Hello Friends, I’m running TrueNAS-SCALE-24.10.2.
Loooking for a good compatable PCIe 10Gig Ethernet NIC what won’t break the bank. (under $60) I’ve been reading posts now for about an hour.
Would love it if I could just plug it in and it works 
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!
-TimBER
Intel and Chelsio are two, recommended brands. You didn’t mention fiber or Base-T
Sorry, Ethernet Base-T
Covered a bit earlier by a recent thread.
Marvell AQtion is a good chipset
Otherwise I would go SFP+, plenty of options starting from dirt cheap Mellanox ConnectX-3 , ConnectX-4 Lx
X540-T2 can be found incredibly cheap secondhand via places like Ebay and is more than capable.
You’re going to have much more choice at that pricepoint with SFP+ though (especially in regards to efficiency), if you don’t have any specific reason not to be looking into it I’d recommend that instead.
I Don’t have any problems with my mellanox connextx-3
I just installed Scale on my previous pfSense server which has an X550-T2 installed. No issues at all. Bought it refurbished for about a $100. A bit more than you mentioned but totally worth it. I have 2 in my network. Not a single issue with FreeBSD nor Linux.
This is true, but one would also need to add the costs of new infrastructure. Cables, switches, NICs for other devices and so on.
It may still be worth it, but one would have to take the total cost into account and weigh it against the perceived gain.
Or use a SFP+/RJ45 adapter. Those bring their own issues to the table (especially if you’re using lots of them in a single switch), but they generally work pretty well. SFP+ remains the technically-superior solution, but cabling’s definitely more expensive.
But as to the NICs, there are three solid recommendations: Intel, Chelsio, and Solarflare. Mellanox is considered to be a step down. Others will work, but those are the recommendations.
All good points.
I have one of those adapters myself and it works well for what it is, but it was relatively pricy and it runs so hot that the Mikrotik switch I use it in specifically instructs you to not put two of them side-by-side.
In case it comes up, I would stay away from Aquantia. I perceive them as having reliability issues.
Agreed.
So do I, and I’m using one. Edit: and posting this gave me the metaphorical kick in the pants I needed to adjust the bridge interface in my UGREEN NAS to use the Chelsio T420 rather than the onboard Aquantia NIC. We’ll see if that’s more stable.
I had 2 interfaces in TerraMaster f4-424 max and never had a single issue with them. Combined both in 802.3ad bond they easily did close to 20gbps throughput
I had no issue with the throughput with my Aquantia NIC; the problem I had was that it would fall over and drop connections under heavy load. Not always, of course, but pretty often.
Just went through this journey - the converters are expensive IMHO - FS.com (cheap) 10Gig-T SFP+ to copper converters are $90+CAD each. For my setup, I would have needed 12 of them so it was way cheaper for me to buy new HPE NICs ($15 to $25 each for HPE cards - needed 3 LOMs and 3 NICS). Also, using copper allowed my to stick with a copper based 10Gig switch - much cheaper than SFP+ in the Cisco world.
I may have gone a little overboard but overkill is underrated.
Cheers,
This is the one I bought, US$32:
I only needed one, and SFP+ optics are $20 new.
In the words of a friend of mine, it’s not overkill, it’s just the right amount of kill.
Have you actually had success running on trueNAS stably with those chipsets?
I’ve never had stable connections with Aquantia on ANY platform.
Still close to $50 a piece for me in the Hinterland…
I am lucky enough to have a 10Gig 3850x-24 UPOE and thought it would be a good idea to run dual connections for iSCSI and dual LACP connections for access on 3 DL380 servers. Cause, you know, why not?
Things should be fast now for a while.
I’ve had good experiences with x550 as well. And latest firmware is multi-gig too.
(X550 family is also used in Xeon D 1500)
Yes, as I said before I’ve been running TerraMaster F4-424 Max with 2 x Marvel AQtion in 802.3ad bond without a single problem. I’ve run SMB, Plex, Jellyfin and MinIO for 3-4 months, speed has always been there.
My client is Windows on Asus Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI with same Marvel AQtion card. Not a single issue.
