Buying a 10GB Pcie Ethernet Card

[freddyjuarez]

I wanted to get the ASUS 1XG-C100C because I'm trying to stick to Asus much as possible my decision anyway why should I care about Marvell firmware tell me the pros about this

Or if the ASUS 1XG-C100C truly sucks as someone mentioned here on another post should I just get this
tp-link tx401 chipset: aqc107

 

[fryedchikin]

The TX401 is a solid card. Currently using one on an Asus Z790 board.

 

[freddyjuarez]

The TX401 is a solid card. Currently using one on an Asus Z790 board.

Someone said Asus one sucks because it doesn't support something called Marvell firmware why should I care about that???

 

[ddaenen1]

I wanted to get the ASUS 1XG-C100C because I'm trying to stick to Asus much as possible my decision anyway why should I care about Marvell firmware tell me the pros about this

Or if the ASUS 1XG-C100C truly sucks as someone mentioned here on another post should I just get this
tp-link tx401 chipset: aqc107

Honestly, if it is within your budget, buy an Intel, X550 or X710. No worries, no trouble and just works with basically everything else. Plug it in and never look back. Don't stick with brands, look at chipset.

I have 2 X550-T2 in my network and they work with even with the most picky OS'es such as FreeBSD. You can find them on ebay for about 100 USD.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Someone said Asus one sucks because it doesn't support something called Marvell firmware why should I care about that???

So you clearly have no idea what you're buying to start with then, just that it says Asus on the heatsink...

The card in questions has an Aquantia, AQC107 network chip on it. Aquantia was acquired by Marvell a few years ago.
As such, being able to install driver and firmware updates from the source, aka Marvell, might be a handy thing, especially if Asus drops support at some point in time. However, Asus has locked their cards, preventing the installation of an original firmware from Marvell and potentially also drivers from Marvell.

That said, the most recent firmware was released in 2021, so there's highly unlikely that there will be any major firmware changes for the AQC107.

I would personally either get the cheapest AQC107 card out there, as long as your system has at least a spare PCIe 3.0 x2/x4 slot.
However, the AQC107 is kind of old by now and a bit power hungry, so you might want to consider a card based on the more recent AQC113 instead. The AQC113 is supposed to be available in PCIe 4.0 x1, but all the cards appear to be PCIe something x4. The AQC113 uses about half as much power as the AQC107.

It really doesn't matter much who the manufacturer is, as most of these cards are all using the reference design anyhow. Just get one with as big heatsink as possible, as they do get a bit toasty.

This is currently the cheapest AQC113 on Amazon in the US.

Amazon.com

 

[TheLostSwede]

Honestly, if it is within your budget, buy an Intel, X550 or X710. No worries, no trouble and just works with basically everything else. Plug it in and never look back. Don't stick with brands, look at chipset.

I have 2 X550-T2 in my network and they work with even with the most picky OS'es such as FreeBSD. You can find them on ebay for about 100 USD.

Sorry, but can you show us what the issues with the Aquantia cards are?
I've been running mine since 2017 without any issues whatsoever, apart from a Ryzen platform compatibility issue when the platform was brand new and the Aquantia engineers released a firmware update within a couple of weeks of contacting them that solved that problem.

Yes, there aren't any FreeBSD drivers, but then again, loads of things don't work with FreeBSD.
There's native support in Linux and Windows these days for the AQC107 and Marvell is still supporting the chips and is releasing new drivers for both Windows and Linux as needed.

 

[freddyjuarez]

So you clearly have no idea what you're buying to start with then, just that it says Asus on the heatsink...

The card in questions has an Aquantia, AQC107 network chip on it. Aquantia was acquired by Marvell a few years ago.
As such, being able to install driver and firmware updates from the source, aka Marvell, might be a handy thing, especially if Asus drops support at some point in time. However, Asus has locked their cards, preventing the installation of an original firmware from Marvell and potentially also drivers from Marvell.

I would personally either get the cheapest AQC107 card out there, as long as your system has at least a spare PCIe 3.0 x2/x4 slot.
However, the AQC107 is kind of old by now and a bit power hungry, so you might want to consider a card based on the more recent AQC113 instead. The AQC113 is supposed to be available in PCIe 4.0 x1, but all the cards appear to be PCIe something x4. The AQC113 uses about half as much power as the AQC107.

It really doesn't matter much who the manufacturer is, as most of these cards are all using the reference design anyhow. Just get one with as big heatsink as possible, as they do get a bit toasty.

This is currently the cheapest AQC113 on Amazon in the US.

Amazon.com

If only you had written me earlier,
I already got this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D71PVXG?tag=snbforums-20,
I was going to return it cause my motherboard doesn't have exact PCI slot for it I learned that PCI cards are universal

 

[TheLostSwede]

If only you had written me earlier,
I already got this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D71PVXG?tag=snbforums-20,
I was going to return it cause my motherboard doesn't have exact PCI slot for it I learned that PCI cards are universal

No idea what motherboard you have, but that long slot, appears to be a x4 slot electrically, so the card should work in there.
Also, there's nothing really wrong with the TP-Link cards, I actually bought a pair of those that were heavily discounted myself, to have as a backup, since my cards (original Aquantia cards) are getting a bit old and might need replacement at some point in the future.

 

[ddaenen1]

Sorry, but can you show us what the issues with the Aquantia cards are?
I've been running mine since 2017 without any issues whatsoever, apart from a Ryzen platform compatibility issue when the platform was brand new and the Aquantia engineers released a firmware update within a couple of weeks of contacting them that solved that problem.

Yes, there aren't any FreeBSD drivers, but then again, loads of things don't work with FreeBSD.
There's native support in Linux and Windows these days for the AQC107 and Marvell is still supporting the chips and is releasing new drivers for both Windows and Linux as needed.

Sorry, but where in my post do i write that there issues with Aquantia cards? I am just recommending Intel NIC's for a hassle free operation. I do not know anything about the Marvell chipset. I only know that of all NIC's i have had, the ones that never gave me any issue were Intel chipset.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Sorry, but where in my post do i write that there issues with Aquantia cards? I am just recommending Intel NIC's for a hassle free operation. I do not know anything about the Marvell chipset. I only know that of all NIC's i have had, the ones that never gave me any issue were Intel chipset.

The OP was asking why he should or shouldn't buy the Asus card in question, a question you clearly couldn't answer, so you provided unsolicited advice instead. You clearly either are biased, or must've come across issues with Aquantia/Marvell products, or you wouldn't claim that only Intel products are hassle free. But now you claim to have never used the products, but clearly they're still inferior somehow, so please let us know how.

I guess you've not used any of Intel's 2.5 Gbps chips then, as they're garbage and people are having nothing but issues with them.

 

[ddaenen1]

The OP was asking why he should or shouldn't buy the Asus card in question, a question you clearly couldn't answer, so you provided unsolicited advice instead. You clearly either are biased, or must've come across issues with Aquantia/Marvell products, or you wouldn't claim that only Intel products are hassle free. But now you claim to have never used the products, but clearly they're still inferior somehow, so please let us know how.

I guess you've not used any of Intel's 2.5 Gbps chips then, as they're garbage and people are having nothing but issues with them.

Seems a bit like an overreaction to a simple post, don't you think?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Seems a bit like an overreaction to a simple post, don't you think?

No, as this is what keeps happening here every time someone asks a specific question, in comes someone like you with unsolicited advice.

And you still haven't answered my question.

 

[ddaenen1]

No, as this is what keeps happening here every time someone asks a specific question, in comes someone like you with unsolicited advice.

And you still haven't answered my question.

"somebody like me"...you are truly lost <EOM>

 

[Digilog]

I guess you've not used any of Intel's 2.5 Gbps chips then, as they're garbage and people are having nothing but issues with them.

people have issues with hardware all the time, but in this case its the growing pains of a new product they should have worked out all the kinks instead on relying on operating system devs to debug and deploy a fixed driver. This will pass. I really think 2.5G shouldn't exist and it is used for marketing gimmicks like link aggregation which 5Gb is much more substantial than 1.25Gb with its controllers that can't even saturate the connection more than 80%.

 

[TheLostSwede]

people have issues with hardware all the time, but in this case its the growing pains of a new product they should have worked out all the kinks instead on relying on operating system devs to debug and deploy a fixed driver. This will pass. I really think 2.5G shouldn't exist and it is used for marketing gimmicks like link aggregation which 5Gb is much more substantial than 1.25Gb with its controllers that can't even saturate the connection more than 80%.

Sorry, but you clearly don't understand the issue here. Intel has at least one, of not multiple hardware bugs and they've even admitted as much on early revisions of their 2.5 Gbps products. It's been years, multiple hardware revisions and even a new SKU and all of them are having issues.
So far, nothing has proven successful in fixing the random disconnects people are experiencing.

 

[Digilog]

Someone said Asus one sucks because it doesn't support something called Marvell firmware why should I care about that???

Well its a aQuantia Multi-Gigabit PCI Express card. Using the aqc107 chipset.

so Marvell has nothing to do with that card and apparently, you were misinformed.

 

[Digilog]

Sorry, but you clearly don't understand the issue here. Intel has at least one, of not multiple hardware bugs and they've even admitted as much on early revisions of their 2.5 Gbps products. It's been years, multiple hardware revisions and even a new SKU and all of them are having issues.
So far, nothing has proven successful in fixing the random disconnects people are experiencing.

They have been a royal pain and Linus finally patched Linux core about three weeks ago. So the newest Linux Kernel has a driver that is 100%.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Well its a aQuantia Multi-Gigabit PCI Express card. Using the aqc107 chipset.

so Marvell has nothing to do with that card and apparently, you were misinformed.

Marvell bought Aquantia some years ago, so yes, Marvell has everything to do with it, since they sell the chips and support the hardware.

This is how my card that I bought from Aquantia appears in Windows 10 today.

 

[TheLostSwede]

They have been a royal pain and Linus finally patched Linux core about three weeks ago. So the newest Linux Kernel has a driver that is 100%.

Yeah, sure, because software can fix broken hardware...

 

[Digilog]

Yeah, sure, because software can fix broken hardware...

if the software is its driver and its issues, you bet. What happened is Intel not keeping up their source library while OS manufacturers change the kernel code. Even in windows. So they cranked out bad drivers with their new product.

Marvell bought Aquantia some years ago, so yes, Marvell has everything to do with it, since they sell the chips and support the hardware.

but they are selling it as that brand instead of their own. So it was their decision to do that. Other things are like this. A fine example is the security cameras because there are 20 or so brands but 6 manufacturers and very few brands cross over and some have lowered functionality when they do.