What's the 03-23-2023 consensus on reliable 2.5Gbe?

[AmyTooobin]

Hi all. I've been running a Lenovo m910q with a couple of external drives via a dual SATA port mini pci card in the wifi M2 slot, but I have a m920q coming and I have a PCI riser card to go with a SAS PCIe card that has external SAS ports. It should be a nice upgrade, but I've been thinking about getting a 2.5Gbe USB adapter but they all seem to be Realtek based and appear to have issues like heat and stability.

So what's the story on 2.5Gbe? I know switches are becoming more common and affordable but if the available adapters aren't, there's not much point. 5Gbe is a bit too exotic I expect and 10Gbe is still too expensive and/or uncommon.

I realize you all talk about this topic regularly. I'm interested in what's the story in Spring if anything has changed. Any tips are appreciated.

 

[mrpasc]

I go with the 5G adapters for USB even with 2.5G switches. They come mostly with Aquantia (now Broadcom) chips which seem to be more reliable than the Realtek one’s. But only for lab, never for production or mission critical… and they do not more than 3.2G in real, as all available chips for 5G are still limited to 5G USB…

 

[CyklonDX]

i would say qnap would be most reliable,

QNA-UC5G1T | Connect to 5GbE networks over USB 3.2 Gen 1

The light and portable QNAP QNA-UC5G1T USB 3.2 Gen 1 to 5GbE adapter provides the ability to add an extra network port to your Windows® computer or QNAP NAS. Supporting 5GbE/ 2.5GbE/ 1GbE/ 100MbE connections, the QNA-UC5G1T is especially useful for laptops that lack native Ethernet connectivity.

www.qnap.com

review

https://www.servethehome.com/qnap-qna-uc5g1t-usb-5gbe-adapter-review/

next atheros used to be good on usb.

 

[AmyTooobin]

Going with a 5Gbe adapter is a solid piece of advice. Thanks. I looked at the QNAP 5Gbe adapter yesterday and it's silly priced in Canada ($200+). I could order it from the US and probably pay a little less, it's still and outsized chunk of $$$. I did find this Trendnet 5Gbe adapter for $80, anyone have thoughts? I've briefly read that the QNAP is preferred for a couple of good reasons. Not sure about its chipset and I haven't seen many user reviews on it.

https://www.amazon.ca/TRENDnet-2-5GBASE-T-Integrated-Compatible-TUC-ET5G/dp/B07TBPLR2V/ref=sr_1_4?crid=9Q1EAI6IX0CJ&keywords=5gbe+adapter&qid=1679669367&s=electronics&sprefix=5gbe+adapter%2Celectronics%2C84&sr=1-4

 

[mrpasc]

200 CAD is really silly. Can’t believe it, first time I see IT gadgets substantially cheaper in the EU than on the other side of the ocean.
Here in Amazon Germany they sell it for 69€ (otherwise I wouldn’t recommend them…)
TRENDnet TUC-ET5G USB-C 3.1 auf 5GBASE-T Ethernet-Adapter https://amzn.eu/d/aoxsuDP

 

[oneplane]

The omission of chipset information on devices like this is so annoying. Sometimes I go through the hassle of finding out what re-packaged drivers they have, or disassemble the firmware to figure out what chip family they have, just so I can get a sense of what the thing actually is. Especially when you are going to buy 300 of them for an office...

 

[AmyTooobin]

Honestly when I see pricing like this here in the last 8 years or so, it's laziness. Vendors will not delist or commit to different markets. When a product on Amazon is sold out, they won't delist it, they'll just raise the price and import. On Amazon Canada the majority of QNAP products are clearly being imported from the US (the shipping times, cost, and lack of "ships from Amazon") even though it's listed in Canada. If I go to the Amazon.com site, many times it's cheaper to get the same product from the US site in Canada, because they're selling and shipping to me, not some "warehouse transfer".

I've seen the QNAP 5Gbe adapter here from other shops for $130 (high but fairer) but it's sold out everywhere at this price. The cheapest I could order it for would be from the B&H Photo $80 USD and in stock ($118 USD on Amazon) plus shipping and customs, about $120 USD, so $165. Basically the equivalent to a $130 CAD order. It's just a lazy mess. All you can do is pay attention and one of these companies will bring some stock in at some point and things will go back to normal briefly until they sell out, then back to a lazy mess.

 

[AmyTooobin]

Also I just noticed this: The AQC111U chips seems to have been discontinued after the Marvell takeover and drivers (for all OS) are not maintained since 2019. Top level searches on the Marvell site won’t find the product any more, and only search engines will still dig out deep references to older documents.

Startech also has a ACQ111U based adapter: 5GbE USB A Ethernet Adapter NBASE-T NIC - USB and Thunderbolt Network Adapters | StarTech.com Canada

It looks like there isn't a clear 2.5Gbe and 5Gbe option and the QNAP might be overpriced with small stocks because it's no longer being manufactured.