Low profile network brackets

[ewitte]

Maybe because I've never used low profile in a full-sized system but WHY are all the low-profile brackets, I can find the screw down hole is on the wrong side?  

[OhioYJ]

The bracket should come with your card. You normally would not be trying to be buying a bracket separately after the fact. This might be why you are coming across "incorrect" brackets. 

 

Buy a card that comes with both. Not all do.

[ewitte]

29 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

The bracket should come with your card. You normally would not be trying to be buying a bracket separately after the fact. This might be why you are coming across "incorrect" brackets. 

 

Buy a card that comes with both. Not all do.

3 out of 3 of the 10Gbit cards I had NEW, the bracket that came with it faced the wrong way.  Just the low profile brackets the full height ones were fine.  I've looked at a dozen others online and it seems to be the same thing...  I need a Dremel...

 

I've also had to adapt an m.2 slot; it doesn't look all that pretty at the moment but I'm getting over 9Gbit now.

[AbydosOne]

56 minutes ago, ewitte said:

screw down hole is on the wrong side

Because that's the design? Low profile brackets aren't just shorter PCI brackets, the "ear" goes the other way too.

[OhioYJ]

29 minutes ago, ewitte said:

3 out of 3 of the 10Gbit cards I had NEW, the bracket that came with it faced the wrong way.  

Weird, all my HTPCs (total of 3) used to require low profile cards, I've never had anything be backwards, or not fit. Just swapped the brackets on all the cards and installed. (Since swapped to cases that don't require these things)

[ewitte]

19 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

Because that's the design? Low profile brackets aren't just shorter PCI brackets, the "ear" goes the other way too.

Like I said I've only ever used them in machines designed for low profile, so I've never noticed or had problems.  I originally used it with an adapter to force it into a 1x slot but the only card I could get work, only worked at 3.0 which got me about 6Gbit.  Now I'm using a m.2 to 4x cable with the card dangling in the air.  That gets me the full 3.0x4 I've been able to test up to 8-9Gbit now (just over 1GB/s).  Its dangling at a weird angle, I'm trying to make it look better but hey it works and isn't falling.

[ryd994]

On 4/20/2023 at 9:20 AM, ewitte said:

3 out of 3 of the 10Gbit cards I had NEW

I really question that. All reasonably priced 10GbE NICs I've seen are either salvaged shenanigans (such as "new" X550 ) or unheard brands from China.

 

You might got the "new" shenanigans, and the seller sourced the brackets from who-knows-where 

 

At work, I have used many, including 40G 100G ones. Very common on servers. The price tag is nowhere I can or want to afford for homelab use.

[ewitte]

On 4/21/2023 at 6:44 PM, ryd994 said:

I really question that. All reasonably priced 10GbE NICs I've seen are either salvaged shenanigans (such as "new" X550 ) or unheard brands from China.

 

You might got the "new" shenanigans, and the seller sourced the brackets from who-knows-where 

 

At work, I have used many, including 40G 100G ones. Very common on servers. The price tag is nowhere I can or want to afford for homelab use.

They were all aquantia aqc113cs cards.  Two were cheap Amazon no name brands.  The third was the OWC PCIe 4.0 card a decent brand from B&H photo.   Also I got a qnap 10Gbe/2xNVME combo card.  The ear on the full profile bracket points to the left, on the low profile it points to the right...

 

Strangely I was just looking at the LSI card in the Lenovo 3650 M5 I rescued from the recycle pile.  The low profile bracket is pointing the way I wish for the network cards to point...  Really now that I gave up an M.2 for full 3.0x4 I wish I did 25Gbe with SFP cards...  I could have gotten a Microtik switch with a few ports for about the same price.

[LIGISTX]

On 4/20/2023 at 8:40 AM, ewitte said:

Maybe because I've never used low profile in a full-sized system but WHY are all the low-profile brackets, I can find the screw down hole is on the wrong side?  

If you do need different brackets, my go to solution is just 3d print them. I have a few things that I needed to make custom brackets for, and 3d printing whatever custom thing I need has worked out well.

 

If you have never done 3d modeling, it would certainly be a bit of a learning curve, but thankfully PCIe brackets are literally just rectangles. But be mindful of slot clearances and thicknesses. Can’t just yolo the size and thickness, they have to actually fit correctly lol.  

[ewitte]

55 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

If you do need different brackets, my go to solution is just 3d print them. I have a few things that I needed to make custom brackets for, and 3d printing whatever custom thing I need has worked out well.

 

If you have never done 3d modeling, it would certainly be a bit of a learning curve, but thankfully PCIe brackets are literally just rectangles. But be mindful of slot clearances and thicknesses. Can’t just yolo the size and thickness, they have to actually fit correctly lol.  

I haven't opened it since, but I can probably just do something that spans between two screwdowns with a hole on each side.  I may even be able to do with a paperclip...

[Blue4130]

6 hours ago, ewitte said:

I haven't opened it since, but I can probably just do something that spans between two screwdowns with a hole on each side.  I may even be able to do with a paperclip...

Or just bend it the way you need. Sure it's going to fatigue the metal, but bending it a single time should be fine. Not like it needs to be structural.

[ewitte]

removed inaccurate response.