optical network

[Berwhale]

@Berwhale Have you heard of FS switches? They seem to be good value for money, and have a UK distributor too.

FS.com United Kingdom - HPC, Data Centre, Enterprise, Telecom

FS is a new brand in Data Centre, Enterprise, Telcom Solutions. We make it easy and cost-effective for IT professionals to enable their business solutions.

www.fs.com

I have come across them, but they don't seem to offer anything with a mix of ports and price that would be useful to me at home.

 

[Berwhale]

nice, like i've said, haven't seen those before
i only knew of the add-on cards for the expandable slot, marked here on your pic:
View attachment 357021
but those are rare (and pretty costly) to come by

nice find on the Dell, that's about what i paid for my HP PD G4 minis (incl. a CPU upgrade from a pentium G to an i5 6500T) couple years ago

Yes, I removed the DP add-on card and replaced it with the RJ45 Ethernet port, the screws are in the same position. You can see additional NIC in the top PC here (the 3070 Micro on the bottom still has it's add-on DP port)...

Here's my little underdesk data centre from the front

The 'rack' cost me £9, they are Ikea VARIERA shelves assembled upside down: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/variera-shelf-insert-white-60136623/

 

[bloodshoteyed]

cool idea with the rack, i checked Ikea already but i need something closed due to to much dust and pet hair (missed out on a local sale, they had 6U 10" wallmounted racks for less than 40€ ), i'd love to ger rid of some gear since almost everythig's on my work desk atm..

 

[Prana Ferox]

I have a similar setup. I recently tried putting one of those M.2 A+E -> 2.5Gbps adapters in an Elitedesk 800G4 but it wouldn't fit.

 

[Berwhale]

I have a similar setup. I recently tried putting one of those M.2 A+E -> 2.5Gbps adapters in an Elitedesk 800G4 but it wouldn't fit.

That's a shame. It looks like it would be easier to fit in the HP because the M.2 slot faces the right way. The slot is the other way around in the Dell Optiplex, which means the IDC connector for the RJ45 module sits right at front of the case and the cable has to double back on itself and go across the whole motherboard to the back of the case, the cable was only just long enough.

 

[bloodshoteyed]

..Elitedesk 800G4 but it wouldn't fit.

'cause of the drive cage?

 

[Prana Ferox]

That's a shame. It looks like it would be easier to fit in the HP because the M.2 slot faces the right way. The slot is the other way around in the Dell Optiplex, which means the IDC connector for the RJ45 module sits right at front of the case and the cable has to double back on itself and go across the whole motherboard to the back of the case, the cable was only just long enough.

Y'all may be thinking of the G3. In the G4 the A+E slot faces the side of the chassis and there is zero extra space beyond iy. At least the adapter I got, the cables stuck straight out, no reasonable amount of coercion would get it to fit. Further hacking wasn't worth it, I picked up a USB-2.5Gbps adapter for a whopping $10 more and Amazon had it to me that afternoon

 

[Berwhale]

Ah, I saw the vertical connector below and assumed it was an M.2 slot, but I see that it's taller than the horizontal one below it. I guess its where the SATA drive cage plugs in?

There are 2.5GbE M.2 adapters with pins perpendicular to the board that look like they would fit...

 

[Prana Ferox]

Ah, I saw the vertical connector below and assumed it was an M.2 slot, but I see that it's taller than the horizontal one below it. I guess its where the SATA drive cage plugs in?



There are 2.5GbE M.2 adapters with pins perpendicular to the board that look like they would fit...

That upper M.2 slot is the second M-key slot (for a second SSD) and isn't A+E key compatible. You can get an adapter I guess, but even at AliEx prices it doesn't beat just plugging in the USB adapter. The bottom adapter may have worked, I'd still have to Immelmann the cable over and give up the 2.5" bay (that I don't use). It would've been smarter to try first but not worth it now.

 

[Berwhale]

M.2 2.5GbE NICs arrived from China today (6 days after order). I've fitted one to my Optiplex 3070 which is currently running Windows 11, but which I will probably turn into another Proxmox host in the near future. Installation was very easy:

Horizontal IDC connectors mean the cable doesn't impeded the SATA drive...

Remove the DP add-in module and replaced with RJ45...

This photo shows the ribon cable routed to the left, but this stops the SATA caddy engaging, so it's actually routed to the right of the SATA connector...

Nice and neat from the back...

I booted Windows 11 and the NIC was found and the driver was installed automatically. The NIC is described as 'Realtek 2.5GbE Gamming Adapter' in Device Settings. I did a few large file copies across the network and it seems to be functioning fine. This is a 1GbE as I don't have the 2.5GbE switches yet.