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Forum Discussion
Upgrading ReadyNAS 516 to 10GBe Ethernet
Hi
Having upgraded previously to the Xenon processor of the 716 I thought I would have a dabble at adding 10GBe ethernet via a card.
So - given there isn't a riser I had to purchase one of these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07GYT58NV
I then purcahsed a Intel X520-T2 card from ebay (as I believe this is the exact same one used in the 716).
With a little careful manipulation it fits.... and works!!
But is incredibly noisy - that tiny fan is really loud (as often they are!)
So I took a punt and purchased a X540-T2 card (passively cooled - but I think the 516 has reasonable airflow) and swapped it out.
And again.. it works (I suspected the Intel drivers in ReadyOS would cover it).
NB - I haven't yet got a 10GBe switch so I can't actually use it at 10GBe but proof of concept it is recongised and usable.
Hope this is helpful
Cheers
Andy
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I can only seem to attach one picture (and they appear as an attachment on the left hand side) - so the picture in the post above shows the ReadyNAS web interface. This picture shows how it actually fits (obviously once you attach it to the backplate it stands straight).
Super old thread I know, but in case anyone wanted to upgrade to a 10gbps nic in their Readynas 516 it can be done just as the OP stated. I purchased an X540-T2 card off of eBay for $17.99. Then I purchased a riser cable off of Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08PFJ9FZN?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
A pci-e 8x male to 8x female riser card.
I then took the unit apart and carefully kind of wedged the cable and the card in there (it's snug and held in with a screw at least.)
Booted the unit back up and hooked it up to my 10gbps switch and boom. I had also previously upgraded the CPU and ram (16GB's of ECC ram and an Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1265L V2 @ 2.50GHz)
I'm sure there's other differences between the 516 and the 716 but what the rest are I have no idea. I'm not sure if I'm going to sell the unit or what I'm going to do with it as I don't have any use for that much storage (6 x 8TB drives.) I purchased the unit used back in 2017 to back up client's macbooks when I did phone/computer repair. I got out of that and really don't have any need to store data at the moment unless I decide to start a youtube channel or something lol.
Any genuine Intel or Supermicro NIC in that family (X520-X540, 1 or 2 port) will work, at least with OS6. Other brands with that family of chips may, but I've not tried them. Other chip sets will not work. I do not know about with OS 4.2.x, but expect they should since some rack-mount units had them.
I think it would have been a little easier with about another 5cm of cable, as I also used a 20cm one like you did. Since my switch has SFP+ ports, I used an X520, which has no fan. There are X540 (RJ-45) versions without a fan.
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