Onboard vs. PCIe (Network) Controller?

[pH-Wert]

Hi there,

 

I am planning to setup new hardware to build an unraid system. *youwouldnthaveguessedthat*

 

Thinking about which mobo, and what and how many PCIe slots i should buy, i was thinking about buying a mobo, e.g. https://geizhals.eu/gigabyte-z690-aorus-master-a2625065.html?hloc=at&hloc=de with 10GBase-T (Marvell AQtion AQC113CS) network controller onboard to safe a PCIe slot as spare.

 

Can I use this onboard controller (or any other 10gb chipset) simultaneously with unraid, Plex, any other docker service and passthrough to running VMs (I would assume in bridged mode)?

If yes, is there a performance difference between onboard and PCIe controller (even when using the same chipset)?

 

Would you recommend buying a mobo with onboard 10GB network controller in general?

 

Additional to the other questions, but more general: Would you recommend using onboard controllers (Network, Thunderbolt, USB, Audio, ...) and would they work all with passthrough to VM and services?

 

 

 

[pH-Wert]

*bump* is my question too boring, because answered 1001 times? or am in not specific enough? Or is it not easy to answer?  

 

[ljm42]

If Unraid is using a 10G nic for it's main connection to the network, then all docker containers and VMs will benefit from the 10g speeds. You would be sharing a bridged connection with the VM rather than doing passthrough (passthrough means Unraid doesn't use the device, but passes it through to the VM to use)

 

I would not expect a difference in speed between an onboard 10G nic and a PCIe 10G nic. Having it onboard would be nice because it saves a PCIe slot. The question is whether Unraid has drivers for the onboard nic, I did a search for "Unraid Marvell AQtion AQC113CS" and found this which looks promising:

  https://forums.unraid.net/topic/73730-aquantia-aqtion-10g-pro-nic/

 

 

As to whether the various features of your motherboard can be passed through to a VM, it depends on the motherboard and whether those features are isolated into their own IOMMU group. IOMMU groups are shown on the Tools -> System Devices page, but you won't see that until you have built the system You might try searching "Unraid [motherboard name]" to see what other people have said.  Note that sometimes the initial release of a motherboard doesn't have good support for this and a BIOS update resolves it.

[pH-Wert]

Thanks ljm42

 

To summarize. OnBoard is as well good and similar to a PCIe (compared to the same chipset - apples of the same sort compared to apples of the same sort ).

But always check first if the Chipset is supported and drivers are available for the specific Hardware. right?  

[ljm42]

good summary