10Gb Ethernet NIC recommendations

eddie200112

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Mar 17, 2015
Messages
190
I was looking to move my network over to 10Gb. I haven't yet bought a router and switch for 10Gb but the house is wired for it. My MOBO is in my sig. I was hoping to get a recommendation for a PCIe 10Gb NIC card that is the most compatible with TrueNAS core. I'm not sure if some would be directly supported or if I would have to install some sort of driver to the OS.

Thanks in advance. Many of the posts I found on the subject were a few years old so wanted to check if better info was out there.
 

gdreade

Dabbler
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Mar 11, 2015
Messages
34
I know you asked about the NICs, but I'll comment on switches since you don't have yours, yet.

When I put in 10Gbe on one of my sites a few years ago, I selected a switch (Netgear Prosafe XS708T) where ALL eight ports were 10Gbe (ethernet, not fibre). As I was doing short runs, wanted some key workstations to be on 10Gbe, and the switch was at a good price point, I went with the all-copper solution.

Fast-forward a few years and I recently wanted to do a small expansion of the 10Gbe segment, keeping in mind that all connected devices are now using ethernet. Since then, however, the availability of switches has changed a lot and it's difficult to find copper-only switches with >4 ports for reasonable prices. I happened to find a used XS708T for a decent price, but I concluded that if I was doing this again I would stick to SFP+/fibre rather than ethernet/copper (keeping in mind that SFP+ still has the option of using copper if necessary, via an appropriate transceiver). The motivators were availability, long term cost (impacted both by the switch and the connected gear), thermal signature, and audio signature (more power draw means more cooling).

This may not matter as much if you're only trying to get 10Gb between your TrueNAS and the switch, and then 1Gb from the switch to the rest of your machines (as implied by the "house is wired for it" comment) as there are a lot of switches on the market that have only two 10Gb ports with the rest at 1Gb. However, even there I'd tend to fibre or DAC on the 10Gb segment.

FWIW, prior to finding the used XS708T, I was leaning toward the Microtik switches. I've been happy with Microtik in the past, but have no experience with their 10Gb switches.
 

asap2go

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Jun 11, 2023
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228
I know you asked about the NICs, but I'll comment on switches since you don't have yours, yet.

When I put in 10Gbe on one of my sites a few years ago, I selected a switch (Netgear Prosafe XS708T) where ALL eight ports were 10Gbe (ethernet, not fibre). As I was doing short runs, wanted some key workstations to be on 10Gbe, and the switch was at a good price point, I went with the all-copper solution.

Fast-forward a few years and I recently wanted to do a small expansion of the 10Gbe segment, keeping in mind that all connected devices are now using ethernet. Since then, however, the availability of switches has changed a lot and it's difficult to find copper-only switches with >4 ports for reasonable prices. I happened to find a used XS708T for a decent price, but I concluded that if I was doing this again I would stick to SFP+/fibre rather than ethernet/copper (keeping in mind that SFP+ still has the option of using copper if necessary, via an appropriate transceiver). The motivators were availability, long term cost (impacted both by the switch and the connected gear), thermal signature, and audio signature (more power draw means more cooling).

This may not matter as much if you're only trying to get 10Gb between your TrueNAS and the switch, and then 1Gb from the switch to the rest of your machines (as implied by the "house is wired for it" comment) as there are a lot of switches on the market that have only two 10Gb ports with the rest at 1Gb. However, even there I'd tend to fibre or DAC on the 10Gb segment.

FWIW, prior to finding the used XS708T, I was leaning toward the Microtik switches. I've been happy with Microtik in the past, but have no experience with their 10Gb switches.
I have a Netgear MS510TXUP & a friend has a Mikrotik CRS312-4C+8XG-RM both are great.
If you do not need PoE then the Mikrotik is definitely not a bad choice with 8 x 10GbE and 4 x SFP+ / 10GbE combo ports.
The Netgear offers only 4 x 10GbE & 2 SFP+ but has 4 x 2.5GbE PoE++ ports to power Access Points and alike.

As for NICs:
Copper: Intel X550-T2
Fiber: Intel X520-DA2
Both work fine for me. If you find a used X710-DA2 that's also a great option for fiber.
 

eddie200112

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Mar 17, 2015
Messages
190

eddie200112

Contributor
Joined
Mar 17, 2015
Messages
190
Ideally i would like all runs to be 10Gb. I currently have a switch with 8 ports in use. But I suppose I could get away with 4 if I was limited. Would limit it to my desktop and the TrueNAS server and my 2 media centers. Should I switch over to fiber before I finish the basement and can no longer easily access the cable runs in everyone's opinion?
 

gdreade

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Mar 11, 2015
Messages
34
You wired your house with cat6a/7? You're making me salivate; I wired my house with cat5e 20 years ago so I understand both the motivation and what it would take to upgrade :/

My experience with fibre at this point is limited to cable trays and spacious conduits, so I will hold my opinion about putting fibre into residential walls and leave that to someone else. However I suspect that concerns within a wall will include armour and bend radius. My gut says though that if you already have copper deployed then "good enough".
 

eddie200112

Contributor
Joined
Mar 17, 2015
Messages
190
Yea
You wired your house with cat6a/7? You're making me salivate; I wired my house with cat5e 20 years ago so I understand both the motivation and what it would take to upgrade :/

My experience with fibre at this point is limited to cable trays and spacious conduits, so I will hold my opinion about putting fibre into residential walls and leave that to someone else. However I suspect that concerns within a wall will include armour and bend radius. My gut says though that if you already have copper deployed then "good enough".
Yea I moved in 6 years ago and am pretty handy w/ electrician like work. So I ran the cable when I moved in hoping to have future proofed for at least the nearby future. Preferably, I wouldn't want to re-run everything with fiber unless I'm not going to be able to find not fiber hardware in near future. I only use my network for media serving to my HTPC's TV's, game consoles, and of course sending files to and from my TrueNAS rig. I may just try for 2.5Gb for now as a stepping stone. What would anyone recommend if I went for a 2.5Gb NIC?
 

asap2go

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Jun 11, 2023
Messages
228
Yea

Yea I moved in 6 years ago and am pretty handy w/ electrician like work. So I ran the cable when I moved in hoping to have future proofed for at least the nearby future. Preferably, I wouldn't want to re-run everything with fiber unless I'm not going to be able to find not fiber hardware in near future. I only use my network for media serving to my HTPC's TV's, game consoles, and of course sending files to and from my TrueNAS rig. I may just try for 2.5Gb for now as a stepping stone. What would anyone recommend if I went for a 2.5Gb NIC?
Most would recommend to use either 1GbE or 10GbE. 2.5GbE is a bit wonky.
 
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