Occasionally you require a 10G card, yet only have one x1 port available.
Occasionally you require a 10G card, yet only have one x1 port available.
This update is mostly about checking in rather than detailed instructions. It was a bit unexpected that it functioned and that the process wasn’t overly complex. My setup uses an MATX board with all X16 slots filled for RAID and a GPU, so I thought a $70 x540-T2 card would work fine—Dremel at roughly 25,000 RPM with a sharp diamond wheel should handle it quickly. Be sure to wear protection when handling glass fibers; the slot is only PCIe 2.0 x1, limiting speed to about 500MB/s, which should suffice for my needs. I also discovered some motherboards allow you to leave the back of the slot open, making it easier to fit any card without cutting. However, one board I have has a capacitor near the slot, preventing installation even if the opening is opened.
I worked with an 8400GS using a Dremel, but I modified the connector with side cutters and filed it the rest of the way. It still functions properly despite being a risky method. How much does this affect the bandwidth? Ideally it shouldn’t be too much if the card supports PCIe 3.0, correct? Oops, caught you there!
Alternatively, focus on manipulating the slot on the board instead of discarding the card.
He mentioned there was a limit at the end of the slot... But yeah, that's embarrassing
No place to install a riser. I attempted an adapter with the low-profile bracket on the card, but it feels very unstable and I don’t want one card touching another and causing shorts. Since it’s an MATX case, I have four components stacked together in the expansion slots, and the heatsinks leave just a small gap. It should still function around 10G in a PCIe 3 x1 slot, but for an X99 motherboard they only support PCIe 2 on the x1. I’m eager to test sequential from the array SSD to my desktop and see how it looks with a full PCIe lane.
Risk evaluation shows the motherboard costs three times more than the replacement NIC. I own two additional cards that remain unused on my shelf. At one point I had more servers and 10G bandwidth, but I downgraded to 1G due to limited need. Since this server serves both public and private functions, any major downtime for removing the motherboard isn't feasible—I must schedule installations during off-hours.