Adding 10Gb Networking to a Mini ITX PC

Let's fix my main issue with Mini ITX PCs by adding a second PCIE slot for further expansion!

Products I used...

Tools I Use

[CustomHydroGaming]

I’ve done this with an x570-I gaming and loved the idea of hooking it into the rear of the board m.2. Both a 10g base-t and a 4k60 pro worked flawlessly. And still had my other m.2 for storage.

[John-eqcu]

Amazing! I have the exact same ITX system, and I was considering ditching the ITX format because of the upcoming upgrade to 10Gbe, so you have an awesome solution, and I didn't know you could get that riser card. I did see they have an M.2 10G card, but it's $238, so your solution is a money saver.

[Arcao]

For example, Intel X540-T2 needs at least 8 lines, because supports PCIe 2.0 only. Intel X550-T2 is ok, because supports PCIe 3.0, so needs 4 lines only.

[jazzybman]

I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while.. thanks mate

[John-eqcu]

I have the same case, and I'm working on a similar solution for 10G network, but I'm using a high-quality riser from ADT-Link. So instead of a M.2 riser plus PCIe riser, which might be unreliable, you only need one such riser. I plan to mount the card on the back panel, just below the PS, but I have a SF-450 power supply, which is a lot smaller, and does leave some room for the NIC just below it.

I'm also planning to replace my single cooling fan with a paid of 15mm slim fans, in push-pull confiiguration, to get more air flowing through th case.

You didn't mention which NIC you used. That one you have looks really small, way smaller than any 10G cards I've seen. The smallest I could find is ASUS, and others from TrendNET and StartTech are similar sized. I think that if I could find a tiny 10G card like yours, that the coolig would be fine in this case. Thanks for sharing.

[andrewwelchphotographer]

I had been thinking about doing this with the rear slot on the MB but never considered using the primary M.2. Going to re investigate now…

[Cuissedemouche]

Hey, really cool to see someone trying this, I've been thinking to do that since I had to abandon my 10Gb card while going to an ITX build.
But I'm curious about the performances of it. Can you actually achieve the full performance of your card?

[assyriaaaaa]

Amazing sir! Just what I wanted. God bless you!

[austinstallion]

Great video...Can you tell us what 10g card you used? Link?

[terryjohnson]

Switch to a SFX or SFX-L power supply maybe for some more space?

[galen__]

Nice 👍 Let us know how if it works well over a 10G link, as I’ve been wanting to do this in an ITX build in a Silverstone DS380 case for a 8x 3.5” + 4x 2.5” NAS. Even 400 MByte/sec would be good to have.

[thefantasticmro]

If you plan on doing this please make a video on it because I am very curious.

[sahilagar]

Pretty good, can you do a ubiquiti wifi 6 AP range review? Going through walls etc. Also a comparison against the AC-Lite and using U6-Lite with wifi 5 devices and testing iPerf and range? All reviews i have seen for U6-Lites are using wifi 6 devices.

I’m moving into a new home and deploying 2 U6-Lites, I’m still scared about 5Ghz range across 2 walls for Wifi 5 devices

[bigappleplug]

ONLY TAKE out the gigabit card if you converted your entire home and get that much bandwidth in from the isp. Otherwise slap in a 10g card but your it to connect to other 10g devices....

Jitter and instability - read about it.

[thefantasticmro]

How can you add an Ethercon port to your build? I’m interested.

[aure_eti]

I this video was released 10 day ago i wouldn't be that confused ... but the end with the connector comming out of the case like if it was put there in a hurry makes me feel like this is a joke.

[bigappleplug]

Its ATTEMOTING to boot from it because you have option rom enabled in your bios

[dram]

To avoid this issue, I recommend betting a micro atx motherboard and case instead of an itx. They are not much bigger.