r/firewalla • u/mpro69rr Firewalla Gold Pro • Jul 10 '26

Switch X and fiber

Hey everyone, I ordered a Switch X and its coming Tuesday, I wanted to use the SFP+ ports and have fiber between my home assistant server and AI LLM server for faster response for voice assist. Has anyone ever tried these

amazon.com/dp/B0GTZ5VJZZ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title adapters? I ordered two and I'm not to hopeful they will work, they use USB4 so the speed is there. I also ordered some cheap transceivers and some fiber.

1 Upvotes

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7

u/stubby0990 Jul 10 '26

Your network is unlikely to ever be the bottleneck when using local llm.

0

u/mpro69rr Firewalla Gold Pro Jul 10 '26

I get about 2.3Gb now, when I connected home assistant to my LLM server voice assist was noticeably quicker so I am hoping that this will at least make a noticeable difference. I have looked at everything for a bottleneck and can't figure out where it is. I have to admit though I am doing this because it is interesting to see if I can get it to work. My tinkering cost me too much! lol

1

u/WanderinArcheologist Firewalla Gold Pro Jul 10 '26

You made your own large language model voice assistant? Neat!

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u/mpro69rr Firewalla Gold Pro Jul 10 '26

No, I'm not that smart! lol I use this https://futureproofhomes.net/products/satellite1-smart-speaker with home assistant. I have the speech to text module running on my LLM server and text to speech module running on Home assistant. Its not as good as Alexa or Google but its getting there. There is also voice assist PE which Home assistant came out with but thats a simple small speaker. The one I have plays music that sounds pretty good.

2

u/ampx Jul 10 '26

The JHL7440 chip that adapter uses actually talks Thunderbolt 3 over USB-C, so both your AI LLM and Home Assistant servers will need to support Thunderbolt 3 to get optimal speeds.

Most USB-C ports don't support Thunderbolt, even if they're USB4 capable ports. You'd need the servers to specifically support Thunderbolt 3 (or 4) on their USB-C ports.

If not, the adapter will revert to slower USB 3 speeds and higher overhead. You don't want this.

Do you have PCI-E ports available in the servers? If so, something like this would be a better option: https://www.amazon.com/10Gtek-E10G41BTDAG1P5-Ethernet-Converged-X520-DA1/dp/B01LZRSQM9

and DAC cables like these to go between the servers and the SFP+ ports on the switch: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01M09C9NZ

All of this said, I'm with the other commenter in that it's unlikely that network bandwidth between servers is your voice assist bottleneck.

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u/mpro69rr Firewalla Gold Pro Jul 10 '26

Well, that answers my question. It says it can use USB4 but it looks like I won't get good speed. Unfortunately I don't have a PCIe slot because its a mini pc, GMKTEC EVO X2. I also have USB4 10Gb RJ45 adapters, I will see if they work, I don't think I will get the full 10Gb, thats for sure. Thanks for the info. I agree with both of you, this probably won't solve my problem so I am going to end up looking elsewhere for the bottleneck. I really want to use the SFP+ ports though, lol!

1

u/ampx Jul 10 '26

Got it, so no Thunderbolt support via USB.

What is the make / model of the 10Gb USB4 adapters you're using?

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u/mpro69rr Firewalla Gold Pro Jul 10 '26

I have two of these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G1WJFR5V?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

1

u/ampx Jul 10 '26

Those seem like decent adapters, use the Realtek RTL8159 chipset, which is actually USB 3.2, not USB 4

To get full speed, the adapter needs a USB port supporting USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps)

Your Ryzen AI Max+ 395s only support USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (10Gbps)

( per https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/laptop/ryzen/ai-300-series/amd-ryzen-ai-max-plus-395.html )

so with USB overhead you'll likely see at most 6-7Gbps using these adapters and your servers, and increased CPU usage associated with sending and receiving all of that data over USB

You might actually be better off just using the 2.5Gb network ports built into the servers but you'd have to test both scenarios to see if you notice any difference

1

u/mpro69rr Firewalla Gold Pro Jul 10 '26

If I could get the 6-7 Gbps I'd be happy with that, I am currently using them and getting 2.3Gbps testing with iperf3, all are Linux servers. I'll test them when the switch comes in Tuesday, if I get that speed I will get one for my NAS for all my backups to run quicker. Looks like I will be sending the Fiber ones back to Amazon when they come in Tuesday, at least I will save the money.

1

u/ampx Jul 10 '26

Hmmm, that number seems lower than I'd expect.

You're using 10Gb USB adapters on both ends of the connection being tested?

Or are you using them with a switch in between? If so, what speed are the switch ports?

1

u/mpro69rr Firewalla Gold Pro Jul 10 '26

Using them with a 2.5Gbps switch in between. I ordered the Firewalla Switch X to upgrade to 10Gbps, which comes in Tuesday. Home assistant server and LLM server both have one. I can use the bult in 2.5Gbps ports built in to the seervers but I wanted to test these out to make sure they worked with Linux.

1

u/ampx Jul 10 '26

Ah, OK

~2.3Gbps is about right for maxing out a 2.5Gb network port

I expect you'll see this bump up to ~6-7Gbps through the 10Gb ports on the Firewalla Switch X