comments:
I have couple of m920q. my first m920q has a 10GTek X520-DA2 https://www.amazon.com/10Gtek-E10G42BTDA-Ethernet-Converged-X520-DA2/dp/B01DCZCA3O/ref=sr_1_3 worked flawlessly out of the box, no issues with it. And most importantly: if fits inside the m9201 My second m920 has a used Dell Intel X520-DA2 (8086:154d) I got for dirt cheap on ebay (most likely salvaged from old Dell PowerEdge server), but I don't know if I can recommended it because a lot of time investment went into this card to make it work with my generic OEM DAC cables. I just got it working last night! and I'm not sure if I am out of the woods yet. I hope I am because I'm done with this card. First it was giving me tons of firmware errors in dmesg that looks like this: [ 1.661080] ixgbe 0000:01:00.0: Warning firmware error detected FWSM: 0x00298044 [ 2.799448] ixgbe 0000:01:00.1: Warning firmware error detected FWSM: 0x00298044 I am not sure if it was a bug it the firmware it was running (19.0.12), but went away after I flashed it the latest available firmware 22.0.9 ( https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ca/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=wttp6 ) using nvmupdate6e inside of that archive followed by full shutdown with AC cord pull (important!!! that's where I lost most of my time because I didn't know pulling the AC cord was the only way to properly reset the card to get it to fully reload with the latest firmware), and the error messages were gone for good. Second it was vendor-locked and would only work with Dell/Intel trancsceivers until I found this thread https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/patching-intel-x520-eeprom-to-unlock-all-sfp-transceivers.24634/ . My card was reporting 0xfc at the 0x58 offset. changed it to 0xfd and now my card can use my generic OEM DAC (finally) Conclusion: unless you are financially desparate or in need of a challenge, then go for it. I think it's a great card, with questionable/evil firmware practices. but at least, I can confirm that it will fit inside an m920q.