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Author Topic: 10Gb on a "budget"  (Read 5936 times)

vdsl

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10Gb on a "budget"
« on: November 07, 2020, 01:00:39 PM »

Toying with the idea of moving part of my LAN to 10Gb ethernet. Initially would just be looking to upgrade the link between my home server and desktop PC.

I've run Cat 6 throughout the house already. It's not explicitly marked as Cat 6A, but is rated at 500 MHz rather than 250MHz.

Core switch is a Zyxel GS1920-24HP, which doesn't support 10Gb or SFP+. So I'd need a 10Gb switch between the server and PC, and then uplink would be 1Gb to the Zyxel.

The MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN (~£115) looks to be one of the cheapest 10Gb switches I can find, and reviews pretty well. Bonus, it can run on PoE from the uplink port.

To convert the SFP+ ports to RJ45 and reuse the existing cabling, I'm thinking of buying a pair of ipolex 10Gb SFP+ RJ45 Modules (~£50 each).

The ASUS XG-C100C (~£85 each) looks like the cheapest way to get 10GBASE-T on the server and PC. I can't find any combination of SFP+ PCI-e cards and SFP+ modules that come close to that price.

All in, this comes to the guts of £400. Does this seem like a reasonable approach and kit selection?
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Ronski

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2020, 02:30:51 PM »

Funnily enough I've been looking into this recently as well, considering a mix of 2.5Gbps and 10 Gbps to keep costs down - I have a server and two PC's I'd like to connect.

Going SFP+ to RJ45 gets rather expensive, so I was considering a more expensive switch in the first place, but these don't have as many 10Gbps ports, but would allow me to run 1 x 10Gbps with 2 x 2.5Gbps with the future option of 2 x 10Gbps and 1 x 5Gbps if going for the Netgear switches below.

Switches I have on my list so far.
            
£138 ZyXel XGS1010-12   8 x 1Gb, 2 x 2.5Gb and 2 x 10Gb SFP+ unmanaged   
£188 Zyxel XGS1210-12   8 x 1Gb, 2 x 2.5Gb and 2 x 10Gb SFP+ Managed
£208 Netgear MS510TX    4 x 1G, 2 x 1G/2.5G, 2 x 1G/2.5G/5G, 1 x 1G/2.5G/5G/10G, 1 SFP+ 10G Managed
£302 MS510TXPP-100EUS    As above but with POE+               

For connection to the sever (which is next to the switch) I'm considering going with SFP + DAC cable, and an SFP+ card. Both my PC's are on CAT5e, cables are 12 & 13 meters long so should be good for 10Gbps, but will likely run 2.5Gbps to start with.

So I'll be very interested in what suggestion others have as well.

ETA. That card I linked to on eBay is a fake https://sviko.com/t/how-to-distinguish-10-gigabit-network-card-intel-x520-da2-from-chinese-fakes/37
« Last Edit: November 07, 2020, 07:10:12 PM by Ronski »
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2020, 03:15:08 PM »

If initially all you want is your home server to your desktop, then the cheapest solution is to simply add a second NIC to both and wire them directly, putting them on a different IP range to the LAN (assign the IP addresses manually as static IPs) and making sure you use that IP for the network shares on your desktop.  This also has the bonus in that you can use Jumbo Frames on that network, while not screwing up the LAN.

I have to use two NICs on my desktop at the moment because its ITX so I can't add a 10Gbit NIC.  So I use the onboard Gigabit for the LAN and 5Gbit for my NAS VLAN.  It basically works the same way even though I only have a single NIC in the NAS (the smart-managed switch effectively makes this behave like two different NICs via VLANs).
« Last Edit: November 07, 2020, 03:19:15 PM by Alex Atkin UK »
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Ronski

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2020, 10:57:42 AM »

Over the weekend two Asus XG-C100C cards accidentally got purchased at an average price of £62.50 each, bit more than I'd like to have paid, especially for secondhand items but there you accidents happen  ;D
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Robbie

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2020, 12:15:26 PM »

Budget 10GbE for me was initially just a Netgear GS110EMX, which was enough to link my main desktop to my main NAS.  This was on the longest run of Cat5e I have at around 27m from my study to network cupboard, but I had zero issues running 10GbE over it.

This was replaced a little later when I bought an ex-press demo UniFi XG-6POE for a very friendly price.  It now links all the 10GbE clients, server and NASs around the house as well as providing a 10GbE SFP+ link to my 48-port switch, which covers all the other 100Mbps & 1GbE stuff.

I only use Cat5e at home as it is far easier to work with and the short distances and low interference levels ensure a good clean 10GbE link.

From the top - 2 routers, 10 GbE switch, patch-panel, 48-port switch with servers and NASs below:

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Ronski

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2020, 01:42:20 PM »

Very nice, that would be ideal for my needs, but I just can't justify spending that much, don't seem to be any cheap second hand ones going through ebay either.
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Ronski

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2020, 08:55:49 PM »

I've just ordered a second hand Netgear XS508M for 181 Euro 4 x RJ45 at 1G/2.5G/5G/10G and 10Gb SFP+ unmanaged. It would have been nice to have a managed switch, but I really don't need it.

I narrowly missed out on a used Intel X520-SR1 (variation of the X520-DA1) yesterday for £40, there was four left out of 24, wasn't sure if it would work with a DAC, seller replied back this morning saying it would but they had all sold  :no:

Only need the SFP+ card for my server now and that will be me done once it all arrives.

Just realised after all these years that the exchange rate the eBay use and Paypal use are different. eBay uses the actual exchange rate to give an approximate UK price, Paypal use their rather poor exchange rate that ends up costing quite a bit more than eBays approximate price. Always knew Paypals rate was poor, but never realised eBay used the actual exchange rate.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2020, 09:05:36 PM by Ronski »
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #7 on: November 11, 2020, 02:26:57 AM »

I've just ordered a second hand Netgear XS508M for 181 Euro 4 x RJ45 at 1G/2.5G/5G/10G and 10Gb SFP+ unmanaged. It would have been nice to have a managed switch, but I really don't need it.

Have you tried Gigabit to 10Gigabit?  I got something like 200Mbit until I enabled flow control on my switch, which obviously is not an option for an unmanaged switch so would presumably have to be forced on the NICs instead?

The price is that unit new is hilarious, it costs more than the MS510TX smart-managed 8+2 port switch.
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

Ronski

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #8 on: November 11, 2020, 06:24:33 AM »

No I haven't tried 10Gbps yet, the MX510TX only has two 10G capable ports, where as the XS508M has four RJ45 10G ports and one 10G SFP+ ports, there is clearly a big premium for 10g RJ45 ports whichever way you go and very few second hand options, even if you find a second-hand switch they are usually 2/3 of new price or more.
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #9 on: November 11, 2020, 03:49:44 PM »

Good point, I clearly was half asleep when I posted.  They obviously expect all ports to be 10Gbit populated which presumably would avoid my issue.

Still, I'm curious to know if unmanaged switches have the same problem my smart managed switch did when moving data between Gigabit and 10Gigbit as it was utterly useless.  Its particularly strange as it was happening across TCP which should have detected the dropped frames and slowed down accordingly.

All the information I found suggested you shouldn't need flow control in 99% of cases, but I found the opposite.  ???
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Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

Ronski

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #10 on: November 11, 2020, 07:35:04 PM »

We'll have to wait a week or two to find out, delivery of the switch is estimated between Wednesday 18 Nov - Tuesday 24 Nov from Poland. There was five listed, now there's only one left, selling out very quickly. I've ordered the card for my server as well, a Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S dual SFP+ card for £60, didn't need dual port, but was getting impatient. Just got to order some CAT 6 patch cables now and that should hopefully be everything I need.

Hopefully all this is proving somewhat useful to the OP as I seem to have hijacked their thread.
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vdsl

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #11 on: November 11, 2020, 11:21:17 PM »

Hopefully all this is proving somewhat useful to the OP as I seem to have hijacked their thread.

All useful, I'm waiting eagerly for the review on the Asus XG-C100C cards  :) £62.50 each seems like a bargain, they seem to hold their price very well and I'm struggling to find much under £74!
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #12 on: November 12, 2020, 04:22:52 AM »

All useful, I'm waiting eagerly for the review on the Asus XG-C100C cards  :) £62.50 each seems like a bargain, they seem to hold their price very well and I'm struggling to find much under £74!

Darn it, I completely missed that.

It was what I had in my server before I switched it out for Intel when I upgraded the switch (so I could use the SFP+ port), it was fine there.  Also used it for a short while in Windows before I went back to my ITX board because the one I upgraded to had coil whine.

I will be using it again as soon as I can re-build my gaming PC with a new Ryzen.
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Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

Ronski

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #13 on: November 12, 2020, 06:21:22 AM »

All useful, I'm waiting eagerly for the review on the Asus XG-C100C cards  :) £62.50 each seems like a bargain, they seem to hold their price very well and I'm struggling to find much under £74!

Set up an eBay search for XG-C100C with email notification, set the price range to say £20 to £65, then you'll get notified when one pops up. Mind you looking at the completed sales I seem to have struck lucky and got the only two recent  UK one's under £65.

It would also be worth setting up a search for QXG-10G1T, which is the Qnap card, there's also another but can't think of what that one is.
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Ronski

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Re: 10Gb on a "budget"
« Reply #14 on: November 12, 2020, 08:49:57 PM »

My first Asus card arrived today, along with the DAC cable, would of thought the other card would be here as well, hopefully that will arrive tomorrow.


There is this Asus card on eBay, might be worth an offer and mentioning the other two that recently sold for £60 & £65 including delivery ;)
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