2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps, and 10 Gbps

[tgl]

If I am going to change NICs I want to use 10 gig NICs. No reason to stop at 2.5 gig since I am starting new. I might as well buy 10 gig NICs as 2.5 gig.

Hmm, I dunno. If you're allergic to fan noise then insisting on 10G is kind of counterproductive, because all the available hardware of that speed runs hot. I've not seen much if any gear that is fanless and has more than two 10G-capable ports. That might change before too much longer, but it seems to be reality today.

 

[Tech Junky]

Anyway to add a 2.5 Gbps network card to a laptop ?

Yeah, it's a dongle through USB.

You can get 2.5/5/10GE options.

USB Type-A / Type-C to 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

Convert any USB Type-A or Type-C port into a standard RJ45 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port. Rugged aluminum construction for durability and maximum heat dissipation. Up to 2.5 Gigabits per second for up to (at least) 100 meters of CAT5e+ cable. Bus-powered, which eliminates the need for external power...

sabrent.com

I have one of these but, considering upping it to their 10GE potentially.

USB Type-A or Type-C to 5-Gigabit Ethernet Adapter [10/100/1000/2500/5000 Mbps]

Convert any USB Type-A or Type-C port into a standard RJ45 5 Gigabit Ethernet port. Rugged aluminum construction for durability and maximum heat dissipation. Up to 5 Gigabits per second for up to (at least) 100 meters of CAT 6 cable. Bus-powered, eliminates the need for external power adaptors...

sabrent.com

Thunderbolt™ 3 Ethernet Adapter

Thunderbolt™ 3 speed and reliability. Does not work in a standard USB Type-C port. Solid aluminum construction for maximum heat dissipation. Anti-skid rubber bumper for added protection. Full IEEE802.3an NBASE-T compliance. 10G speed and full backward compatibility for 5G/2.5G/1000M/100M/10M...

sabrent.com

I found 5GE speeds to be the right fit at the time dur to my disks in raid only hitting 400MB/s+ in speeds. Now that I'm upgrading to nand even 10GE would be a bit of a bottleneck to deal with but, then working with a media converter would be the next level up to potentially get to those speeds.

 

[drinkingbird]

Hmm, I dunno. If you're allergic to fan noise then insisting on 10G is kind of counterproductive, because all the available hardware of that speed runs hot. I've not seen much if any gear that is fanless and has more than two 10G-capable ports. That might change before too much longer, but it seems to be reality today.

Should be seeing lower power/heat 10G switches on the market pretty soon, your 2 10G ports are most likely low power 10G if there is no fan (or they have some really good passive cooling).

I have all the 10G ports I could want but they're older and loud and suck a lot of power. Luckily I have no need for it other than lab testing and a backup heating source.

 

[Jansen3]

I want a 10-gig switch that is not noisy. If I am going to change NICs I want to use 10 gig NICs. No reason to stop at 2.5 gig since I am starting new. I might as well buy 10 gig NICs as 2.5 gig.

The switch I have almost works. It has four 10 gig ports which I could get by with.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1699563-REG/trendnet_teg_s750_5_port_10g_switch.html

This might be what you’re looking for. Fanless design and capable of full duplex operations on all ports simultaneously.