5GbE

[LunarMist]

I'm seeing as bit more of the 5Gb lately. Is it becoming the new standard?

 

[Mercutio]

It exists and it works over vanilla twisted Cat 6 pair over modest distances and adapters work on x1 PCIe or vanilla USB 3, but you'd need to use it with what is probably a more expensive switch. I'm not even fully convinced 2.5GbE is a "standard" because it's just this half-assed option for consumer hardware, but it does work and it is faster than 1GbE, so who am I to complain?

 

[Handruin]

I've been aware of 5Gb but haven't encountered it yet in any hardware I've worked on. To Merc's point, finding a compatible and affordable switch is going to be the challenge. Probably easier to just jump to 10Gb over cat 6A.

 

[LunarMist]

Thanks. I'll just buy 2.5GbE gear if replacement with 5GbE is a ways off yet.

 

[ddrueding]

I also think that 2.5 is a bit of a hack, with 5 even more so. I suspect most installs will go from 1 to 10 directly. Considering how much 10Gb gear is already out there, and how easy it is to work with, I'm surprised there is this much effort of half-steps.

 

[LunarMist]

I'm not seeing 10GbE in any of the common chipsets. It seems to be an add-on to the motherboards through PCIe. Where else are they?

 

[ddrueding]

The HEDT type boards, and the blingy ones can have them, here is one I was considering for my current build.

ASRock Z690 AQUA OC

Supports 14th, 13th & 12th Gen Intel Core™ Processors (LGA1700); 20 Phase SPS Dr.MOS Power Design; 2 x DDR5 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 7000+ (OC)<span style=color:red;>*</span>; 2 PCIe 5.0 x16, 1 PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 PCIe 3.0 x1; Graphics Output Options: HDMI, 2 Thunderbolt™ Type-C<span...

www.asrock.com

 

[LunarMist]

That's what prompted my considerations, but 5GbE could be a while for the mainstreamsb if InTel and AMD do not support it.

 

[Mercutio]

I think a big reason why 10GbE hasn't entered consumer mainstream is that single ports of 10GbBaseT use crazy amounts of power, like 6 - 7W/port. I don't know if 5GbE has the same problem to the same degree or not. I am assuming that it does. 10Gb twisted pair also suffers terribly from attenuation. Cat 6 runs also have to be fairly short (~50 feet) to maintain 10Gb speeds.

 

[Mercutio]

Neither of the server-class 10Gb NICs I have here will negotiate a 2.5GbE connection on Cat6a with this cheapo 2.5GbE switch I just got.
But it did work with a $10 PCIe NIC with a Realtek chip on it and my Asus 2.5Gb USB dongle. I'm not surprised that Intel and Broadcom didn't bother to implement in-between non-standard Ethernet revisions, but it would've been cool if they did.

 

[LunarMist]

From what I read, 2.5 and 5GbE are much newer standards than 10GbE so are not supported by many products that came out before then. When 10GbE came out it was mostly for datacenter and backroom stuff at businesses, not for individual machines, right?

 

[Mercutio]

I don't think 2.5 or 5GbE are formal standards at all, but in theory I think they're just derivatives of 10Gb anyway. I'm pretty sure the basic functionality could be added in drivers if there was real demand.

Something weird I've observed with the Realtek 2.5Gb NIC is that SMB connections are fast but have weirdly high latency. I'm not terribly motivated to fix it since it's on a gaming computer, but I can't do smooth playback of a 4k gameplay recording. It was a $9 card though. I'm assuming it's offloading everything to the CPU and using interrupts instead of direct memory access or something equally boneheaded.

 

[LunarMist]

I would not be surprised. Have you tried the Intel 226V?
It looks like there are standards since 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5GBASE-T_and_5GBASE-T
Who knows what devices truly comply.

 

[Mercutio]

I would not be surprised. Have you tried the Intel 226V?

Not yet. I actually got the NICs I have last time I was at Microcenter. The original idea was just to be able to direct connect the USB and the PCIe guy to speed up new setups on laptops.

 

[Mercutio]

Here's a 10 port Mikrotik SFP/SFP+ L3 switch that can handle 10GbE on 9 ports that consumes a very reasonable 20W under full load. Most rack mountable 10Gb switches are more like 200W and sound like dying wildebeests. It's $180 on Amazon.

 

[Handruin]

The way I read that switch spec, it only supports 4 x 10Gb ports since only 4 of them are designated as SFP+ and the others are limited to SFP.

It still looks like a decent switch.

 

[Handruin]

The path I took for 8 x 10Gb was to go through this thread regarding the Brocade ICX7250 and bought one on eBay for around $300.

I ended up getting the 48 port version (with 8 x 10Gb SFP+) and upgraded the firmware to the latest Ruckus version outlined in their docs and unlocked the licensed ports.

The 48 port version is a 65W switch (24 port is 50W) and can confirm the fan is near silent after the switch boots and loads the firmware for temperature management.

 

[Mercutio]

That's an interesting device. I wonder if that thing will talk to ConnectX cards in ethernet mode over the QSFP+ ports.

Edit: Dammit I was looking at the specs on the next model up.