10gb/s PCIE 4.0x1 NIC; thoughts?

[Fleshmauler]

Anyone heard of or tried the OWC 10G Ethernet PCIe network adapter? Promises to be a 10gb/s nic for a single lane of pcie 4.0 - which I've been dreaming of with my motherboard...

Uses a Marvel AQC113CS controller.

Not sure if allowed to link to product pages, but wondering if this is something that'd run before I drop money on it.

 

[spuky]

are you hoping tu use it in the PCIe x 1 slot of your motherboard ?

From https://www.owc.com/solutions/10g-ethernet-pcie-network-adapter the specs state that it is still a 4x PCB.... and from the pictures on your MB on https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X570D4U#Specifications it looks like the x1 is not open in the back...but the x8 is ;-) so you are in for modding the slot on your board... if both the x16 and x8 are in use..

can't comment on the chipset (will probably work in SCALE )

 

[jgreco]

Not sure if allowed to link to product pages,

This is deemed fine as long as it is topical and does not appear to be a stealth advertisement. Pointing to an Amazon page that was "Sold by: Fleshmauler, Inc" would be a problem. Links to a manufacturer page so people know wth you're talking about are usually helpful.

@spuky has already done a nice job of working out some issues to consider.

Overall, the Aquantia stuff is like the Realtek of the 10G world. It's meant for naive end users who are scared of non-RJ45 solutions. Most of the 10GBase-T stuff out there is pricey and also crappy. You might find yourself better served to go refer to the 10 Gig Networking Primer, under the Resources section, and look at your options there.

The Aquantia driver has had a bumpy ride and is reported to be a low performance driver by some users. It has, if I recall correctly, vanished from some upgrade releases to TrueNAS and probably should not be used if it can be avoided.

If you have a PCIe x1 slot application, your choices might be to modify your PCIe slot (eugh) or to modify the PCIe card (also eugh, Dremel work). In such a case, I would strongly recommend instead buying one of the recommended cards off of eBay and Dremel'ing that, as the cost should be lower if you pick up a Solarflare or Mellanox card. You don't really want to be doing Dremel work on a $100 brand new ethernet card.

 

[Fleshmauler]

OWC 10G Ethernet PCIe Network Adapter

Download, share, and save files at over 900MB/s real-world tested speed - up to 10x faster than standard 1Gb/s Ethernet.

www.owc.com

Would be the link. The 16x & 8x are indeed both already used & I indeed am thinking of what to plug into my lonely 1x slot.

I'm 90% sure that the pictures on asrock's site don't acurately reflect that the backs of the all slots are actually open... but I'd have to actually triple check that on my mobo. I have no qualms putting a dremmel to some plastic to get things fit.

In regards to rj45; my ingest station already has a [edit] 10gig [/edit] rj45 port built in so this'd be ease of use if anything.

So basically "in theory it should work, poorly at best" is what I'm hearing.

 

[Etorix]

Would be the link. The 16x & 8x are indeed both already used & I indeed am thinking of what to plug into my lonely 1x slot.

Could "nothing" be an acceptable answer?
Or the boot drive on an adapter?

I have no qualms putting a dremmel to some plastic to get things fit.

Think about that with a cool head…
The x1 slot looks closed to me, from the picture on AsRockRack website.

So basically "in theory it should work, poorly at best" is what I'm hearing.

Anyway you'd be better, including financially, with a Solarflare 5122 (sub $50 from Chinese sellers) or Chelsio T520 from eBay.

 

[jgreco]

in theory it should work, poorly at best

I'll even go so far as "It's expected to be possible to make this work, but it has potential suboptimalities." I think your taking this as "poorly at best" is too pessimistic, but it is a possible outcome.

 

[Fleshmauler]

I think your taking this as "poorly at best" is too pessimistic, but it is a possible outcome.

Well now I'm just very tempted; excellent.

Maybe I'll turn it into a project next year after I get some other needful done & document my experience

 

[Fleshmauler]

So I went ahead & ordered a PCIE 4.0x1 riser as well as this NIC. I think it is much more risk effective to dremel out a ~$20 riser to make it open back than risk the motherboard or the NIC.

Shipping is slow, but will update my success, or lack of, in the coming year.

 

[Fleshmauler]

This seems to have worked & I cannot find any issues as frankly my storage medium can't support the full 10gb/s speeds - so more than good enough & my 1bg/s nics are re-purposed now yey!

Notes for anyone else stupid enough to do this:

• when dremeling use masking tape over the pcie slot on the riser to keep gunk out
• don't dremel in parallel to the pcie slot - I nicked one of the pins just a touch, but seems to still make full contact with the nic
  • instead I'd recommend cutting the end off sideways & the at the bottom... if that makes any sense

So we'll call it a win. Would recommend if you got some cash burning in your pocket & a void that can only be sated by filling every pcie slot with a half excusable need for 10gb/s.