Quad port NIC

[tom01]

Hey Guys,

So I'm having a bit of trouble with finding a quad port NIC for my Dell PowerEdge T20. Has to be second hand really as new is just too expensive.

I managed to find what I thought was a good candidate on fleabay however after failing to get it to present in the BIOS or O/S and after talking to Dell Support who then identified it was a 1st Gen card which was incompatible with my server I'm a bit stumped.

The card which didn't work was an IBM 39Y6138 Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Adapter. FRU PN: 39Y6138 / PN SN: 39Y6137

Can anyone recommend a known working NIC for this server? Thanks in advance.

 

[tom01]

Hi Guys,

Thank you both for your input. Confusion and bewilderment has definitely set in now!

In the end I pulled the trigger and bought an Intel i350-T4 Quad Network Adapter which as far as I can tell on Dells site, linked below, it should be a supported NIC for this server.
http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/campaigns/intel-network-cards

Interesting that you have stated that the HP NC364T appeared to work correctly in the T20 as that card I believe is PCIe 1.01a which if going by what Dell said about the IBM 39Y6138 that I bought and couldn't get to work (Also PCIe 1.01a) should by that logic, fail to work for me too.

I too believed PCIe was backwards compatible however Dell support stated to me that the IBM NIC was not suitable for the T20 as it was 1st Gen and the T20 only supported Gen 2 and 3 NICs hence now going down the route of i350-T4.

Just by chance I actually have a HP NC364T being delivered to me this week for another box on another project I'm working on so I'm almost tempted to try the HP in the T20 and see if I get the same result, I almost certainly want this not to be the cause as that i350-T4 wasn't cheap and was 4x the cost of the NC364T NIC.

Any one have any more input on PCIe being backwards compatible?