1x 10GBit or 4x 1GBit

[Ben.]

Hi,

If you had the choice between
a) Intel Quad-Port card (each 1GBit), so 4x 1GBit, or
b) Mellanox 10GBit card, so 1x 10GBit

Which one would you choose to run either 2 VLANs per GBit port (option a)) or all 8 VLANs on one 10GBit port?

I can do simple math, 4x 1GBit is less than 1x 10GBit, but maybe there is something else about it I should consider?

Thanks for your help.

[marcquark]

Depends on your requirements really. If you need the throughput and fault/downtime is no biggie, go with 10 Gbit/s. Though i'd test if your hardware is actually capable of maxing out the bandwidth.

Otherwise, go with the 4x 1 Gbit option but put all 4 Ports into a LAGG and put all VLANs on there. Poof, you just added some redundancy at least against failing ports and cables. And if you ever want to re-do your wires you can change them 1-by-1 without downtime.

/e: Another thing to consider is hardware support. Intel generally works really well and is almost always a safe bet. I have no idea about Mellanox, somebody else might chime in on that.

[Ben.]

Well, I could connect the switch via SFP+ and save a few ports.

The CPU is an AMD GX-424CC, so I guess it can't really max out 10 GBit.

Do you have experience about the min. CPU requirement to handle 10 GBit?