Cheap 10Gb Network Connection from My Windows 11 Desktop to My UnRaid NAS!
For video work, a 1Gbps connection to a NAS isn’t fast enough. I wanted a 10Gbps connection from my Windows 11 editing desktop to my UnRaid NAS that’s at least 50 feet away. I figured out that for less than $150, I could get two Mellanox ConnectX-3 SFP+ cards, two SFP+ to fiber transceivers, and a fiber cable up to 300 meters (984 feet). In this video, I’ll show you how I set up my very own 10Gbps direct fiber connection!
🔩🔩🔩 Parts List 🔩🔩🔩
Mellanox ConnectX-3 CX311-A PCIe 10Gbps SFP+ Adapter – https://www.ebay.com/itm/224613454909?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
SFP+ to Fiber Transceiver – FS for Mellanox MFM1T02A-SR Compatible 10GBASE-SR SFP+ 850nm 300m DOM LC MMF Transceiver Module (Standard) – https://www.fs.com/products/65334.html?currency=USD&paid=google_shopping&utm_category=9&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlOmLBhCHARIsAGiJg7mJpCl3vAjaS10YZcmVI_un6OJj5eN01Gt0o3_pot23lH8IPAm3aDQaAo-OEALw_wcB
25 meter LC UPC fiber optic cable – 25m (82ft) LC UPC to LC UPC Duplex OM4 Multimode PVC (OFNR) 2.0mm Fiber Optic Patch -https://www.fs.com/products/88535.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwlOmLBhCHARIsAGiJg7mvFYDdZHowTblMaw_mjQQRh-rRPvNBSpiu2fHxsmMkrwp2wuXRi6oaAoRdEALw_wcB
🎬🎬🎬 Video Index 🎬🎬🎬
0:00 Introduction
0:38 Mellanox ConnectX-3 10Gbps card
1:54 SFP+ to fiber transceiver
2:25 Fiber cable
3:11 Installing the Mellanox card in the NAS
7:00 Configure the 10Gbps card in Windows 11
11:05 Configure the 10Gbps card in the UnRaid NAS
15:37 Setting up the direct route to the NAS in the Windows 11 hosts file
17:13 Network transfer speed test (SATA3 drive in the NAS)
19:23 Network transfer speed test (nVME drive in the NAS)
21:33 Cost breakdown
by Jerry Travis Smith
windows server dhcp
So right around the 17 minute and 35 second mark, you said that your original connection was 1 gig and gave you around 150 megabytes per second. That is very wrong. Mathematically a 1 gig connection gives you 125 megabytes ie 1,000/ 8 for the gigabit to gigabyte ratio. Realistically, most people get between 110 and 115 after overhead. And then for a 10 gig connection, you can theoretically get exactly 10 times that 1250 megabytes per second is your maximum theoretical, but you're realistic is usually 1100 to 1150 or so
hi jerry, please help, how did you make the 311 adapter show up on windows 11?? For my case, there is not such thing under "Device Manager > Network" even after drive installation.
What motherboard are you using for the PC? It's next to impossible to find a good motherboard that supports PCIe 8x8x these days.
Meep Meep
Dear friend thanks for the video. I have a nas server running core and i want ti buy 2 mellanox 10g network card connectx-3 1 for my server and 1 more for my main gaming rig to have high transfer speed. I want to try to avoid buying an sfp+ switch due to cost and i am thinking to connect my nas and my pc direct with the dac cable, and use the ethernet port on motherboard for internet access. Do you think it will work? Any problems? Or generally your opinion
Hi, I have a QNAP NAS with a 10GbE RJ45 port and just picked up the Mellanox CX311-A. Could I direct connect to a PC containing the NIC using both a SFP+/RJ45 Transceiver and crossover cat6 cable?
Hey, will Mellanox ConnectX-3 CX311-A PCIe 10Gbps SFP+ Adapter work with Dell/HP Windows 11 pro workstations ?
You should change the MTU to 9000 on both Unraid and win in order to enable jumbo frames.
Couple of issues. 1: you do NOT set a default gateway on the mellanox connector. Having two different gateways on windows will cause problems. 2: on your unraid you put the subnet as 255.255.0.0 (/16). This will place your mellanox ip in the same lan as your normal network (192.168.X.X). This can also give you issues.
4:48 lol