M.2 to 10GbE Adapters ARE A THING! - Review and NAS Testing

[@Almwa7ed]

You should test a NIC throughput using iPerf

[@adriftatlas]

Specifically using iperf3 in WSL if on Windows. The native binary is out of date on Windows and often underperforms.

[@Somethingaboutthat]

PLEASE run this test: A PCIE gen 4 x 1 slot on a motherboard to a M.2 adapter with this card plugged in. This might be the solution a lot of us have been looking for.

[@Somethingaboutthat]

Ok I went to the NAS Compares site and I see some conflicting info about this device. They list this: Supports bus widths: Gen4 x1, Gen3 x4, x2, x1. B+M from what I'm reading supports PCIE x2 bus widths not x4. Now depending how this operates, if it has a PCIE x1 bus then PCIE 3.0 will only get half bandwidth max. If it's a x2 bus then the Gen 4 slot will get half bandwidth max as I doubt this thing is really PCIE Gen 4 x 1.

[@nascompares]

The NC site article was made AFTER this vid and I have spent more time with the device. I have a follow up on this soon. Also, re m.2 to PCIe x8/16 adapter. I literally JUST purchased one for the channel SOLELY based on your comment, as I didn't know they were now available in Gen 4. I look forward to making the vid. It will likely be on NC inner circle/membership soon after it arrives, but on the YT channel later. DiY Friday videos already have a massive backlog to get through (another IOCREST device, the minisforum 6x SSD Nas adapter, the HexOS Q&A, another UnRAID vid with Ed@soaceinvaderone). Will try and get this video up a little sooner if I can

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@Somethingaboutthat The network chipset is AQC113 and looking that up on Marvell site it supports "PCIe Gen4, Gen3 and Gen2 interface with x1/x2/x4 lane-widths" The B+M slots supports pcie x2. Due to how pcie works, if both 2 pcie lanes are connected and work on Gen3 they should also work on Gen4.

[@ryanmalone2681]

@@nascomparesPlease no more Spaceinvaderone. He’s so friggin’ boring, can’t carry on a discussion, and he’s not credible at all as he’s just a shill for Unraid.

[@nicholasg88]

@@SomethingaboutthatI think it is just saying it will work in a PCIE 4 slot, It is the AQC-107 and I think is only PCIE 3.0.

[@吳炯仁]

Felling a bit shame I was an early EGPL-T101-C1 (aqc113c) adopter. Now, there's cheaper options like iocrest, but still, I can get full 10 GbE on iperf3 test with PCEI 3.0 x2.

[@esunisen3862]

The inconsistent speed may be a overheating problem.

[@EuroPC4711]

Great video, as always! Thanks a lot. Could you try the adaptor in a netgate 4100 or 4200 please?

[@Adam130694]

Can you test those 15 €/$ PCIe x1 5GbE NICs? Also in M.2 form! Cheers!

[@manuelmanuel4158]

those are not a thing

[@ZombieLurker]

Ali express has the M.2 to SFP+ Intel X520, for around $30. Would really like to see the performance on those. This one a little too expensive for the use case, when using it for something like a mini pc.

[@manuelmanuel4158]

Doesnt work. And no refund from Ali scam. Tried it already

[@pr0jectSkyneT]

Im looking for a PCIe 4.0 x1 to 10Gbps (RJ45 or SFP+).

[@nicholasg88]

OWCPCIE10GB, its RJ45 $100 don't think there are any that are SFP+ I forgot to add that I think it might be a x2 pcb so you might need to cut a slit in the PCIE slot to fit but it runs at PCIE 4.0 x1

[@pr0jectSkyneT]

@@nicholasg88 danggit I don't wanna have to cut the PCIe slot. Hopefully somebody makes a proper x1

[@nicholasg88]

@@pr0jectSkyneT if you can mount the card elsewhere a pcie riser can be used. It looks like they did this so if you are using pcie 3.0 it can still run at full speed using 2 lanes and to make it backwards compatible. Kind of stupid I think because there are so many cheaper older 10g cards that use pice 3.0. Sadly since 3.0 is enough bandwidth not many 4.0 cards have/will be made.

[@pr0jectSkyneT]

@@nicholasg88 yeah it's stupid. I'll look into a riser. Thanks!

​@@nicholasg88lot of x1 slots are already open ended nowadays

[@jackipiegg]

Will you review MW-100-NAS. Its a new N100 motherboard which has 6 sata ports AND 10GBE.

[@nascompares]

I'm not saying I'm easily influenced. BUT I bought this board 16.5minutes after I read your comment. I hadn't even spotted this board when it launched. I slammed it in the basket and through the checkout like my life depended on it. Thanks for the heads up bud. Email me ( robbie at nascompares ) and I'll try and I'll send you an early review link when it's done, so you don't have to wait for publication. Thanks again

[@jackipiegg]

@@nascompares Its fine I'll wait like everybody else! The only thing that's stopping me is what SATA chip they are using, can't really tell if its asm1166 or jmb585. REALLY HOPE ITS asm1166! Also do test both slots of the m.2 slots if they are giving enough bandwidth for another asm1166 card potentially making this a 18 bay nas, assuming no M.2 SSD.

[@dktol56]

Who makes this motherboard? Usually I can trace the NAS boards back to CWWK or BKHD, but no luck so far. I saw an AliExpress purchaser comment about flaky firmware, but I'd take comments on their stores with a grain of salt. Still, this looks like a new product, so I wouldn't be surprised about a buggy BIOS, and some hardware issues in the early versions. Finding the OEM might provide a source for a newer BIOS (and sometimes even a product manual).

[@jackipiegg]

@@dktol56 topton

[@nascompares]

*update* so I made a write up on this MW-100-NAS Mobo here - nascompares.com/2024/07/27/the-mw-n100-nas-n100-10gbe-m-itx-6-bay-motherboard-just-released/ Its this one here on Aliexpress s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DDNBIGP (that's the one with CPU, but no RAM/SSD). Kinda surprised by the price tbh. for a 10G board, I expected much higher, even with just the N100

[@sumesh4me]

Asustor AS3304T network Led light not lighting and not detected in Network? Any Solution?

[@Spreadie]

I bought one and saw 600-800Mbytes/s, but it's going in a ITX chassis and it's leagues better than 2.5G. Did see the data rates seesawing a fair bit though.

[@BrickTamlandOfficial]

the heatsink is underwhelming so it slows down

[@Spreadie]

@@BrickTamlandOfficial No, it didn't thermal throttle - the heatsink was fine - I also ran it with the case open and a fan on the heatsink and it performed pretty much identically without even getting warm to the touch.

[@BrickTamlandOfficial]

@@Spreadie ok how then do you explain the seesawing? if it happens, there has to be a reason for it. maybe the heat sink itself isnt getting warm because its not making good contact with the chip in the first place?

[@Spreadie]

@@BrickTamlandOfficial Why are you so combative? Calm down. You assume I'm an idiot and haven't reseated the HS. Jog on, fella, I have no interest in feeding anymore attention to a keyboard warrior. ttfn

[@BrickTamlandOfficial]

@@Spreadie Just wondering why you think there is seesawing. That's not supposed to happen. Do you have a clue? I doubt it.

[@GojiraX]

Did you test the M.2 to 10GbE Adapter on TerraMaster TOS 5.0?

[@madmat812]

ZimaCube Pro came with this adapter

[@jeremyfmoses]

If you didn't mention the seagulls, I would literally never even notice them in your videos. It's _only_ you mentioning them that brings any attention to the seagulls.

[@nascompares]

I know, I know. GOD...you sound like my therapist!

[@axelgenus]

@@nascompares😂😂😂😂

[@bufordmaddogtannen]

How is that flex cable not prone to all kind of electrical interferences?

[@esunisen3862]

Probably, this cable should be twisted pairs.

[@craigprocter1232]

does it work under xpeneology?

[@manuelmanuel4158]

Id also would love to know and if yes, on which hardware

[@sykoteddy]

Why not go for an awesome Sonnet PCI-E card that has 10Gbit Ethernet, two M.2 slots and two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2. Sure it costs, but I'd like to get that one and their other overkill PCI-E card that houses eight M.2 slots. They've got some really awesome and obscure tech. It's called "Sonnet Technologies McFiver PCIe Card G10E-USBC-M2-E"

[@nascompares]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll message sonnet about this, definitely worth a Q!

[@manuelmanuel4158]

In my case there is no other free pcie slot in my itx mb but at least one m.2 free slot

[@sykoteddy]

@@manuelmanuel4158 You need to look up what it supports. It can vary a lot.

[@GerhardAEUhlhorn]

The Synology section is missing the sound!

[@kev2020-z9s]

I think the problem there no software for it from of the shelf items IE Asustor QNAP Synology and UGREEN.

[@nascompares]

That's the odd thing. Rip apart the firmware update and OS download files and you find a number of compliant Aquantia controller drivers that should cover the 113. ESPECIALLY QNAP, as they use this drive on their own tB driver and you can connect it to a QNAP and see it on QTS.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@nascompares all firmwares hardcode the network ports (and sata and other stuff) so even if the system does support additional hardware, it won't be used. Projects like Xpenology hack around the issue by re-generating the hardcoded list before booting the DSM. Any other PC-based system like TrueNAS and Unraid and generic Linux systems will be fine because they don't have hardcoded lists of ports

[@daverussell457]

@@nascompares The DS920+ does not have a driver for AQC113 but the DS1621+ does. But the DS1621+ uses device tree so model.dtb would need to be edited to get the M.2 to 10GbE adaptor working.

[@lyianx]

even if you put this in a custom build itx system, im lery of that cable. Wish it was a more robust cable that could be replaced easily if necessary (if it was damage or you needed a longer/shorter one)

[@ledoynier3694]

you can replace it easily. it's just a generic ribbon cable, you can buy them in any length you like. i'm more concerned about signal running 10G in a flat, non twisted, non shielded ribbon.

[@BrickTamlandOfficial]

the bottleneck isnt the nvme its the terrible ribbon cable there.

[@Ultrajamz]

Oh interesting - considering my damn gpu is blocking pcie slots

[@4eyesleo]

With off-the-shelf NAS there is only one guarantee - that you will be milked as long as they want. Every budget-friendly model will be based on a CPU without GPU and locked from you adding any extention

[@moogs]

Prices are %20 higher

[@marcogenovesi8570]

prices vary by country. Also Aliexpress (and ebay and others) is collecting VAT on behalf of EU countries now so the prices are adjusted by that

[@UnscuffedIonian]

What even is a slovenian family skipping rope

[@Spctore]

buddy what

[@吳宗哲-g3s]

I got an M.2 to PCIE 3.0 x4 adapter and connected with an Intel X540-T2, using the extra PCIE 3.0x4 M.2 slot on my motherboard. the reason I don't get a direct M.2 to 10GbE adapter is most of these cards use the Qualcomm AQC chip, which is not good. get a full-width M.2 PCIE adapter and you can put any card you want on it, even Mellanox. FYI: I did an ITX build and the only PCIE slot is occupied by GPU. I'm using PVE 8.2.4, no extra driver is required, just plug and go. iperf3 shows a full 10Gbps speed, which I remember is around 9.6~9.7 Gbps with 9000 MTU.

[@nascompares]

ordered one of these adapters off the back of a previous comment in this video, as I want to explore this very thing! Thanks for sharing man!

[@吳宗哲-g3s]

@@nascompares that PCIE riser cable is stiff and not easy to bend. it may require an additional power source because the PCIE card could use 3.3V and/or 12V power, while the M.2 only provides 3.3V. I think it's more suitable for a PC build, at least an ITX system, because of space and power. one may need lots of modifications to fit that into off-the-shelf NASes or mini PCs. I can send some pictures if you want.

[@BrianGarside]

Can you provide the part you used? I'm a bit confused, but I think I want to teh do the same thing. What is a PVE 8.2.4 ?

[@johnzach2057]

Hopefully very soon with AI you will just be able to remove annoying sounds from videos for essentially zero cost.

[@zCaptainz]

Got any thermals on that? No, thanks

[@brenman051397]

Ayo first?

[@cmdr_stretchedguy]

No thanks, I like my M.2 slots for fast storage. 4TB NVMe is worth so much more than leaving an unused PCIe slot open.

[@moogs]

Not for me…..