Z6 G5 - Adding a 10GB Ethernet card - Problems...

[Ulf_K]

Using a Z6 G5 Workstation "Fury". The built-in NIC is a 1GB Ethernet. Preparing for an upgrade to 10GB Ethernet I acquired two NIC's in a second hand computer store with good reputation.

1: an HP561T (100M/1GB/10 GB wired) and 2: an Intel X520-DA2 (branded D**L but supposed to work) with a MO-407-BBWL "RJ-45-SFP" . When starting the Z6 with the 561T, I got an error message that this card tried accessing a bit of memory it was not allowed to do, Then - nothing. The Z6 sat quietly for a few minutes before I turned it off. The second board, the X520, exhibited the same error message once and then the Z6 completed its boot sequence. After installing Intel wired drives version 3. something, The card was visible in the device manager. With the Micro-Optics "SFP, the card detected activity but none went through and  no connection could be established.

According to some sources the 561T should work using Intel NIC drivers but in the Z6 it did not.

Trying both the x16 PCIe-V3 as well as X16 PCIE-V4 (In slot 4 as suggested in the Z6 G5 white paper), none of these boards worked.  Wanting to be flexible, I would prefer using one of the PCIe-slots instead of adding the special 10GBE card mounted separately what does the expertise say. One very common board on the market seems to be the Intel  X550-T2. Will that one work or are there other 1/10 GBE available on the 2nd hand market that is known to work in a Workstation?

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

haven't used this DA2 card in home systems only servers, with that said it should work but all hardware needs to be certified as compatible and yours isn't so you get to play prof debug as for the 520-TX variant yes it does work in most home systems however be aware that this card absolutely requires proper cooling to work correctly so you may need a small active fan added for use in your system

this link may help post there

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/x520-da2-combo-sfp-rj45.45573/

TX variant

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/69655/intel-ethernet-converged-network-adapter-...

DA1/DA2 variant

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/39776/intel-ethernet-converged-network-adapter-...

[Ulf_K]

I will look for the X550 as suggested by several others who has experienced similar problems.