Quad i225 2.5G NIC

[Maverick009]

I have been looking at a quad 2.5G NIC, using the i225 chip. Anyone try this card? For about $76 I am tempted to grab it.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I would avoid those as the plague, as the i225 chips have some serious bugs. The onboard i225 on my motherboards kept having disconnects from the network at random when I tested it. Luckily I don't use it, as I'm on 10 Gbps, but I wanted to give it a try, but it was a no go.

For 2.5 Gbps, Realtek is the only choice when it comes to add-in cards.

 

[Maverick009]

I would avoid those as the plague, as the i225 chips have some serious bugs. The onboard i225 on my motherboards kept having disconnects from the network at random when I tested it. Luckily I don't use it, as I'm on 10 Gbps, but I wanted to give it a try, but it was a no go.

For 2.5 Gbps, Realtek is the only choice when it comes to add-in cards.

I have a dual Realtek 2.5G card sitting to the side right now. I can definitely get your point, but the i225 chipset has had firmware updates and newer drivers that pretty much fix the issues it launched with as I have a couple motherboards including my highend Asus X670e cross hair hero board with integrated Intel i225 that works well now.

The quad i225 would be heading to one of my servers most likely.

 

[TheLostSwede]

None of that truly fixed the issue, I tested this less than six months ago. I have a Gigabyte X670E board.
It's a hardware design flaw, which can't be fixed via firmware or drivers.

Older Realtek 2.5 Gbps hardware also have some issues.

 

[tiddlywink]

..

 

[Maverick009]

I honestly haven't had an issue with the chipsets....However, I might hold off on even purchasing it as I caught an Intel X550-X2 Dual 10G card between $139-194 and picking it up for that price.

 

[ddaenen1]

I honestly haven't had an issue with the chipsets....However, I might hold off on even purchasing it as I caught an Intel X550-X2 Dual 10G card between $139-194 and picking it up for that price.

I have an X550-T2 stuffed in my pfSense router and very happy with that. Works like a charm. I am actually building a new router now based on an X10SDV-4C-TN2F and am looking at an X710-T2L for that. Available overhere for about 270 Euro.

 

[Maverick009]

I have an X550-T2 stuffed in my pfSense router and very happy with that. Works like a charm. I am actually building a new router now based on an X10SDV-4C-TN2F and am looking at an X710-T2L for that. Available overhere for about 270 Euro.

Yeah I have been eyeing a few network upgrades that if all works out may be all implemented by End of year to early next year. I have a new Netgear CM2000 modem with a single 2.5G Jack that will replace my CM1200 modem that I found for a good price new. I am going to pickup an Intel X550-T2 card soon. That is the short-term updates and will go good with my Opnsense router (been a couple years and made the switch over recently running 27.1.5 as of today). I am actually looking at upgrading to WiFi7 with the TP-Link EAP783 AP and adding a 24-Port 2.5G POE Switch with 4 10G SFP+ ports which is the bigger project that may happen by end of this year.

 

[ddaenen1]

Yeah I have been eyeing a few network upgrades that if all works out may be all implemented by End of year to early next year. I have a new Netgear CM2000 modem with a single 2.5G Jack that will replace my CM1200 modem that I found for a good price new. I am going to pickup an Intel X550-T2 card soon. That is the short-term updates and will go good with my Opnsense router (been a couple years and made the switch over recently running 27.1.5 as of today). I am actually looking at upgrading to WiFi7 with the TP-Link EAP783 AP and adding a 24-Port 2.5G POE Switch with 4 10G SFP+ ports which is the bigger project that may happen by end of this year.

Eventually, i bought an X550-T2 again for the new router. I read some less favorable comments on the X710 and found a genuine one for 150 USD which is a lot cheaper. Lastly, i know the X550 works really well with pfSense as i have one in my current box.

 

[coxhaus]

I see no reason to buy an Intel i225 NIC. I am going to skip 2.5 gig NICs and use 10gig. I have a new Dell coming next week. It might have a 2.5 gig NIC. I did not look as I didn't care. I am going to add a 10gig NIC to my new Dell PC and put it in my new high speed VLAN along with my Pfsense 10gig firewall. My new Dell PC will also be my sometime NAS for backups. I like to keep my stored data offline a lot.

The only place where I might need 2.5gig NIC is in PFsense if I end up with a 2.5gig modem. Then I will add a NbaseT NIC card to Pfsense. I hope the higher speed modems will link at 10gig even though you are using 2gig or 5 gig data. I don't know what will happen in a couple of years.

 

[sfx2000]

I would avoid those as the plague, as the i225 chips have some serious bugs. The onboard i225 on my motherboards kept having disconnects from the network at random when I tested it. Luckily I don't use it, as I'm on 10 Gbps, but I wanted to give it a try, but it was a no go.

For 2.5 Gbps, Realtek is the only choice when it comes to add-in cards.

Yeah - the intel I350 cards were awesome for Gigabit...

If one wants to stay in the intel fold, anything based on the X550 chipset is good - they are N-Base-T, which is good up to 10 gigabit over copper - not sure how they would work on Windows clients (WinServer shouldn't be a problem) and Linux support is good with newer distributions and kernels...

 

[coxhaus]

If one wants to stay in the intel fold, anything based on the X550 chipset is good - they are N-Base-T, which is good up to 10 gigabit over copper - not sure how they would work on Windows clients (WinServer shouldn't be a problem) and Linux support is good with newer distributions and kernels...

So, are you saying 10gig NIC drivers are not in Windows 11? You have to buy server. Can you load the drivers? I want to use a Windows 11 PC as a NAS with a 10gig NIC.

I have a Dell Broadcom 10gig NIC I thought I would use in my new Dell PC for my NAS. I was hoping it would update the Microcode when Dell scanned it. I guess I could use my Intel x540-T2 if I had to. I will have to buy another 10gig NIC.

 

[sfx2000]

So, are you saying 10gig NIC drivers are not in Windows 11? You have to buy server. Can you load the drivers? I want to use a Windows 11 PC as a NAS with a 10gig NIC.

The X550 is a server NIC - you might have drivers for Win11, but I cannot confirm it...

 

[Maverick009]

So, are you saying 10gig NIC drivers are not in Windows 11? You have to buy server. Can you load the drivers? I want to use a Windows 11 PC as a NAS with a 10gig NIC.

I have a Dell Broadcom 10gig NIC I thought I would use in my new Dell PC for my NAS. I was hoping it would update the Microcode when Dell scanned it. I guess I could use my Intel x540-T2 if I had to. I will have to buy another 10gig NIC.

The Intel NICs will work with Windows clients including Windows 11. The usual difference between client and server for Windows is the amount of concurrent users allowed. On WIndows, at least before 11, a maximum of 10 could download/uploads were allowed where as Server was unlimited based on hardware.

 

[Maverick009]

So I did make a decision to get an Intel X550-T2 card. Part of the fast track decision was due to my Intel X540-T2 was having problems and cannot tell yet if the card went bad. All I know is my gaming PC that connects to an unmanaged 2.5G POE switch with a 10G SFP+ connection going to the X540-T2 card was having issues and specifically causing server timeout errors on EA's server when playing BF2042 as I am sure that was saturated the connection enough. I thought it was EA, but once I moved my connection from the 2.5G unmanaged switch to my bigger 24P managed TP-Link managed switch all issues went away.

I am thinking to move the X540 to another PC and test the connections out. It may just be a bigger problem with my custom Opnsense router and the FreeBSD Kernel. I am thinking also if Opnsense/Pfsense and the FreeBSD kernel they are based off of with the drivers are the issue, I will see it after I slide this X550-T2 card in as well.

 

[coxhaus]

So I did make a decision to get an Intel X550-T2 card. Part of the fast track decision was due to my Intel X540-T2 was having problems and cannot tell yet if the card went bad. All I know is my gaming PC that connects to an unmanaged 2.5G POE switch with a 10G SFP+ connection going to the X540-T2 card was having issues and specifically causing server timeout errors on EA's server when playing BF2042 as I am sure that was saturated the connection enough. I thought it was EA, but once I moved my connection from the 2.5G unmanaged switch to my bigger 24P managed TP-Link managed switch all issues went away.

I am thinking to move the X540 to another PC and test the connections out. It may just be a bigger problem with my custom Opnsense router and the FreeBSD Kernel. I am thinking also if Opnsense/Pfsense and the FreeBSD kernel they are based off of with the drivers are the issue, I will see it after I slide this X550-T2 card in as well.

Whose 10G SFP+ mini gbic module, are you using in your 2.5G switch? It might be that. I have not tried my X540-T2 yet. It is still sitting on my desk as it just came in. I need a couple for my mini gbic modules for my Cisco switch. I may buy Cisco or Intel. I have not researched it. I have 2 10gig RJ45 copper ports on my switch but if I want to use 4 ports then I need a couple.

Good to hear about the Windows 11 drivers. I figured you could load them if nothing else.

The Intel X710-T2L is the latest 10gig copper card. But I don't know if there is support in FreeBSD 14. There is in FreeBSD 15 but you have to run Pfsense.

 

[Maverick009]

Whose 10G SFP+ mini gbic module, are you using in your 2.5G switch? It might be that. I have not tried my X540-T2 yet. It is still sitting on my desk as it just came in. I need a couple for my mini gbic modules for my Cisco switch. I may buy Cisco or Intel. I have not researched it. I have 2 10gig RJ45 copper ports on my switch but if I want to use 4 ports then I need a couple.

Good to hear about the Windows 11 drivers. I figured you could load them if nothing else.

The Intel X710-T2L is the latest 10gig copper card. But I don't know if there is support in FreeBSD 14. There is in FreeBSD 15 but you have to run Pfsense.

I don't necessarily think it is the module. It supports multiple switches and states it works with Intel cards with the X550 listed and the X540 should work. I will be doing more testing and should know once the cards are switched if it is the card or not as well.

 

[Maverick009]

So updated Firewall with new X550-T2 card and removed X540-T2. So far everything looks good and no major issues. It took me a little longer to respond as I migrated my one main server from Unraid to TrueNas. I plan on using the Unraid OS with a smaller NAS project in the future. The TrueNAS server and my main gaming multimedia PC are connected to an unmanaged POE switch with the TrueNAS server connected at 10G through SPF+ on the switch and another 10G SFP+ going into the X550-T2 On Opnsense Firewall. I have my gaming PC connected to that switch 2.5G port. If all goes good, I may pickup a new 24 port 2.5G Multi-Gig POE++ managed switch with 4 10G SFP+ ports sooner than later