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The default Ethernet adapter has become a go-to solution for users looking to replace failed on-board adapters or add additional NICs. It …
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What is Intel 500 Series Network Adapters?
The Intel 500 Series network adapters are backward compatible with existing 1000BASE-T networks, simplifying the transition to 10Gb Ethernet when more bandwidth is needed. Available in both PCIe and OCP form factors. Available models include the X550, the X540, and…
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What is Intel 500 Series Network Adapters?
Intel 500 Series Network Adapters Technical Details
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- Business Problems Solved
The default Ethernet adapter has become a go-to solution for users looking to replace failed on-board adapters or add additional NICs. It is commonly used by end-users, servers, and storage devices. The reliability and performance of this adapter have been highly valued by users, even without the use of 10 Gig switches on the other end. In fact, it is being considered for implementation in every desktop on the headquarters LAN as the company transitions to a 10 gig network. In a university setting, particularly on non-blade servers, the Intel 500 Series Network Adapters are widely used to leverage 10Gbe connections. These adapters have proven to be reliable in terms of hardware longevity and software/drivers, while achieving high throughput approaching the expected 10 GbE performance.
Another valuable use case for these adapters is their ability to upgrade machines to 10 GbE speeds while utilizing existing Cat6 cabling and switches. This has been successfully achieved using the Intel X540 adapter. Additionally, the Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X540 is utilized as Storage NICs for entry-level hyper-converged Ethernet solutions, providing suitable 10GbE NIC speed for 2-node clusters with virtual office workloads. One notable advantage of these adapters is their cost-effectiveness as they deliver the best price/performance ratio on the market, especially when directly connected without a switch.
In high-performance environments such as data centers, the Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapters x540 play a crucial role as the primary connectivity option for hardware-level networking. They serve as the backbone for datacenter and inter-site communication. Moreover, these adapters are part of the standard build of materials for all servers, providing stable and well-supported network interface connections.
The versatility of Intel network adapters is evident in their ability to upgrade several old servers from 1Gbe to 10 Gbe, including NAS servers, internet proxies, and speed test servers. By leveraging the Intel 500 adapter along with additional RAM, users have been able to upgrade existing servers without the need for complete replacement. Finally, these Intel CNAs have been instrumental in simplifying data centers by converging Storage Area Network devices with the remaining infrastructure. This reduces complexity and administrative effort while maintaining performance and reliability.
Reviews
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March 03, 2022
Review of Intel 500 Series Network Adapters
We have several old servers that we use Intel network adapters to increase then from 1Gbe to 10 Gbe. This include NAS server, internet proxy and speed test servers. We were originally looking to replace the servers with new ones but then we found these Intel 500 adapter and also purchased additional RAM and was able to upgrade our present servers.
In the University where I work, we use Intel 500 Series Network Adapters on almost all of our non-blade servers. These adapters allowed us to leverage 10Gbe connections which our datacenter switching infrastructure already supported.
February 23, 2022
Excellent choice for 10GbE CAT6 RJ45 connections - reliable and good driver support
The Intel 500 Series Network Adapters are great for CAT6 10 GbE. We have used these in place of Broadcom for 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections used by NAS and Dell PowerEdge servers. The adapters have been very reliable in terms of hardware longevity and software/drivers. We have measured high throughput approaching the 10 GbE real-world expected performance.
June 25, 2021
Great Network Adapter!
We are currently using Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X540 as our primary server NIC. These are part of our standard build of materials of all servers. They are stable and well supported network interface adapters.
Our office's wired networking was all 1 GbE, which is perfectly adequate for most purposes, but started to become bit of a bottleneck between a couple of machines in particular, i.e., a hypervisor server and network attached storage. We already had an ethernet switch with some 10GbE ports and did not want to have to move to a fiber setup at this point, so we opted for adding an Intel X540 adapter to each of the machines. This bumped them up 10 GbE speeds whilst still using the existing Cat6 cabling and switch. Perfect!
We have used these Intel CNAs as part of our Dell-based infrastructure to converge Storage Area Network devices with the remaining infrastructure within the data center. These devices reduce the complexity of our networking infrastructure which in turn reduces administrative effort, labour and equipment costs. There have been no performance/reliability issues with this setup.
May 01, 2021
Perfect Price/Ratio for 10GbE Networking
We use Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X540 as Storage NICs for entry-level hyper-converged ethernet solutions. The 10GbE NIC speed is suitable for 2-node clusters with virtual office workloads. In this scenario, the x540 delivers the best price/performance ratio on the market. Especially when using them directly connected without a switch, it helps customers to have low costs.
April 30, 2021
Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X540 Review
This is the default Ethernet adapter we purchase for end-users, servers, and storage when we need to replace a failed on-board adapter or add additional NICs. We find its reliability and performance are well worth the price, even when not using 10 Gig switches on the other end. As we move to a 10 gig network over the next year, we will likely be putting the adapter into every desktop on the headquarters LAN.
April 30, 2021
Great reliability with the cost and power savings
Being used in most of our servers and are a great entry-level 10gbe card. Does work right out of box with Ubuntu Servers. It made the migration to 10Gb6 very easy and it's nice that it does have backwards compatibility so it allows us to go backwards if that is ever needed. Performance is great even with lower cost and more savings on power.
April 30, 2021
Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X540 Review
Is it being used by a department specifically by SOC. One problem that we faced is that the support should be improved.
April 30, 2021
Flexible Network Connectivity Management, if you need it
We use Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapters x540 on our primary datacenter servers that serves all on-site services and production systems for all users in our organization. They have been used for years in high-performance environments at our location. They are the primary connectivity option for hardware-level networking for our datacenter and into other sites and across the Internet.