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Comment by nickstinemates

3 years ago

Incredible. Traditional 10Gb network gear is very expensive to buy and to operate. $50 is a lot cheaper.

not really true, a similar setup with 40Gbe (three nodes, no switch) would run you less than $100 for pcie cards and cables

  • The only NICs I see in that price range are old Mellanox cards.

    Intel NICs are 5-10x that price. I'm not sure why, but my suspicion is that it has to do with driver support and/or interoperability.

  • Can you provide links? I'll upgrade my home lab from 10g to 40g immediately at that price.

    • In 2024 I would suggest deploying 2x25G instead, via e.g. MCX4121. Pricing is similar (<$30 NICs), but:

      * 2x25G throughput is higher than 40G,

      * 25G latency is lower than 40G,

      * you can use 25G ports as 10G ports, and

      * you can use DACs to connect 4x25G <=> 100G

      That last point is particularly relevant given the existence of switches like the Mikrotik CRS504, providing 4x100G ports on 25W.

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