgent - Cheap 10GbE adapters - Have I missed something?

[danwood82]

Hi all,

I just spotted a most unusual thing on Amazon UK. They were selling (direct from Amazon, not 3rd party), Dell-branded Intel E10G42BT dual-port 10GbE adapters, for £225 new. I've never seen them for less than about £500 anywhere else.

I've chucked in an order for a few of them, just incase I got lucky with this. Just wanted to check if I wasn't missing something. There shouldn't be any issue with them being Dell branded right? They're essentially just the basic Intel board aside from the Dell name on the box?

Also, am I able to connect 10GBASE-T cards directly to each other using a Cat-6e crossover cable, like the olden-days? It's a long time since I've needed to cheap out and not run things through an Ethernet switch.


...wow, that's the third time that's happened in two weeks. No sooner than I placed the order, the stock level dropped the amount I ordered, and the price got revised up to £480!
I've done this with two separate batches of Seagate Constellation CS hard drives on Amazon, and in both cases, the price has leapt up the moment I've placed the order, and they've honoured the deal anyway!

I feel like I've discovered some strange Amazon amazing-deal black hole. I keep waiting for some horrible realization that I've been conned somehow. I haven't had a chance to check over the drives yet, as I'm not home until the weekend, but apparently they appear to indeed be brand-new.

 

[mobilenvidia]

I had a quick peek and the the cheapest I saw was £480

£220 is a good price for a dual port NIC.

I've got my slightly older single port version linked with CAT5 x-over cable, works fine.

 

[Patrick]

Pretty good! Just make sure you aren't buying a bracket

 

[danwood82]

Nope, pretty sure it's the real deal:
Dell E10G42BT Dual Port X520-T2 10GB Server Adapter: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
- "Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk"


Only thing I can't quite work out is, why these things seem to cost more new than the X540-T2, which simply appears to be a newer revision of the same thing. Those look like they typically go for nearer ~£350.

Looked up about the crossover thing... seems the reason I hadn't heard about it in years was because gigibit-ethernet and onwards started auto-negotiating, so you don't need to actually cross the transmission pairs any more... hehe.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Looked up about the crossover thing... seems the reason I hadn't heard about it in years was because gigibit-ethernet and onwards started auto-negotiating, so you don't need to actually cross the transmission pairs any more... hehe.

Hmmm, I'm pretty old school too, I must try this, I have CAT6 cable at home
Not thought about it with auto negociate

 

[danwood82]

Hmmm, I'm pretty old school too, I must try this, I have CAT6 cable at home
Not thought about it with auto negociate

From what I've read, 10Gbase-T should even work fine on Cat5e over short distances... a few meters or so. Probably best to stick with Cat6 anyway.

 

[cactus]

Looked up about the crossover thing... seems the reason I hadn't heard about it in years was because gigibit-ethernet and onwards started auto-negotiating, so you don't need to actually cross the transmission pairs any more... hehe.

Auto-MDIX means no need to X-over cable, it wont hurt though. You aren't THAT old school, I took a networking class less than 2 years ago still teaching the use of X-over for like device to like device.

 

[danwood82]

Well, thanks everyone, you've allayed my fears, and I just got an "order dispatched" email. Seems I really did happen upon a good deal.

I'm so used to following the unshakable first-law of the internet: "if it looks too good to be true... it probably is", something like this really confuses me

Well, I suppose it's still a pretty hefty chunk of change, it's not like I'm getting something for free, just a noticeably less super-inflated price than normal.