Affordable 10gbe solution for DS918+ and other baremetal setups

[wessu]

I got 2 Inspur Intel X540-T2 10gbe from Aliexpress for $20 each. One for DS918+ synology setup and the other one is for my PC.

On Windows 11, v26 driver for Intel x64 worked. (v28 did not work)

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/58954/intel-ethernet-converged-network-adapter-x540t2/downloads.html

 

As far DS918+ goes, the card was not recognized when I plugged it in as I already did DSM setup months ago. If you are starting fresh then it is a lot easier. If the card was not installed when you did your bootloader then it won't be detected automatically. Long story short, I had to redo the bootloader for RedPill TC and using the listmods option, TC found ixgbe ethernet plugged and added the driver for it. I rebooted and it worked! I also modified the synoinfo.conf to allow 4 ethernet cards. Everything works! ( 2 10gbe LAN available plus the builtin on on the motherboard). You may want to disable the builtin on since the settings might be deleted when you do a major software upgrade for DSM per the post. DS918+ has a 2 LANs max otherwise.

 

On a side note, the ones I got do not come with a long profile metal bracket so I still have to find them. Right now, I'm not using any brackets. Also if you plug them into a x16 PCIe then you need to put some tape or just use the x8 PCIe slot on the motherboard. If you just plug them into the x16 then the motherboard wont even power on. No damage to the motherboard if you do that. I just put it in the second PCIe slot and it worked. Keep in mind that the card consumes a lot of power. 17.5 W per the listing. It looks like the card idles around 7-10 W (per my UPS unit) so it may not be the best for those who wants to have a low power setup. Also the heat sink gets really hot so there is an alternative version with a fan but I don't have one to try it out. Not sure what the long term consequences will be. Shipping from Aliexpress took about 2 weeks.

Edited April 11, 2023 by wessu