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-   -   Adding two additional NICs to Optiplex 3010 mini tower (http://www.hardwarebanter.com/showthread.php?t=198716)

t March 11th 18 05:13 AM

Adding two additional NICs to Optiplex 3010 mini tower
 

The Optiplex is required to connect to three networks so we need to add
two additional Network Interface Cards.

The machine can support only 8GB maximum RAM from
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global...ok.pdf#page=11

It would be running Windows 10 Professional 64 bit.

1. It has PCI slots vacant so
would getting two network cards at
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...04306684114868
work?

2. Or, would getting something like
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00965J4TS/ be better?
Or, is some other brand better for dual NIC?

Does anything else need to be changed when the motherboard is supporting
3 NICs?

Any suggestions would be helpful.

t March 11th 18 05:33 AM

Adding two additional NICs to Optiplex 3010 mini tower
 
On 3/10/2018 11:13 PM, t wrote:

The Optiplex is required to connect to three networks so we need to add
two additional Network Interface Cards.

The machine can support only 8GB maximum RAM from
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global...ok.pdf#page=11


It would be running Windows 10 Professional 64 bit.

1. It has PCI slots vacant so
would getting two network cards at
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...04306684114868

work?

2. Or, would getting something like
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00965J4TS/ be better?
Or, is some other brand better for dual NIC?

3. Does anything else need to be changed when the motherboard is supporting
3 NICs?

4. Is going with a brand name like Intel
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BMZHX2/ better?


Paul[_28_] March 11th 18 03:15 PM

Adding two additional NICs to Optiplex 3010 mini tower
 
t wrote:
On 3/10/2018 11:13 PM, t wrote:

The Optiplex is required to connect to three networks so we need to add
two additional Network Interface Cards.

The machine can support only 8GB maximum RAM from
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global...ok.pdf#page=11



It would be running Windows 10 Professional 64 bit.

1. It has PCI slots vacant so
would getting two network cards at
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...04306684114868


work?

2. Or, would getting something like
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00965J4TS/ be better?
Or, is some other brand better for dual NIC?

3. Does anything else need to be changed when the motherboard is
supporting
3 NICs?

4. Is going with a brand name like Intel
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BMZHX2/ better?


That's the one I spotted on Newegg. This one isn't sold by
Newegg, but drop-shipped from somewhere else (that's what the 9S
code means).

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...9SIAD5G6HJ1702

That seems to have an x4 PCI Express interface on it. Which is good,
except when you don't have a slot for it. The x4 would fit in the
video card x16 slot of course, but that may be occupied by your
video card right now.

With your luck, your machine doesn't have the right slot
mix for the project. Imagine two NICs trying to serve 112MB/sec
at the same time (while plugged into an old PCI slot, not a PCIe slot),
and the slot lets them down. How embarrassing. That's why you want
to use your weather-eye to suss the situation.

The NICs would still work in such a situation, but the
person who installed them would have naughty words
spoken about them later :-)

OK, you provided the Guide Book link, which helps. One machine
picture shows an x16 PCIe for a video card (as well as the
CPU graphics option, a GPU that could be inside the CPU).
The other three slots are PCIe x1. They never seem to
volunteer chipset info (PCH???), so I can't add any more
details to my diagram as a result.

DIMMs --- CPU ---x16--- Video card
|
| DMI bus (can be a bottleneck, but not usually)
|
SATA ---- PCH??? --- x1 PCIe slot
SATA --- x1 PCIe slot
--- x1 PCIe slot

You can put a nice Intel PCIe x1 NIC card in the remaining
slots. Check and make sure the slots are free first, as the
factory could have put a TV tuner or other junk in one
of those slots.

Buying single NIC cards would be perfectly fine. The alternative,
sliding some RealTek **** in there, um... Just get a couple
single slot Intel NICs for them to use.

The typical Intel NIC for sale on these sites, they're sold in
bulk, in a plastic bag, with *no* driver CD. Always check
the advert for scams such as no driver CD.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...9SIA4A054E7126

https://images10.newegg.com/ProductI...106-036-06.jpg

So the picture shows this one is a cardboard box version and
at least it doesn't ship in a *non-antistatic* bag :-/ The
picture shows a CD, and if it arrives without a CD, give
the seller a bad review for me :-)

Even a PCIe Rev1.1 slot at 250MB/sec full-duplex is sufficient
for 112MB/sec Ethernet (which also works full-duplex).

The processor slot usually has a PCIe revision higher than the
PCH based slots. Sometimes the CPU has PCIe Rev3 for the x16
video slot, and maybe PCIe Rev2 off the PCH (500MB/sec on a
single lane, not bad). When you're installing PCIe cards,
you have to check the card and the mobo, to see if the
lowest common denominator is sufficient for the application.
For example, this is important if you buy BlackMagic cards
for video capture or editing.

If that dual Intel NIC with the x4 connector on it, was magically
stuffed into an x1 slot, it would probably run full speed. It's
only the older PCI ~100MB/sec bus which would be limiting the
NICs and wouldn't be fair to the customer. My old Pentium 4 system,
the chipset in it had a second bus called CSI, which operated
at 266MB/sec and that bus was custom crafted just for NICs.
And in this case, your PCIe x1 slots, even in the worst case,
are 250MB/sec and perfectly good for single (or even dual)
GbE NICs.

I don't see too much that can go wrong here, except
for not checking for blank slots for the project :-)
The four slots are all PCI Express type. No vanilla PCI to be seen.

Paul


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