horizonbrave
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can I use a thunderbolt to 10GbE adpter in my build?
- Thread starter horizonbrave
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Probably not. The choice of 10G network drivers is based on upstream FreeBSD, and there are much, much fewer drivers available for FreeBSD than for Linux.
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Acquantia 107: not supported I think.
The Sonnet Twin10G (not Solo!) uses Intel X520.
But then comes the next item: Laptops do not make for a good NAS.
The Sonnet Twin10G (not Solo!) uses Intel X520.
But then comes the next item: Laptops do not make for a good NAS.
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You are asking for trouble. The drivers frequently have to be thunderbolt aware too. That's what killed the Chelsio 420 on my mac for me. It allegedly has a valid Mac driver, but it doesn't support being hosted in an external PCIe enclosure via Thunderbolt. Only the 500+ series gets that support.
Had another fun one last night with Tech support at Atto. HBA is legal per Atto in a Thunderbolt enclosure, Sonnet has it as compatible with their enclosures too. But this HBA would not work in a Highpoint 6661 external enclosure (Thunderbolt 3) but it did work in a OWC Helios one (Thunderbolt 2). Both enclosures usually work fine for a Myricom 10GbE SFP+ network card. Triggering flashbacks to SCSI termination / bus order nightmares!
Too bad that I didn't read the fine print as the Atto H680 HBA is not ATAPI compatible and hence will not work as a DVD HBA host. Only the 12xx series are. So now I'm off to get a Caldigit 4-port ESATA host card instead (uses Silicon Image chipset, which allegedly is a step up from Marvell). Likely will have to use Helios for that too just because Highpoint seems to have cut corners.
Unless you like to pay yourself minimum wage or enjoy pulling your hair out, just buy a used server-grade motherboard and be done with it. Laptops and FreeNAS are more likely than not a Fools Errand.
As an aside, found Tech Support at Atto to be simply outstanding. Phone support with a knowledgeable, kind gentleman within 30 seconds of calling the switchboard who walked me through flash upgrades, various iterations of testing to figure out why the HBA was not showing up initially, etc. Simply awesome, a top choice for someone on the Mac side looking for professional networking gear.
Had another fun one last night with Tech support at Atto. HBA is legal per Atto in a Thunderbolt enclosure, Sonnet has it as compatible with their enclosures too. But this HBA would not work in a Highpoint 6661 external enclosure (Thunderbolt 3) but it did work in a OWC Helios one (Thunderbolt 2). Both enclosures usually work fine for a Myricom 10GbE SFP+ network card. Triggering flashbacks to SCSI termination / bus order nightmares!
Too bad that I didn't read the fine print as the Atto H680 HBA is not ATAPI compatible and hence will not work as a DVD HBA host. Only the 12xx series are. So now I'm off to get a Caldigit 4-port ESATA host card instead (uses Silicon Image chipset, which allegedly is a step up from Marvell). Likely will have to use Helios for that too just because Highpoint seems to have cut corners.
Unless you like to pay yourself minimum wage or enjoy pulling your hair out, just buy a used server-grade motherboard and be done with it. Laptops and FreeNAS are more likely than not a Fools Errand.
As an aside, found Tech Support at Atto to be simply outstanding. Phone support with a knowledgeable, kind gentleman within 30 seconds of calling the switchboard who walked me through flash upgrades, various iterations of testing to figure out why the HBA was not showing up initially, etc. Simply awesome, a top choice for someone on the Mac side looking for professional networking gear.
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