If you want to add 10G to existing systems, cards with the old Niantic 82599EN chipset are cheap and widely available (now branded Intel). They use the IXGBE driver in Linux, and work out of the box on Windows as well. SFP 10G fiber transceivers are much cheaper than 10G copper: I saved money by using OM3 instead of cat6, but YMMV.
> and while the company still sells the AQC107 silicon, it is quite expensive for motherboard integration, and add-on cards are, by definitio,n more expensive than integrated solutions.
Not sure what a 10GbE motherboard would cost today, but in 2022 I bought ASUS ProArt X570 (1x 10GbE + 1x 2.5GbE) for ~400 EUR, and just the other day I got the Asus XG-C100C (1x 10GbE) network adapter for another machine for ~80 EUR. Would the price difference between a motherboard today with the only difference being with/without a 10GbE NIC be more than say 100 EUR? I feel like they'd use the 10GbE NIC to raise the prices more when it's integrated into the motherboard, than what you can get when purchasing it as a separate addon. But maybe it's just me being overly cynical.
We could really do with a compact fibre connection on boards for the consumer space that isn't sfp+, be ausd that will not fit on a typical motherboard. We can get away with copper at 10Gb but the move to glass fibre is inevitable and lower power and the enterprise solution isn't a good fit for the domestic market and motherboards.
I don’t understand this article! PC motherboards with 10GbE ports have existed for years in premium offerings? Is this notably cheaper than the current chip they use?
Realtek's $10 tiny 10GbE NIC will hit motherboards soon
(tomshardware.com)43 points by Tuldok 9 hours ago | 41 comments
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ref: https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/05/22/realtek-rtl8127-rtl8...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZRSQM9
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DCZCA3O
An old PC I built in 2013 is able to saturate one of those with room to spare.
Not sure what a 10GbE motherboard would cost today, but in 2022 I bought ASUS ProArt X570 (1x 10GbE + 1x 2.5GbE) for ~400 EUR, and just the other day I got the Asus XG-C100C (1x 10GbE) network adapter for another machine for ~80 EUR. Would the price difference between a motherboard today with the only difference being with/without a 10GbE NIC be more than say 100 EUR? I feel like they'd use the 10GbE NIC to raise the prices more when it's integrated into the motherboard, than what you can get when purchasing it as a separate addon. But maybe it's just me being overly cynical.
pcpartpicker shows ~89 such boards, with mid-high level pricing: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#c0=2x10000-2x...
But Intel I225 (2.5GbE) chipsets were causing a lot of grief, 2022-2024. Realtek was same as ever and that made them a potentially better choice.
I think the 225/226 are better now. I have a 4 port arriving today and we'll see.