Intel X550-T2 Nic - Fake?

Ericloewe

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It's missing the hologram sticker. That's a huge red flag.
 

mjt5282

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I would pass....
 

Cheatdeath

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I know its not going to be genuine Intel but I really want to know if it works and provides full 10gb or not... Has anyone used one of these chinese versions?
 

Ericloewe

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The running theory is that they're either factory rejects or parallel productions runs using ICs that fell off the back of a truck in the shadiest neighborhood of Shenzhen.
 

Octopuss

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I was looking at the X550s myself, and thankfully found this thread.
It appears that most of the cards on Ebay are from Asia - does it mean all of them are fake? Is there any way I could tell a real one from a fake from the photos?
 

mjt5282

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I suspect that most of the cards on Ebay discussed on this thread are cheap pirate clone cards, built in sophisticated factories in China and loaded with copied firmware. They might be functionally identical to the full priced retail cards, and they might never fail during the life of your hyper-converged file server. Or they might fail the first week. NIC cards and SATA storage cards like the IBM M1015 are commonly sold from China. Whether it matters to you, is up to you. For the price, you might be able to afford a primary and a back-up. Or pay full price from a retail vendor.
 

Cheatdeath

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What about dell branded x550's? Would there be any reason to avoid these for Freenas? It looks physically identical to a Intel unlike the Chinese copy above, it also has the Intel logo on the pcb. Just curious if it has some custom firmware or something that will be a problem for using on non Dell hardware.
 

Octopuss

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I believe I saw Lenovo one and wanted to ask the same thing. Why are they rebranded like that?
 

Cheatdeath

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I believe I saw Lenovo one and wanted to ask the same thing. Why are they rebranded like that?

I assume they are Intel OEM cards sold to Dell or whatever brand and used in those brands hardware. Hoping someone has a Dell one and can confirm they work as normal.
 

artlessknave

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I have 2 "LSI's". they don't work. they are recognized themselves, but they don't see any drives connected. don't buy unless they are legit or you dont mind having decorative PCB's for your wall, these are pure garbage.
 
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