[cml750]

Given there is an ongoing issue with DDWRT and the 8125B, I thought it might be a good idea discuss the plusses and minuses of each card. Looking at the Amazon listing for the 4 port card I am using (now two of them), it has a rating of 4.3 stars. The 4 port i226 card I found searching Amazon has 3.6 star rating and has a warning that it is a frequently returned item. Looking at various sources online, most people seem to recommend the Intel one although I do see where some people have issues with them. I personally have had zero issues with the 8125B other than the DDWRT issue with versions past 61711. The 8125B has functioned flawlessly using OpenWRT with the correct package for the driver installed. Have any of the Intel user had any issues with them?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCXZ8T89

https://www.amazon.com/Network-Adapter-Gigabit-2500Mbps-Ethernet/dp/B0DMJVPCXB/

[flood404]

I can be the guinea pig on this Intel card from Amazon to see if it's worth a damned or not. It seems if you do get this card is to slap a fan on it since most people complained of heat. It will have to wait until payday on this Friday October 24th for me to get one ordered. I wanted to buy a server chassis from Market place first. I need more drive storage and that fits the ticket and I need to get it before someone else does. It's better solution than buying a 5 bay conversion kit for $100.

[cml750]

The heat sink on that thing is the same size as the card itself. It is huge. It must generate a lot of heat. A fan would likely be a must have.

[ho1Aetoo]

These are low-power chips.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/210599/intel-ethernet-controller-i226v/specifications.html

4x ~1,3W = 5,2W

However, there is also a PCI-E switch chip on the card, as only one device/controller can be connected per slot.

The PCI-E switch distributes the LANES across several controllers, requires its own power, and may have its own bugs.

The Realtek card is no different, the heat sink is located on the PCI-E switch, which has to shovel data properly.

https://www.asmedia.com.tw/Web2/product/1e2yQ48sx5HT2pUF/b7FyQBCxz2URbzg0.html

[cml750]

The card linked below is likely a really good future proof card but very pricey.

https://www.serversupply.com/NETWORKING/NETWORK%20ADAPTER/4%20PORT/INTEL/E610-XT4_406870.htm

[ho1Aetoo]

The card requires bifurcation support from the motherboard.

The card appears to have two controllers but no PCIE switch.

It does not run in normal slots and only on boards that support bifurcation X4+X4 (or A X16 slot must be configurable to X4+X4+X4+X4)

[cml750]

Well that is unfortunate. I have looked for an X550 4 port card and can only find them in the "network daughter" format. Looking for a pci-e format one, I ran across the E610-XT4. They do not appear to make the X550's 4 port cards in pci-e format. It is not that big of a deal now that Brainslayer has apparently fixed the RLTK 8125 issue. But I do have to admit I am somewhat intrigued with the thought of having a 10 gb connection between my router and home server and putting the cat-6 cable I wired my house with several years ago to work.

[cml750]

What about the X710-T4L? It appears to support multi level lower speeds.

https://www.serversupply.com/NETWORKING/NETWORK%20ADAPTER/4%20PORT/DELL/9F1CF_347389.htm

[ho1Aetoo]

https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1319279#1319279

[cml750]

I purchased a couple of the cards linked below off of ebay. Yes they are X540 cards but they are extremely cheap and they have fans built into them for active cooling. I am going to do some experimenting to see how having a 10 gbps connection with my server performs across my network. If it is worth it I will eventually get a X710-T4L for my router and a more modern single port 10 gbps card for my server.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/316581331958

[cml750]

I changed the title for this thread since it is all about Intel ethernet cards of different types. I received my x540 dual port cards and installed one in my router and one in my server. I need to do some iperf testing, but so far it is making a big difference in file transfer speeds.

One more thing, I routinely use remote desktop to access my home server (a Dell Precision 7820 workstation) especially when working from home from my work computer. When I would access the internet and watch videos (yea I sometimes goof off while at work), the sound of voices and the movement of the mouths did not always sync over remote desktop. The couple of times I tried it while testing, the voices and mouths synced perfectly with the 10 gbps cards. That was connecting to one of my AP points with 2.5 gbps ports going back to my router 2.5 gbps R8125 and the router talking to the server via the x540 cards connecting at 10 gbps. Before I had a single port R8125 in the server. I think I will be getting an Intel x710-T4L but need to convince the chief financial decision make in the house, aka my beautiful wife, spending $400 plus on an ethernet card is a good investment. She doesn't complain about purchases under $50 but I would definitely get in trouble if I spent $500 without permission.

[cml750]

I changed the name to simply ethernet cards. Doing more research on this I have discovered Realtek has released the 8126 card that does 5 gbps and all speeds lower than that and it uses a PCI-E X1 lane. I ordered a couple of those to test really cheap off of aiiexpress. They have also come out with the Realtek 8127 which is a 10 gbps card that also does all speeds lower than that. Those are around $50 give or take in single port form. I looked and was unable to find a multi port version of the 8126 or the 8127 but I am sure they will be coming out with some soon. Both of those cards are low power users. I also saw thatt he 8127 works in Openwrt with the right driver package installed. Instead of dropping $400 - 500 on a X710-TL4, I may just wait until they come out with a four port version oft he 8127. Both of my 4 port 8125 cards have worked flawlessly.

[Zyxx]

The RTL8127 is a chipset I'm waiting desperatly for.
It was announced for being "low power" for 10GBit/s where lowpower is like <= 1.5 W! With 5 or 2.5Gbit/s being even lower.

Imagine having a dumb 8 Port 2.5Gbit/s Switch with a power consumption < 10W.

Awesome. The chipset was announced a few months ago but it takes sooooo long to arrive in the market.

[ho1Aetoo]

RTL8127 is specified at 1.95, i.e. ~2W.

And that is still a single-port controller; cards with multiple controllers require a PCI-E switch, which itself consumes power.

The X710 requires 3.5W per port in a 4-port configuration, so there is not much difference.

Incidentally, there are also Aquantia controllers... (these are installed in most 10Gbit routers and Mainboards...)
The newer ones also require a maximum of 3.5W per port.

[cml750]

One thing about the 8127 cards is that the only ones I can find for sale at the moment are single port PCI-E 4.0 X1 cards. The card is also supposed to come in a single port PCI-E 3.0 X2 variant. My current X86 rig has PCI-E 3.0. The variant that is made for PCI-E 4.0 X1 will work in a PCI-E 3.0 slot but from what I read will only do about 7 gbps. I have done a little shopping for a SFF computer with PCI-E 4.0 and it seems it is hard to find any really cheap ones (less than $100). I am adding this so anyone wanting to try it is aware to check what version the card is they are purchasing to make sure it is compatible with the X86 equipment they are using to get full performance from it.