Cheat Codes for Breaking Device Limits in Your Home Lab (not for work)

Wendell lays out some tricks for making the most out of your home lab machine using PCI-e! You won't have to go up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, back, or around for to maximize your home lab performance!
Some of the products in this vid:
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[@charlescc1000]

I have really been enjoying the recent several videos surrounding self hosting and homelab related topics. Thank you!

[@50PullUps]

Good grief, why haven't 2.5+ NICs fallen in price yet?

[@nevoyu]

Because enterprise.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

Because everyone that really wanted speed has bought used 10Gbit NICs for 10$ or so

[@stuartlunsford7556]

2.5g switches have dropped...but not the nics, definitely annoying.

[@LanceThumping]

@@marcogenovesi8570 Kinda where I'm at, cheap enterprise switch that I bought only supports 1G and 10G anyways.

[@damiendye6623]

2.5g nic is about 20$ on aliexpress

[@pkt1213]

This is probably the best video on the internet...ever. I have the ASRock Rack x570 2x 1g and 2x 10g with my R5-3600. I am looking forward to replacing my desktop so I can put my 5900x in it.

[@wehavetogoback369]

Before I started to wise up to the options out there, I would be seriously limited to my motherboard choices because I always looked for ones with plenty of onboard SATA. Then I moved to a NAS and got a bunch of drives out of my primary work case... just to run into the same problem again! I'm glad I enjoy this journey through constantly evolving tech...

[@briansalo]

Loving the enthusiastic chef vibes kicking it up a notch 🌶 This is so useful, thank you so much!

[@Ochadd]

Glad I'm not the only other nutcase doing this kind of stuff. Good video.

[@h4X0r99221]

I could listen to Wendell all day long. Level1 has just so much great content.

[@Nec89]

I've seen so many of these and just always assumed they're jank and as enticing as they always are passed them up for fear that they'll set my server rack and all its contents on fire. Good to know these are fairly safe as far as not killing any devices plugged into them or setting things on fire. Ill definitely be in the market for some of these

[@TheOrganicartist]

Please Sir, may I have another serving of a video like this that talks about more weird tech?

[@chromerims]

PCIe m.2 wizardry at its finest 👍 Kindest regards, friends

[@mrgcav]

I had a hard time finding this video. I would not call this "Cheat codes" but rather "Creative adaptability". Very useful info. Many parts I was not aware of.

[@billb5732]

This is why you're the best of the best, Wendell. Thanks.

[@julcrimson3323]

Great video! I've been rocking 10gbe through a riser connected to a m.2 to pcie adapter for a couple years now 😄 Gotta use those lanes!

[@famitory]

wish modern consumer boards could do that lane reallocation thing that the old cheesegrater mac pros did. have all x16 physical slots and then you can assign the lanes to them electrically to match your needs.

[@rodhester2166]

I have used a lot of those add on cards.. they work great ..

[@beauregardslim1914]

This kind of thing can be fun. I got a 5-port SATA m.2 card for use with a Raspberry Pi CM4, but since I had it I thought I would see what happens when I put it into my NVMe Thunderbolt enclosure I have for my M1 Mac Air. Damn thing works! 4 lane m.2 to PCIe slot adapters (with full molex power connectors) *do* exist if you can weed out all the miner garbage. The good ones aren't cheap.

[@jeremymoon9088]

The gears r spinning again. U've been rolling 20s every video since the forbidden router, bro

[@annihilatorg]

This is exactly what I want to use in one of my home servers. It's just a b450 board but the top gpu slot supports 4x4x4x4 bifurcation. I'm looking at trying to get a 10gbit nic and additional nvme slots. Unfortunately, it's expensive enough that I'm comparing pricing against a more feature-packed motherboard without needing the duct tape.

[@yourma-uh5um]

I'm putting a wireless router/NAS together soon and I'm looking for a bifurcation card that can do 4 x PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. If I could find one of those cards but also does 10 gigabit then that would be a nice bonus and would probably increase my options for choosing a mini-ITX board, right now 2.5Gb seems to be the most for mini-ITX. Like you said though, price may mean it's probably more economical to just buy a higher end board would the bells and whistles already on it.

[@maestro0428]

Been watching for some time, but this is my new favorite channel!

[@brianmccullough4578]

Wendell is a madman! I love it

[@_____alyptic]

Just opened the video, and I defo need more I/O 🤞🏼

[@phychmasher]

Wendell is like every tech KZbinr's Dad.

[@sarahjrandomnumbers]

Thanks for the i225 tip. Was wanting to avoid using the 1 x1 slot on my mobo for 2.5gbit and I wanted to avoid Realtek, just which I could get the dual port in the same m.2 size.

[@oddmofo]

I freaking love this video.

[@jamieficken2488]

Look at you with your fancy ConnectX-5 while I'm stuck with ConnectX-2 and ConnectX-3 cards since they're 10Gb and reasonably priced 🙂

[@jmonsted]

Just make very sure you can power that card you add. M.2 to PCIe and a mellanox 10G card did not work in my NUC because there's no 12V from the SATA port.

[@Ender_Wiggin]

The w680 are available now. Also the ROG Maximus Z790 Apex Encore seem to have the best PCIe layout for home labing that will give you pcie 5.0

[@asm_nop]

I'd love to see an AIC that has an X570 chipset on it, with m.2 sockets for breaking out all the downstream lanes.

[@stuartlunsford7556]

M.2 to Intel 2.5g? That is freaking sweet!

[@PsRohrbaugh]

This might let me add 2.5gbe to my wireless only laptop. Time to get the dremel...

[@azbesthu]

In the last few days I just realized m.2 E key slot have some secrets :) But most likely not supported widely. I miss the adapters to get the second independent or cnvi lane from E key slot. 2 Having two nvme x1 slots from E or splitting cnvi and nvme into two slots.

[@shanent5793]

Early Google data center networks were cobbled together from 8-port 10Gig switches and 14m max length CX-cables. Sometimes you just can't get exactly what you need, from any vendor, at any price.

[@Aint1S]

This comment reminds me of the old days with that dingbat emo goth gamer nerd who used to cut Wendell off just as he would begin to speak...The breakdown of Google Fiber networks from so long, long ago! Good riddance to the camera 🐖that tried to ruin everything and cheat Wendell. That guy who's name I won't speak... What a piece of work. //SMH// 😔

[@tin2001]

@@Aint1S Logan isn't that bad. Wendell needed him to cut him off when he started going into ridiculous pedantic geekiness back then. He was not ready for public consumption at that stage. The break up actually forced him to become better at "public" speaking (via video).

[@elchicovip01]

Since when Wendel is doing NSFW content?

[@tin2001]

I've done some of this random adaptors and duct tape stuff at work... Sometimes it's the only way forward.

[@floodo1]

I like the $25 cheat codes and wish the $125-$250 would come down in price to make things like Thunderbolt affordable

[@RayBitton]

This video was useful! Thanks you!

[@brianmccullough4578]

I love this channel

[@Keeeeeeeeeeev]

love cheat codes labbing

[@Snyder0317]

What blower fan model did you use to cool those V100s? I've tried a few blower fans for GPU cooling and they always end up being loud... Thanks for a great video as usual

[@DrewryPope]

MORE LANES. I'm so tired Wendell, please just put double the lanes in Ryzen. Or a motherboard that can do x8 (pci4) x8(pci3) x8(pci3), I know I know, the conversion etc.

[@gjkrisa]

This is a video I would expect from Ltt good job.

[@PainSled]

13:54 Goodness gravy! I can get a whole server for only 15$?! What a meal!

[@bassplaya69er]

Tasty tasty meal

[@tin2001]

How many giggle bites does that one have though? I heard servers need more giggle bites than regular pea seas.

[@johnkristian]

LOVE this

[@natpeterson7988]

How did you know I was looking for this exact thing? lol

[@joshhaas8121]

Not for work he says. Challenge accepted

[@VincentSaelzler]

Loving the hacks!

[@zacbackas]

Hot damn I was just wondering last night if there’s m.2 -> NIC type devices

[@nukedathlonman]

Ahh, I like the home brew cheats. :-)

[@ryanmckenzie4833]

m.2 to VGA......those are a thing?

[@dansanger5340]

M.2 slots should become standardized general purpose PCIe slots for mini PCs. Imagine if every mini PC came with one or two general purpose four lane M.2 slots with a standardized opening on the case.

[@YouTubeGlobalAdminstrator]

Talking about no W680 boards, where is the upgraded HP Microserver Gen 10 Plus with 12th gen? :| It can be a C chipset again, but why can't we buy a newer microserver platform (Deskmeet has no ECC, not enough NICs, 3.5").

[@hypercube33]

The real shame is the missing AliExpress boards with Ryzen Embedded with 10Gbe or the weird Epyc chips that have on-die 10+ gig ethernet

[@ierosgr]

m.2 -> pcie x4 for a mono/dual sfp+ pci card. Shouldn t you mention if the provided power/wattage from m.2 slot can feed the 10gbe sfp+ pci card? What if no? How could you bypass that? (you should make a video showing this and that the card works fine afterwards) That is why most often these adapters come with a 4 pin power header (a little bigger than the one who would power a fan like device)

[@marcogenovesi8570]

The adapter doesn't have power lines connected because the slot power budget is NOT anywhere near PCIe slot power budget. If you don't use the 4 pin power header (or sata or whatever they use) then the card has no power.

[@grimtagnbag]

2k lord I wish. More cheats pls

[@dandraeg3679]

5:28 what was that device pocket planet pd planet?

[@markkeilys]

I've been having dreams of motherboards with (near) 0 built in i/o except for PCIe and m.2 slots fucking everywhere. and knowing all this just makes it worse.

[@PupShepardRubberized]

love me some pcie

[@chadmckean9026]

wait a second there is a m.2 gpu option so i can post my board? oh well i already have a apu (did not need lots of cpu power) and a m.2 sata card and have used every pci based slot in the system, all i have left is usb ports anyway

[@lavavex]

how many Nicks can one person have?

[@dawbra]

Mini metro as a pc lines theme ? where : >

[@Agent_Crimson]

Can someone share a link to the Supermicro Server video Wendel referenced I cannot seem to find it anywhere

[@rv6502]

caveat emptor: I got an old laptop where the BIOS disabled the mPCIe slot if it didn't see a specific wifi card on it, couldn't upgrade the GPU using one of those riser/miner cables: BIOS just wouldn't allow it to happen. Software lock down.

[@CD3WD-Project]

I will stay with my T7910 with two E5-2650v4

[@TechySpeaking]

First

[@mrfrenzy.]

(Do not try this at work, only to be performed at home by serious homegamers)

[@futanari333]

Do they have any m.2 to 10g?

[@Robert_DROP_TABLE_students--]

So even Wendell does NSFW content now?

[@PeterMarszalkowski]

Wenn Amds is conaktet over all cors and test in dos console and givs acent to hex code how lockaidet the test option wen its blockadet .its not a Option it lost my data mail mail performance if its the last cpu of the world it lost my data mail performance and not a options this time .how transfahre ist Complicadet in Multiconstrutuin ist crasht all options and my sistem sorry wen specter not work but securitie do it on amd better option is a big chip than an virualisation on it

[@stanleyeaton5957]

p̷r̷o̷m̷o̷s̷m̷ 💞

[@cuteraptor42]

Why do you need so much NICs? Not everything is a router in my life

[@wayland7150]

You really need to take a long hard look at your life if that' true.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

Redundancy usually

[@truepcs]

Yea Money can buy anything, be more down to earth and stop spending money to solve a problem that does not exist.

[@50PullUps]

Could you provide a timestamp your comment is directed at?

[@tenisviejos]

You are barking to the wrong tree. This is a tech channel for enthusiasts. Go somewhere else to spit your hate lol

[@marcogenovesi8570]

Sir this is a Wendy's

[@MrRobot-lm2lo]

COM Express Type7