10gbe m.2 adapter gets hot.

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applegrcoug

Gawd
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I got one of these m.2 10gbe adapter thingies. Why, well, because I didn't have enough regular x4 slots and PCIe lanes to handle a regular card and my capture card.

I got the thing plugged in and all, and it seems to work that is until it gets so hot it cuts in and out. The heatsink on it is just so tiny. Right now I have the capture card pulled out and a 120mm fan wedged in to blow on it and that seems to be working.

Any realistic ideas on how to keep it cool?
 

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Maybe something like the ARCTIC S4028 or Noctua NF-A4X20 would work. It should fit between your GPU and capture card. I'm not entirely sure the "best" way to affix it but maybe like rubber bands or zip ties or something.
 
Find appropriate sized fan and screw it into the factory heatsink and then provide power to the fan--I think that should do it.
 
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The heat is expected. Unfortunately 10 Gb/s Ethernet is a power intensive game.

A pointed fan is a good first step. If that doesn't do it a bigger heatsink.
 
RJ45. That's why it's hot. 10GBase-T pulls a lot more power than fiber modules or a DAC cable. A lot of SFP+ switches have restrictions on how many RJ45 modules you can use.

Just hack up some cooling for it. Once upon a time I had a slot fan with the slot part removed and wired for 7V zip-tied to the back of a GTX680 to keep a server NIC from melting. That was back in 2013 when I set that up, and the card was an older used one. Those run quite a bit hotter than reasonably recent 10Gb NICs. I haven't had any trouble with recent 10Gb server NICs melting in a decently ventilated desktop case, but I haven't tried stuffing an RJ45 module in one since I use fiber and DAC cables on my 10Gb stuff.
 
Second vote for 40mm noctua, and maybe a bigger heatsink if you feel like modding it. If space is a concern you could probably find a laptop blower/heatsink too.
 
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