What is IXSystem using for FreeNAS MINI XL+ 10gbe?

volothamp

Explorer
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Jul 28, 2019
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72
Or more general, how can I get 10gbe with SFP+ on a supermicro MiniITX Atom C3000 board?

All of them (including the A2SDi-4C-HLN4F) only have a PCI 3 x4 lane and it seems I can't find PCI cards with 10gbe SFP+ module without supporting x8.

I saw there's the A2SDi-H-TF that runs a 10gbe copper but I rather have SFP+

Thanks
 

blanchet

Guru
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Apr 17, 2018
Messages
515
If you look at this video at 7:28, then you can see that the TrueNAS Mini X Plus is equipped with a Chelsio T520-SO-CR.

Nevertheless, there are (expensive) MiniITX SuperMicro motherboards with Atom C3000 and SFP+
 
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volothamp

Explorer
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
72
Thanks for the reply @blanchet

What I'm still not getting is that the Chelsio T520-SO-CR is a PCIExpressGen3x8 while SuperMicro boards support PCI-E 3.0 up to x4 (in x4 slot)* so how can this think work?

I think I'm not quite getting this whole PCI x4 x8 thing right :D
 

blanchet

Guru
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Apr 17, 2018
Messages
515
I do not really know why the Chelsio T520-SO-CR use a PCI-E 3.0 x8 interface instead of a PCI-E x4.
Indeed, PCI-E 3.0 offers 8 Gbps per lane, so a x4 can sustain 32 Gbps of bandwidth, which is enough for a dual port 10Gbps NIC.
Maybe Chelsio uses a x8 interface to share the design with their T540 (4x10G) and T580 (2x40G) series, which really need PCI-E 3.0 x8.

Nevertheless if your PCI-E x4 is not ended, then you can plug a PCI-E x8 NIC in the PCI-E x4 slot. It will work but with only half the bandwidth.

chelsio-T520-SO-CR.jpg
 
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