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Comment by nickstinemates

3 years ago

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.

  • those are all reasonable points, if I were doing mine again I would spend a little more and go up to 100gbe

    if you run all older mellanox gear the cx3 can do the kinda nonstandard 56gbe as well

    • What are you doing that you need 100gbe?

      I am still on 1gbe... I guess I don't transfer anything bigger than a few GiB time to time.

      1 reply →

cx353a and cx354a, prefer the fcbt models, but you can reflash them all to fcbt

  • What does fcbt stand for and why would I want it?

    • the same hardware was sold at different prices with different capabilities enabled based on the exact model variant, stuff like higher speeds and infiniband support

      you can see them all in the datasheet, I believe fcbt is the one with all the stuff enabled