10 Gig Networking Primer

10 Gig Networking Primer

Snow

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Would anyone have any idea where could I find specific newer revisions of Chelsio cards? From what I've read thus far, the newer ones produce a lot less heat.
The cards don't seem to be in production any more though, and I can't find them new anywhere near where I live in Europe.
I'm specifically looking for Chelsio T520-SO-CR, revisions 110-1188-50 or 110-1206-50.

I haven't seen any newer revisions listed on Ebay at all.

May just have to get them off of ebay and bite the shipping bullet. Or change it up to a Mellanox connectX3 as they have support for Win. Or get them off amazon for 2 under 50 bucks. My ConnectX2 Run at 32-37 under heavy load and 22-28 under light load. Ive herd the ConnectX3 Run Even cooler. Ive seen them for 10 or 20 more a pair.
 

jgreco

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That'd be nice if the Mellanox cards worked as well as the Chelsios.
 

rmccullough

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May just have to get them off of ebay and bite the shipping bullet. Or change it up to a Mellanox connectX3 as they have support for Win. Or get them off amazon for 2 under 50 bucks. My ConnectX2 Run at 32-37 under heavy load and 22-28 under light load. I've herd the ConnectX3 Run Even cooler. I've seen them for 10 or 20 more a pair.

Link? When I search for that on Amazon, all I see is cards that are $180 and up.
 

Snow

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Snow

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Snow

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Yes I will have to agree with you! My FreeNas side and switch Worked with out any problems after seting the Mtu. Other then that the Drivers I used where for the connectx3 As the 2 is listed as not compatible with any windows systems (A little white lie from mellanox)! As for tuning on my Windows rig's I Just used the Mellanox3 Drivers on the Mellanox2 card It has been working clean.

I do plan on getting a Mellanox 3 to play with the SFP28 but as my Mikrotik will only do 10GB/s per a port and does not do aggregated connections. I was looking at the Quanta LB6M as its only 300$ New. Only down side is it is CLI Period. Also If you can find them used when Amazon pulls them to upgrade to 40 & 100GB/s Edges, You can some times find them for dirt cheap.

New Quanta LB6M
 
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Snow

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The Mellanox cards aren't really optimized under FreeBSD. The Chelsio is so good it's what iXsystems includes with TrueNAS.
Also I do not think I ever thank you for this Tread, it did help me in getting started to dip my feet in to 10GB/s at home. If I would have stuck with what I knew I would have all Cisco gear and be neg $2500 or more. +1 to Jgreco for the Awesome write up!!!
 

Octopuss

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I've been googling the hell out of the interwebs about the T520-SO-CR, and it even seems like it's still in production (the product pdf available lists T6 and T5 cards, so...), and yet I can't really find the cards anywhere but on Ebay, and most of them being with the large heatsinks, indicating the later revisions not existing anywhere.
I'm perplexed.
 

Mlovelace

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Octopuss

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Octopuss

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Also, somewhat unrelated question: what is a legit low price for Intel X550-T2 card? I found bunch of them on Amazon for 200-250 bucks, but I am not sure. Like this.
On Ebay, everything from China is fake, but on Amazon there's no source listed.
 

Octopuss

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Mlovelace

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Of course I do care, and it is of course NOT the same chip. The newer revisions produce less heat, thus the smaller heatsink. Just do a search here.
(edit: the link doesn't work)
The T5 is their fifth gen ASIC and it is the same ASIC on either heatsink size card. If they had a mosfet change to produce less heat that doesn't change the ASIC.
 

Octopuss

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So you didn't perform a search yet. Ok.
 

nikalai2

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Octopuss said:
On Ebay, everything from China is fake

Not everything: https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/good-source-for-non-fake-m1015s.70312/
Some of the parts are pulled from servers. I saw that Chris Moore recommended an item here
I am also suspicioous regarding some things from China but i am thinking also to buy an HBA card from him (HP H220) because it's cheaper than what i can find in Europe. I prefer to buy used parts with cosmetic signs because they were tested probably in production in a datacenter.


Last year i purchased two Chelsio N320E cards and a Cisco copper DAC cable for £54.00. I din't have the chance to test them untill this year. :)
On ESXI / Freenas 11.2 U3 everthing was good but i had issues with Windows 10 Pro 1809. Every time i try to copy files on a SMB sharefolder i was getting bluescreen on Windows machine. I used the latest driver from the manufacturer site (8-9 years old). On another forum someone recommended to use the U-wire driver but i had not luck. I bought a Mellanox Connect-X2 card from a refurbished parts seller from my country. It's working like a charm. I am still using the Chelsion network card on Freenas machine.
I read that these Chelsio cards are very hot and the power consumption is higher compared to Mellanox cards.
I am thinking to buy another one next month and a switch in the near future.

Thank you for helping us for free!

Regards!
 
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Mlovelace

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So you didn't perform a search yet. Ok.
Still waiting for the link... ;)

There isn't anything about the T5 ASIC being manufactured on a smaller fab process to reduce power. The ASIC is the same. Or maybe you just don't know what an ASIC is...

If the power consumption has been reduced (still waiting for poof), it's a change in the ICB or mosfets.
 
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Octopuss

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Still waiting for the link... ;)

There isn't anything about the T5 ASIC being manufactured on a smaller fab process to reduce power. The ASIC is the same. Or maybe you just don't know what an ASIC is...

If the power consumption has been reduced (still waiting for poof), it's a change in the ICB or mosfets.
You didn't ask for one :P
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/chelsio-t520-so-cr-fake.62760/

Sounds legit enough since the guy claims he got a response from Chelsio itself. Whatever the change, less heat=yey.
 

Constantin

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I bought a Chelsio card for my Mac a few years ago based on brand recommendations. Allegedly, they had a OSX driver.

The actual installer was a script file, in-depth configuration had to be done via the CLI. Nothing worked.

After contacting technical support, I found out that while all Chelsio cards in theory support Thunderbolt tunneling, that tunneling is only enabled for 500-series and up cards.

I’ve been sitting on that card ever since. Anyone want a 400 series card?
 
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