What are the options for 10GbE on Mac Pros?

[PowerMac84]

Myricom w/ Sierra -> High Sierra

Had to reinstall driver from website (old according to date, nothing changed), reboot, card worked again.

SmallTree drivers together with hacked Intel x520 or x540 cards (Dell or original Intel) are working fine with High Sierra. By the way AMD 570/580 are also natively supported by High Sierra. Feels like a better Mac now. Everything just working after upgrading to High Sierra. Less hacking.

 

[fivesunnydays]

Does anyone know of a 10GBE base-t (RJ45) rather then fibre card by solar flare i can try in an old mac pro? I dont fancy hacking an intel card quite just yet!

 

[Squuiid]

Does anyone know of a 10GBE base-t (RJ45) rather then fibre card by solar flare i can try in an old mac pro? I dont fancy hacking an intel card quite just yet!

If you don’t want to hack an Intel card you could just buy a SmallTree card from them directly. It’s essentialy an Intel card with official Mac support.

 

[fivesunnydays]

Im looking for a SolarFlare second hand as do not want to pay outrageous amounts

 

[Squuiid]

Im looking for a SolarFlare second hand as do not want to pay outrageous amounts

I'd still say that hacking an Intel then is your best bet. SolarFlare don't seem to cater to Mac any longer.
From the rather dated, but unfortunately latest, SolarFlare macOS driver:
https://support.solarflare.com/index.php/component/cognidox/?view=categories&id=1795

Solarflare 3.3 Mac OS X driver package - 21 November 2013
======================================
Package Version: v3.3.4.6349

Overview
--------

This is the Solarflare 3.3 Mac OS X driver installation package for
Solarflare Server Adapters.

Supported hardware platforms
----------------------------

The drivers, utilities and applications contained in this package
support the following adapters:

- Solarflare Onload server adapters:
- Solarstorm SFN4112F SFP+ Server Adapter
- Solarstorm SFN5111T 10GBASE-T Server Adapter
- Solarstorm SFN5112F SFP+ Server Adapter
- Solarstorm SFN5121T 10GBASE-T Server Adapter
- Solarstorm SFN5122F SFP+ Server Adapter
- Solarflare SFN5322F SFP+ Precision Time Synchronization Server
Adapter
- Solarflare SFN6122F SFP+ Server Adapter
- Solarflare SFN6322F SFP+ Precision Time Synchronization Server
Adapter

- Solarflare Performant server adapters:
- Solarstorm SFN5151T 10GBASE-T Server Adapter
- Solarstorm SFN5152F SFP+ Server Adapter
- Solarstorm SFN5161T 10GBASE-T Server Adapter
- Solarstorm SFN5162F SFP+ Server Adapter

 

[Kris Kelvin]

Another option is to go for a NIC from Chelsio. They are high quality, there's usually a few affordable ones on eBay and Chelsio provides fairly mature macOS drivers (including for High Sierra). Supported cards in the most recent driver (1.16.45b1 from October 2017):

T6 Adapters
-----------

- T6225-CR
- T6225-LL-CR
- T6225-SO-CR

T5 Adapters
-----------

- T580-CR
- T580-SO-CR
- T580-LP-CR
- T520-LL-CR
- T520-SO-CR
- T520-CR
- T520-BT
- T540-CR

T4 Adapters
-----------

- T420-CR
- T440-CR
- T404-BT
- T422-CR
- T420-SO-CR
- T420-LL-CR
- T440-LP-CR
- T420-CX

T3 Adapters
-----------

- N310E
- N310E-CXA
- N320E-GEN2
- S310E-SR
- S310E-SR+
- S310E-CXA
- S310E-CR
- N320E-CXA*
- S320E-CR*
- S320E-LP-CR*
- S302E*
- S320E-CXA*

*Only port 0 (first port) supported.

 

[William Payne]

Doesn't Sonnet Tech make these cards for the Mac Pro?

 

[Squuiid]

There's also this:
#12

 

[connorpb7]

There are plenty of the solarflare cards on ebay (sfp+) for $55 or less. I have one in an Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box and it works very well with the solarflare drivers. I'd imagine as others have said that their 10GBASE-T cards work great too.

 

[pastrychef]

I haven't tested any of the RJ45 10GbE cards because I'm not sure if my NAS has built-in driver support for them. Plus, the SolarFlare card has been working great since day one and I don't have any need to replace it. As a matter of fact, I got another one and installed it in to a second hackintosh.

The drivers are old but they continue to work fine in High Sierra. I don't imaging that NIC drivers need much updating.

 

[slynn1324]

I haven't tested any of the RJ45 10GbE cards because I'm not sure if my NAS has built-in driver support for them. Plus, the SolarFlare card has been working great since day one and I don't have any need to replace it. As a matter of fact, I got another one and installed it in to a second hackintosh.

The drivers are old but they continue to work fine in High Sierra. I don't imaging that NIC drivers need much updating.

Could you tell me what you are using for a dac / sfp+ transceivers with your solarflare card? I picked up the same one on eBay and some transceivers from fs.com and can’t seem to get a link on the card - not in the network settings or the light on the card. The switch end of the cable shows a link. I tried the card in a Linux server to the same results. Both Mac OS and Linux find the card and the diagnostic utilities work - but just shows cable unplugged - making me think the card is not liking the transceivers I have. Any guidance is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[pastrychef]

Could you tell me what you are using for a dac / sfp+ transceivers with your solarflare card? I picked up the same one on eBay and some transceivers from fs.com and can’t seem to get a link on the card - not in the network settings or the light on the card. The switch end of the cable shows a link. I tried the card in a Linux server to the same results. Both Mac OS and Linux find the card and the diagnostic utilities work - but just shows cable unplugged - making me think the card is not liking the transceivers I have. Any guidance is much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi.

I just picked up some pre-made Cisco SFP+ twinax cables from eBay for cheap...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SFP-H10GB-...272588&hash=item41ac1ca3ce:g:AgMAAOSwqrZa4Lot

 

[Solarex]

@pastrychef
Thanks for sharing your information! I arrived to this thread when I was Googling for a 10Gb solution to direct-connect my Mac/Hackintosh to a FreeNAS I'm building. Do you need a special crossover cable to directly connect two computers without a switch (similar to RJ45 crossover cable)?

 

[pastrychef]

@pastrychef
Thanks for sharing your information! I arrived to this thread when I was Googling for a 10Gb solution to direct-connect my Mac/Hackintosh to a FreeNAS I'm building. Do you need a special crossover cable to directly connect two computers without a switch (similar to RJ45 crossover cable)?

No, I just used a standard twinax cable. Something like:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-Genu...673198&hash=item43e011be91:g:yl0AAOSwNgdZnveL

 

[AidenShaw]

No, I just used a standard twinax cable. Something like:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-Genu...673198&hash=item43e011be91:g:yl0AAOSwNgdZnveL

Twinax is certainly "auto-crossover" enabled.

I've never used RJ45 copper for 10 GbE (only Twinax and Optical), but I'd be surprised if it isn't auto-crossover. Check the specs on the 10GbE ports.

 

[rentahippie]

So I have the solarflare cards and the cable I bought two 10G switches and I can't seem to get them to link up on the switches they work fine when I do a direct connect but I want to hook them up with network switch. I have isco SG300-10SFP-K9 10-Port Gigabit Managed SFP Switch and dell powerconnect 6248. I also have freenas box that I want to connect.. I need help what am I doing wrong? thanks

 

[pastrychef]

So I have the solarflare cards and the cable I bought two 10G switches and I can't seem to get them to link up on the switches they work fine when I do a direct connect but I want to hook them up with network switch. I have isco SG300-10SFP-K9 10-Port Gigabit Managed SFP Switch and dell powerconnect 6248. I also have freenas box that I want to connect.. I need help what am I doing wrong? thanks

You will have to figure out how to configure your switches. I don't have any experience with either of those.

 

[yeti]

So I have the solarflare cards and the cable I bought two 10G switches and I can't seem to get them to link up on the switches they work fine when I do a direct connect but I want to hook them up with network switch. I have isco SG300-10SFP-K9 10-Port Gigabit Managed SFP Switch and dell powerconnect 6248. I also have freenas box that I want to connect.. I need help what am I doing wrong? thanks

I am sorry to tell you this, but the SG300-10SFP-K9 you bought is just Gigabit, not 10G. You should look for switches with SFP+ which are those that accept 10G transceivers. I don't know about the Dell switch as I haven't worked with it, but in the tech specs page says it has up to 4 "10 Gigabit Ethernet uplink modules (optional)"… optional being the important word here, as the model you bought may or may not include them.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

 

[karsten]

I haven't tested any of the RJ45 10GbE cards because I'm not sure if my NAS has built-in driver support for them. Plus, the SolarFlare card has been working great since day one and I don't have any need to replace it. As a matter of fact, I got another one and installed it in to a second hackintosh.

The drivers are old but they continue to work fine in High Sierra. I don't imaging that NIC drivers need much updating.

sorry to bump an old thread but wondering if the card/driver has continued to work on mojave if you've updated? thanks

 

[pastrychef]

sorry to bump an old thread but wondering if the card/driver has continued to work on mojave if you've updated? thanks

I switched to using 10GBase-T when I saw that the iMacPro1,1 used AQC107 chipset. But I have no reason to believe there would be any problems using the SolarFlare SFP+ cards in Mojave.

 

[karsten]

I switched to using 10GBase-T when I saw that the iMacPro1,1 used AQC107 chipset. But I have no reason to believe there would be any problems using the SolarFlare SFP+ cards in Mojave.

Edit -- found this one with your same chipset and it says its Mac compatible, think I'll give it a shot!

https://smile.amazon.com/Syba-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network/dp/B07G2DV9K2/

What 10GBase-T card are you using in the Mac Pro? the manuf. on amazon for the Aquantia AQN-107 says it's not Mac compatible. thanks

 

[pastrychef]

Edit -- found this one with your same chipset and it says its Mac compatible, think I'll give it a shot!

https://smile.amazon.com/Syba-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network/dp/B07G2DV9K2/

What 10GBase-T card are you using in the Mac Pro? the manuf. on amazon for the Aquantia AQN-107 says it's not Mac compatible. thanks

I sold my Mac Pro a while back a built myself a hackintosh. I'm currently using a Syba AQC107 based card in my hackintosh and it was entirely plug-n-play. It uses Apple's built-in drivers and nothing additional had to be done to get it to work. Here it is on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G2DV9K2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are other AQC107 based cards, but some require that you boot in to macOS 10.13.3 at least once. This is because that specific version of macOS does some sort of firmware flashing to the AQC107 cards. No other versions of macOS are known to do this. However, even with this flashing done, one of the kexts for the AQC107 still needs to be patched for these cards to work.

Currently, I've only read of three AQC107 based cards that do not need the macOS 10.13.3 flash or the kext patch. They are:

• the Sonnet Presto Solo 10GBASE-T
• the Synology E10G18-T1
• the Syba SD-PEX24055

The Sonnet one had an early design issue that caused the cards to fail prematurely. They made a revision that has supposedly fixed it. I was going to purchase one of these but was waiting for inventory of the original revision to clear out of channel inventories. When I was informed of the Syba, I just decided to go with that one.

 

[Auggie]

I sold my Mac Pro a while back a built myself a hackintosh. I'm currently using a Syba AQC107 based card in my hackintosh and it was entirely plug-n-play. It uses Apple's built-in drivers and nothing additional had to be done to get it to work. Here it is on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G2DV9K2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are other AQC107 based cards, but some require that you boot in to macOS 10.13.3 at least once. This is because that specific version of macOS does some sort of firmware flashing to the AQC107 cards. No other versions of macOS are known to do this. However, even with this flashing done, one of the kexts for the AQC107 still needs to be patched for these cards to work.

Currently, I've only read of three AQC107 based cards that do not need the macOS 10.13.3 flash or the kext patch. They are:

• the Sonnet Presto Solo 10GBASE-T
• the Synology E10G18-T1
• the Syba SD-PEX24055

So what do you think of these AQC107 based cards? Amazon reviews of both the card you linked, as well as the Sonnet Solo (revision B), are mixed. In regards to the Solo, one reviewer stated the performance was below the typical speeds seen in other cards.

There was another thread in regards to 10GBe chips in iMac Pros being problematic and recommended only Intel-based 10GBe cards.

I was leaning towards the Sonnet Solo due to it's low price, but after reading about the AQC107's, I'm now thinking of the Intel x550-based Sonnet Presto 10GBe which is going for about 3 bills. But a reviewer on Amazon had overheating issues, even with no network activity, which led to the card shutting down.

Perhaps I should just go for Small-Tree P2E10G-1-T 10GbE, but those are pricey at $560.

Decisions, decisions...

 

[pastrychef]

So what do you think of these AQC107 based cards? Amazon reviews of both the card you linked, as well as the Sonnet Solo (revision B), are mixed. In regards to the Solo, one reviewer stated the performance was below the typical speeds seen in other cards.

There was another thread in regards to 10GBe chips in iMac Pros being problematic and recommended only Intel-based 10GBe cards.

I was leaning towards the Sonnet Solo due to it's low price, but after reading about the AQC107's, I'm now thinking of the Intel x550-based Sonnet Presto 10GBe which is going for about 3 bills. But a reviewer on Amazon had overheating issues, even with no network activity, which led to the card shutting down.

Perhaps I should just go for Small-Tree P2E10G-1-T 10GbE, but those are pricey at $560.

Decisions, decisions...

I've used Intel X540 based cards (with SmallTree drivers) and AQC107 based cards. In my experience, the Intel X540 based cards are a bit faster but also run A LOT hotter even when idle. I would say that the AQC107 were about 100Mb/s slower than the X540. It's not not a big deal for my personal use. It's still plenty fast.

One issue I had when I used the X540 cards was that it caused me to randomly lose AirDrop. This was important to me because I use AirDrop quite frequently.

Again, this is just my personal experience. YMMV.

Btw, as far as I know, SmallTree uses Intel X540 or X550. They have their own PID and VID which their drivers check. That's why making OEM Intel X540 and/or X550 cards work with their drivers is fairly easy. Therefore, whatever information you read about X540/X550 will be relevant to the SmallTree cards. It's also why I feel the SmallTree cards are insanely overpriced.

 

[Squuiid]

So what do you think of these AQC107 based cards? Amazon reviews of both the card you linked, as well as the Sonnet Solo (revision B), are mixed. In regards to the Solo, one reviewer stated the performance was below the typical speeds seen in other cards.

There was another thread in regards to 10GBe chips in iMac Pros being problematic and recommended only Intel-based 10GBe cards.

I was leaning towards the Sonnet Solo due to it's low price, but after reading about the AQC107's, I'm now thinking of the Intel x550-based Sonnet Presto 10GBe which is going for about 3 bills. But a reviewer on Amazon had overheating issues, even with no network activity, which led to the card shutting down.

Perhaps I should just go for Small-Tree P2E10G-1-T 10GbE, but those are pricey at $560.

Decisions, decisions...

Here’s another option...
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...nics-to-use-small-tree-macos-drivers.1968456/
[doublepost=1548925035][/doublepost]

I've used Intel X540 based cards (with SmallTree drivers) and AQC107 based cards. In my experience, the Intel X540 based cards are a bit faster but also run A LOT hotter even when idle. I would say that the AQC107 were about 100Mb/s slower than the X540. It's not not a big deal for my personal use. It's still plenty fast.

One issue I had when I used the X540 cards was that it caused me to randomly lose AirDrop. This was important to me because I use AirDrop quite frequently.

Again, this is just my personal experience. YMMV.

Btw, as far as I know, SmallTree uses Intel X540 or X550. They have their own PID and VID which their drivers check. That's why making OEM Intel X540 and/or X550 cards work with their drivers is fairly easy. Therefore, whatever information you read about X540/X550 will be relevant to the SmallTree cards. It's also why I feel the SmallTree cards are insanely overpriced.

Agreed. I run X540s in my cMPs and they run super hot at idle. They even have a ‘caution hot’ marking on the heat sink. Performance is excellent however, and noticeably better than the Aquantia based 10GbE card in my Mac mini 2018.