Hi....happen to see your post while researching for a good 10Gbpe NIC.
VQ asked me to upgrade to 10Gbps plan and i am considering it and building a new rig at the same time
ASUS TUF GAMING B650M-E WIFI + AMD Ryzen 7700 - $510
TEAM T-FORCE DELTA RGB DDR5 6000MHz CL30 32GB - $175
Powercolour 7800xt - $650
Thermalright Phantom spirit 120 se - $65
6x Thermalright PWM TL-C12C-S ARGB - $32
Samsung 980 Pro 7000MB/s Gen4 Nvme M.2 500GB(5yrs) - $105
Adata XPG Core Reactor - $125
Montech Air 903 Max Case - $100
Windows 11 Pro 64 - $13
Office Pro Plus - $15
I have a couple questions which I need advice from experts here as very long never build a rig and i am out of touch with the PC scene.
1) I dont see any tb/aliexpress links for 10Gbpe PCI adaptor. Could anyone recommend me a good adaptor pls? Also should i be considering SFP+ since i see this term being used.
2) Will the fans above provide sufficient airflow?
Whether to go RJ45 or SFP+, this has to been taken in consideration with the bigger picture of what you are going to use it with. Main concern will be what is the existing wiring, what type of switch/router (if any) that you intend to use.
5G and below, there is no question, you will be using RJ45.
From 10G onwards, there are very good reason to use SFP+, heat and latency are the main ones.
To be clear SFP+ is a socket that allows you to use a few different types of SFP+ modules :
1) DAC uses very low power of ~0.1W, but is limited to around 7 meters, this includes 2 SFP+ modules and the cable in a single package, and is preferred if it works for you. (There is active DAC 0.5W for 7-10m)
2) Longer than that you can use MM or SM SFP+ modules, along with the matching fiber optic cable. This is <1W, latency of 300ns.
3) You can also use 10GBase-T RJ45 type SFP+ module, but these are expensive and hot (~1.8 to 3W) with latency of 2.6ms. In a PC I can't think of any good reason to use a SFP+ NIC with a 10GBase-T RJ45 module, you might as well get a 10GBase-T RJ45 10G card right away, other than perhaps to stay flexible.
When people say 10G is hot, they are usually referring to 10GBase-T RJ45 10G setup. Heat from DAC & Fiber optic SFP+ is minimum. But even then it is like 3W per 10G RJ45, which is nothing compare to graphics card.
On gaming rig generally you do not need to be concern about heat from 10G NICs.
It is on the tiny PC/switch or when you have high concentrations that the heat becomes a concern, and even then DAC/SPF+ optics are fine, just avoid the RJ45 version.
If you really must use 10GBase-T RJ45 SPF+, note that the typical ones are the 30m version. There are 80m & 100m versions, which cost quite a bit more, but often consume lower power (not always).
