I just upgraded my network to 2.5Gbps LAN and ordered a new QNAP NAS which has 2.5Gbps ports. I have one USB-C dongle which supports 2.5 but missing the port in my main workstation which is PC.
I can get some Realtek stuff from Amazon, but are there any special considerations I should be taking into account for realiability?
Realtek, if it’s the second (?) revision 2.5 gig chip, otherwise Intel I225V 3rd revision.
They don’t mention the revisions
Only saying I225V Original, I guess that means it is the first revision.
I bought this one but was surprised about the quality. This arrived with home burn CD-R with old drivers that didn’t work and manual with so bad English that I can’t read it.
Was unable to get this recognized by any machine at all, so returned it.
Unsure at this point which would actually work. If I buy higher end 10Gb card is there any chance it would support 2.5GB as well?
Because all of the cheap cards seem like garbage to me and I refuse to even load home burn CD-R to my workstation because no way of knowing what’s in it.
I might as well buy another USB3 dongle which at least I know will work.
Original chip seems to denote that it’s an actual intel, because a lot of intel chip stuff are counterfeit. Which was probably the case in your situation, it was just reporting that it’s intel. Why would one even say it’s compatible with i225v, when the chip should be i225v itself? Toptek? topkek
Anyway, look for hp or dell cards, or actual intel cards, those should actually work. Or if you find a 10G card, make sure that it supports NBase-T or Multi-Gigabit. If they don’t, they they only work at 10G speeds or nothing (or maybe they may work at 1Gbps, but not in-between, like 2.5 or 5Gbps).
I haven’t found a 2.5Gbps dual-port card for myself yet. I may want to start looking.
Broadcom might have (well vendors who use Broadcom controllers and PHYs to be more precise) but they’re most likely 10G NICs that supports 2.5G. QNAP have this card https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1596834-REG/qnap_qxg_2g4t_i225_quad_port_2_5gbe_4_speed.html and I’m quite sure it relies on PCIe bifurcation.
