What good desktop NICs are available in 2023?

Hardware Hub Networking
1

Hi folks! As a treat to myself before I start my Master’s degree, I’ve been building a nice little homelab. As part of this I’m overhauling my network to support 10Gb.

Unfortunately, while all the servers and switches work, picking a good NIC for my desktop is proving a royal pain in the butt. So far, I’ve tried the Intel X540-T1 (outright wouldn’t work, drivers don’t exist for Windows 11 and when I forced Win10 drivers, it showed as the T2 variant for some reason and wouldn’t establish a link), ConnectX-3 Pro (works, but only kind of? Drivers seem to have bricked my Windows install, I’m reinstalling now to see if I just had some bad luck), and the ASUS 10Gbit NICS (Areion and the CX-100letters - both based on the same chip, and both require a full driver uninstall and reinstall if I dare try to torrent something).

I’m using RJ45 for most of the network, but I have a couple transcievers, so an SFP NIC is on the table if there’s a good deal on one. I’m based in the UK, and have already resigned myself to buying from eBay if I need to.

My primary requirement for this is it needs to work on Windows 11 - both some work stuff and the software for my degree simply don’t exist on Linux, and I’ll admit I just generally prefer working on Windows. Ideally it’ll also work on future versions of Windows too.

I’d appreciate any recommendations or reviews for stuff that might work, or suggestions on retailers! I’m a little paranoid about Intel NICs because the handful I’ve bought from Scan have been fakes, so a better source would be great. Thanks in advance!

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T520-SO-CR

You can use fiber or RJ45 with it depending on the transceiver you go with. The T520-BT exists, but is less common and ends up more expensive than just getting the T520-CR with RJ45 transceivers. Buy Chelsio transceivers just to play it safe, a lot of RJ45 models from other brands have half the upload for some reason. I haven’t seen this problem on my hardware when I stayed with Chelsio for the NIC and transceiver.
You get a lot better protocol support with Chelsio or modern Mellanox NICs than you do with old models or Intel NICs. You have to step up to the 800 series (minimum 25gb) just to get iWARP on anything Intel. lol. But definitely stay away from older NICs at this point due to lack of drivers like you already found.