Question 10 G-Base T Network Card (RJ-45)

[Memphisto]

Hi there!

I am wiring up my local network for 10 G over CAT7/CAT8 Cables.
Got my router and switches sorted.

Now my question is... is there a good top 10 list of network cards for pcs?
i dont really know much about PCIE Network cards...
what i do know is that some cards have a management chip so that downloading doesnt put a load on the CPU.
Sadly i didnt find an answer googleing...

Is there a RJ45 10G Networkcard with such a chip?
At 10 G the load on the CPU might be minimal but still i would just like to get the most performance i can get out of it 🙂

First i wanted to go with a ASUS XG-C100C or TP-Link TX401 but i heard the Asus has some problems and they dont have such a management chip..

Thanks!
Would love if some of you could recommend me good 10 G networkcards. RJ45
Mem

 

[Ralston18]

Not (full disclosure) recommending any particular network cards.

= = = =

The applicable terminology is "off loading".

https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/should-i-offload-my-networking-hardware-look-hardware-offloading

You can easily find other similar links and go deeper into the details:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/sql-server-ec2-best-practices/tcp-rss.html

Update your post to include more information about your network: modem, router(s), switches. Make and models?

Are you able to sketch out a simple diagram of the proposed network to show the "big picture" including hardware, wiring, etc.? Post via imgur (www.imgur.com).

What criteria established or dictated the use of Cat 7/Cat 8 cables?

Cable source? Specs (printed on the sheathing).

Performance will be limited to the network's slowest component.

Overall more information is necessary and there may or may not be any advantages or performance gains as you may expect.

 

[kanewolf]

Intel is usually the safe bet for network cards.

Cat6A is all that is required for 10GE. Don't pay extra for bigger numbers.
Cat7 was never a valid standard. Don't buy cable marked as "cat7" It is fake.
Cat8 is only required for 25 or 40GE. Waste of money for 10GE.

 

[SamirD]

Intel is usually the safe bet for network cards.

Yep. But it is hard to find genuine ones in the used market as most are fakes. Even the Dell and HP branded ones tend to be fakes. This is a high demand item hence a lot of fakes.

However, you can go with older SFP+ cards and then simply get some RJ45 SFPs+. Not the cheapest route, but you can probably end up with genuine stuff this way cheaper than buying new from a reputable vendor.

 

[Ralston18]

Seconding all (Posts #3 and #4) above.

All in all avoiding fake/counterfeit products is increasingly difficult. Even for purchases via known and trusted vendors. They can tricked as well.

Or the bad guys simply filling boxes with junk somewhere along the supply chain....

Overall supply chain security has not caught up with that. And those profiting do not want that to happen.

Try to find a local vendor known to you or to others you trust.

Ideally where you can purchase a component and return that component if it does not work.

 

[SamirD]

Yes, the best way to avoid new fakes is to purchase locally. Because local retailers will literally take the hit (to the face) from angry customers if they continue to sell fakes.

Generally, top tier distributors buying genuine product only and distributing primarily to business and enterprise customers will not have this issue, even online.

 

[Memphisto]

First of all, thank you very much for all the replies!
i know that 10 G wont make much of a difference in most cases. thats why i got:

ROUTER:
QNAP Qhora-301w | 2x 10 G | 4x 01 G | WLAN is turned off.
SWITCH:
Either ASUS XG-U2008 or Netgear GS110 | BOTH got | 2x 10 G | 8x 01 G |

The thinking behind this is two things...
First of all i want to connect my NAS with 10G...
The second part is....
My "Modem" (Bridgemode) and my Router (Qhora-301w) are on the Ground Floor.
My PC, my Switch, my WLAN and many other Devices are in the Basement .

Therefore i want to connect all the devices from the Basement with one 10 G connection to the Ground Floor instead of using many 1 G Cables.
NAS is in the Ground Floor and would be connected to the Router with 10 G


Thanks again!
I am now taking a look at the term "off loading" so i can find a good 10G Card for my PC
Greetings Mem



Edit:
I wanted to use Cat 8 to future-proof the cable runs in my house... it is really hard to run cables in this house with brick walls!...
So i really only want to do it once!
Might upgrade the network in a few years again and dont want to run new cables.

 

[bill001g]

Be aware a lot of so called cat8 cable is fake. If it does not cost 2 to 3 times the cost of cat6a it is likely fake.

Also I forget the exact number but cat8 cable runs are limited to much shorter distance.

Be extremely careful of the concept of "future proof". People that ran out and paid big money for wifi6 only to find out within months of its release it is outdated by wifi6e. You had all kinds of people on this forum trying to justify wifi6 purchases with the future proof argument.

The best way to future proof wall cabling is to run flexible conduit. You can then easily and inexpensively replace cable.

 

[SamirD]

When it comes to hardwiring in the walls, you can never put in 'too good' cable. We ran an unheard of 400Mhz rated wire in my parents house back in 1995. Today that same wire runs gigabit with ease (where the morons who terminated it terminated it correctly), and I think the only true test of its ability will be 2.5Gb and 5Gb. But then we also ran rg6 coax, so when moca hits 10Gb, we will be able to use that instead to supplant the ethernet runs.

Run the very best cable you can and run more than one run of it every place you can. We ran 2x runs of both ethernet and coax and it was a very good idea. Just make sure your cable is real--I would never buy it from amazon and only from distributors like anixter or grainger.

 

[Memphisto]

Sorry for the late answer and thanks for all the suggestions!
i hope that i will find a good networkcard for my windows pc with the offloading functionallity

 

[SamirD]

i hope that i will find a good networkcard for my windows pc with the offloading functionallity

Just get any intel server card and you'll be good. Even my dual 1Gb pci-x server cards have offloading--it's a very common feature today.

 

[Memphisto]

if a card is supported in 2016, 2019.... server will it also work for Windows 10? or does it have to have a special driver?
Intel Card X710-T2L

 

[kanewolf]

if a card is supported in 2016, 2019.... server will it also work for Windows 10? or does it have to have a special driver?
Intel Card X710-T2L

Intel has a multi-device driver that says it has been tested on Windows 10 (at least version 1809) -- https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22283/Intel-Ethernet-Adapter-Complete-Driver-Pack There is a readme listed with versions tested.

 

[Memphisto]

Intel has a multi-device driver that says it has been tested on Windows 10 (at least version 1809) -- https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22283/Intel-Ethernet-Adapter-Complete-Driver-Pack There is a readme listed with versions tested.

Thanks!
Seems like i will just have to try it out then.
The card itself isnt listed as compatible with Windows 10 on the Intel Homepage, but the driver seems to be listed as compatible hmm...
I will keep you updated once i get my card 🙂

 

[Memphisto]

Okay!
I got my card now! ( X710-T2L ).
The Installation was a bit tricky but it works!
The driver setup program wasn't able to install the driver by itself.... probably because there is no windows 10 driver.
I had to manually install the card via device manager selecting the Windows Server 2019 driver from the "driver pack". (Intel Driver)

10 G works fine and i tested the network speed before and after with a NAS... (sadly no ssd yet)
On 1G i got up to around 700 Mbit copying one big file to the computer
On 10 G it got to 990 Mbit copying... probably maxing out the HDD Speed from the NAS

Once i install an NVME SSD i will try again so we can see the real speed


After that i tested out what i was really interested in... the offloading... sadly it didnt really seem to make any difference.

Download Speedtest Speedtest.net (~315 Mbit Down) ~ 20% CPU load using Chrome
Filecopy Test from Nas (~980 Mbit) ~5% CPU Load (Connection to NAS via FTP using Windows Explorer)

Before activating the offloading, the cpu load maybe was 1-2% higher on the Speedtest.. but that could just be a variation in the test...

next would be to test out the built in QOS

Thanks all
mem

 

[bill001g]

What I suspect you will find is the bottleneck is always in something other than the network. It takes very special disk/software design to really be able to use 10gbit. There are only certain application that really benefit a lot from 10gbit network. Most involve coping very large files. You see similar issues just coping large directories of very small files even on the same machine. Commercial uses many times use special communication methods used for storage networks rather than microsoft file shares to get full use of their 10g or faster network cards.

I had played with this years ago when I got some free 10g server cards. In the end I was does it really matter if my backup takes 10 minutes less. I do not really have a actual need so I could see it was worth the hassle that windows update constantly breaks stuff.

 

[Memphisto]

What I suspect you will find is the bottleneck is always in something other than the network. It takes very special disk/software design to really be able to use 10gbit. There are only certain application that really benefit a lot from 10gbit network. Most involve coping very large files. You see similar issues just coping large directories of very small files even on the same machine. Commercial uses many times use special communication methods used for storage networks rather than microsoft file shares to get full use of their 10g or faster network cards.

I had played with this years ago when I got some free 10g server cards. In the end I was does it really matter if my backup takes 10 minutes less. I do not really have a actual need so I could see it was worth the hassle that windows update constantly breaks stuff.

As i mentioned: the copy tests were just to "test it out"... with a HDD it was obvious that i wouldnt get the 10 G Speeds
The thing i was really interested in was the offloading.... sadly that didnt really seem to work, or it just doesnt make much of a difference

Thanks
Mem

 

[bill001g]

I never found the cpu to the be the bottleneck it was always somehow related to the disk or some other complexity in how storage is attached to the cpu.

You should be able to get close to 10g test rates using a program called IPERF between 2 machines. That along with something like resource monitor should show you if there are any true bottlenecks in the network.

 

[Memphisto]

I never found the cpu to the be the bottleneck it was always somehow related to the disk or some other complexity in how storage is attached to the cpu.

You should be able to get close to 10g test rates using a program called IPERF between 2 machines. That along with something like resource monitor should show you if there are any true bottlenecks in the network.

Thanks for the great explanation but i didnt want to identify any bottleneck... i know that the bottleneck here is the HDD.
I just wanted to test out Offloading to see it it reduces CPU load as advertised.

 

[bill001g]

I bet that is going to be hard to test cpu are so fast. I know the best way to reduce the overhead is to use jumbo frames but there are downsides to doing that.

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for the great explanation but i didnt want to identify any bottleneck... i know that the bottleneck here is the HDD.
I just wanted to test out Offloading to see it it reduces CPU load as advertised.

iPERF with two 10GE cards will be the best way to test offloading.