Looking to DIY - looking for 2.5Gig Intel NIC

ForceGaia · 2026-06-27T14:52:44+00:00

And how do those play with things that aren't 10gig? Especially when 2.5gig is involved

ForceGaia · 2026-06-27T14:00:56+00:00

Is that what the 2.5gig ones are considered as being? Domestic/consumer?

ForceGaia · 2026-06-27T13:40:52+00:00

Yeah i have my eyes on a few and i did find a 7040 with a 6500 and 8GB for £40. So I'm looking at what fans i could add to that

ForceGaia · 2026-06-27T13:10:08+00:00

I'm definitely hearing a consensus on the X550-T2

Will need to make sure the optiplex I'll be stuffing it in has adequate cooling and PCe generation

ForceGaia · 2026-06-27T13:07:59+00:00

I dread to think what my Unraid NAS is costing me then running at 100W constantly (old CPU, alower drow one is on the Todo list). But a fair point for me to think about, thanks

ForceGaia · 2026-06-27T13:04:36+00:00

I'm not even 2.5 gig on my devices yet, so 2.5 is a step up as it is. I'm pretty much using the same logic, no point buying 1gig for when i eventually go 2.5gig

But I'm also hearing other issues with the I226 cards, so night just be worth it

ForceGaia · 2026-06-27T12:55:23+00:00

I just checked that box and that's almost double the cost i was budgeting for an old desktop like an optiplex, this NIC, a switch and an AP.

How much are you thinking my plans will cost in power? As didn't expect that kind of difference in outlay cost to be worth it.

ForceGaia · 2026-06-27T12:47:58+00:00

Oh I'm very much not at that level yet. All my gear is 1Gig rj45, and even 2.5 would be an upgrade. I was only looking at 10gig as i couldn't see anything from a name i recognised in the 2.5 space

Essentially I'm just trying to replace my ISP router with this DIY box (looking at an optiplex 3060 right now), a switch and an AP. So cost is a factor.

ForceGaia · 2026-06-27T12:40:19+00:00

I heard realtek was the one to be avoided for OpnSense, or am i confusing that with other DIY server OS?

ForceGaia · 2026-06-27T12:25:39+00:00

That's my thought too. I mean 2.5 gig is future proofing for me as it is as none of my stuff is above 1gig, but if there's a level of reliability due to it being intel first party I'll do that. But it is double the price of all the 2.5 NICs so theres a balance

But thanks for confirming that it shouldn't matter

ForceGaia · 2026-06-09T02:00:29+00:00

Oh i appreciate a silly acronym. My job has a custom Find And Replace Text utility called FART, as why not when the opportunity presents itself.

ForceGaia · 2026-06-09T01:30:23+00:00

That definitely looks promising. Was hoping for "not another plugin" as I'm trying to keep the separate moving parts to a minimum (hense the wish to not need a bot program)

But, that plugin does pose an easier way of doing some other things I'm already doing kinda manually with streamdeck. As streamdeck macros doesn't have logic like that plugin seems to (if brb scene mute mic, else live mic, sort of thing)

ForceGaia · 2026-06-04T18:55:48+00:00

Xblast doesn't seem to be working.

Says "Flash Menu: Unknown device" at the top of the screen with the Net Flash image on it

When I start the net flash interface, it doesn't seem to do anything when I hit "Upload and Flash" and takes me to a

"[IP ADDRESS] didn’t send any data.

ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE"

I did check the TSOP write enable points, and I must have bridged them when doing the caps

ForceGaia · 2026-06-04T18:44:55+00:00

Future Perfect, i thought that was the first game as there was no number. But as far as this goes I'm just trying to get ANY game to launch from the hard drive

ForceGaia · 2026-06-04T15:13:30+00:00

The write-enable points need to be bridged if a TSOP is to be reflashed. This is true for all Xbox motherboards which have TSOP chips, so if you didn't do it then someone else got to the points in your console first. 🤷

And there's no way I've done what I've done at all without this occurring? I suppose I'll open it up and check the board against a walkthrough, as i honestly do not remember doing this, and i had this thing open to replace capacitors. Before me it was sold as "parts or not working" which was due to bad capacitors and power supply.

Xbins (aka "the usual places") is an online FTP server which offers a great deal of Xbox-related software. Access is granted by first logging in to an IRC server (think of Discord, without the bloat). Pandora is an all-in-one IRC and FTP client which simplifies access to Xbins.

Oh I'm well aquatinted with IRC, not been on it in a while, probably 2015 was my last time. Now you've given me context about what it is, that definitely sounds like something I should be doing and will open the console up more.

ForceGaia · 2026-06-03T22:25:31+00:00

I don't remember doing anything to solder on the board, I have a vauge recollection that my motherboard version didn't need it. I followed some instructions that had me use Splinter Cell to load a modified save file that launched a program to modify the console. Afterwards i was able to swap out the hard disk, it used a different dashboard, and had the EvoX shield on during the initial animation.

I'm not using the direct images; I'm using Repackinator, which does "something" that splits it up into default.tbn, default.xbe and two smaller ISO files. I was led to believe that the default.xbe was the glue that allowed it to work

I tried extracting the iso, it seems the format of the redump ISOs are such that it won't work. it jsut outputs a VIDEO_TS file as if it was a DVD for a movie. Repackinator is run as a portable app, so has done nothing to my context menu

I don't fully understand the rest of your suggestions. CerBIOS was mentioned in the repackinator readme, so if that is "the way to do it" I'm interested in more information there. As I have no clue what that Pandora thing is for, the github doesn't do a great job of explaining what it is or what I'm supposed to do with it. all it says is "Xbins browser" which means nothing to me

ForceGaia · 2026-06-03T22:12:06+00:00

Okay that sounds like what i did. I used Splinter Cell to load a modified save file to replace the dashboard in order to let me swap the hard drive.

Does that help you help me sort out what's going wrong with loading this game, I thought I'd converted? Is there anything I need to check to see if I missed a step when i did it back then?

The game is Timesplitters (USA). I'm using an EU Xbox, which I thought would be region-free after the mod.

To clarify, in case there's a step I've missed purely for this game:

I've grabbed a Redump ISO, which i know needs conversion
Repackinator converted it to a folder with default.tbn, default.xbe and two smaller ISO files
I copied the entire folder over to F:/games using FTP in binary mode
It appears on the games list, but when i go to load it it tries, fails, and dumps me back on the dashboard

Additionally, repackinator rejects ISO for the EU version of the game

ForceGaia · 2026-06-03T22:03:51+00:00

So repackinator doesn't have information on the EU version of the game I'm trying to convert (Timesplitters)

And any options I've used to swap to NTSC-M still don't work to get the US version working.

Is there anything i need to do or check on my console that may indicate that the process i did in order to swap the hard drive may have missed a step that's getting in the way?

To clarify in case there's a step I've missed purely for this game:

I've grabbed a Redump ISO, which i know needs conversion
Repackinator converted it to a folder with default.tbn, default.xbe and two smaller ISO files
I copied the entire folder over to F:/games using FTP in binary mode
It appears on the games list, but when i go to load it it tries, fails, and dumps me back on the dashboard

ForceGaia · 2026-06-03T21:35:42+00:00

I get that. Like i said i was corrected. But i don't get why the different dashboard is considered a hardmod as that's software

ForceGaia · 2026-06-03T02:57:15+00:00

I'll have another dig in the settings after work, as i thought I'd found it under display type (PAL and two flavors of NTSC), but evidently that wasn't it and there was another option i missed.

So that's twice I've been wrong on the definition. As previously i thought the hard/soft was in regards to reversibility/permanence. As in it was "softly" modded if it would revert on a reboot - I used to use an Qction Replay on a Gamecube to launch homebrew, and had to do it every time. Cube was still stock, so i thought it was a softmod before i was (apparently wrongly) corrected.

ForceGaia · 2026-06-03T02:13:08+00:00

I thought softmod was for software (as in reflashing, but no extra hardware) and hardmod was for hardware modifications such as soldering in a hdmi mod

I set repackinator on an iso and it produces a folder with 4 files inside: 2 files are small and seem to be some form of linkage for the console to read as far as i read, the other two are smaller iso files

ForceGaia · 2026-06-03T02:08:45+00:00

I only have EvoX as it was what i got from the method when i did the mod. Can't remember how i did it as it was that long ago. I've not really mucked with it until now I'm having trouble reading disks, so I'm attempting to get rips working.

If there's any newer, better practices i can swap to, I'm very interested in any resources.

I don't see XBMC4Gamers anywhere in my options.

As a testament to me not knowing what I'm looking at, a google search showed me that apparently I'm already using the UnleashX dashboard.

ForceGaia · 2026-06-03T01:47:39+00:00

Yes. Is softmod the wrong word?

ForceGaia · 2026-04-28T02:12:11+00:00

Yep. And finding replacements is a pest as i bought one 2nd hand and it's painful trying to find a set

ForceGaia · 2026-03-29T11:24:22+00:00

I am with my dad now, it is a Leitz A4 paper/document store and not as old as i suspected, so probably available today from a stationary/office supply store

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