If gigabit ethernet is not fast enough for your home, what about 10 Gb networking?
I rebuilt my file server recently and spent the next two days sending 7 TB of data from my laptop to the NAS, ugh!
I bought a server that has two onboard 10 Gb ethernet ports and 80 TB of storage. I want to connect two laptops, each with 8+ TB of storage. My ISP offers 1.5 gigabit through a widget that has a 2.5 Gb ethernet port. I have other widgets that can only do gigabit (steam deck, more laptops).
First, what’s faster than gigabit?
- 2.5 - rumored to produce much heat My previous CalDigit TS4 dock has a 2.5 Gb port. My new laptop has 2.5 built-in!
- 5 - rumored to produce not as much heat as 2.5, I’ve only seen one of these.
- 10 Gb!
- will produce heat with 10GBase-T copper, each port costs 2-5 watts on each end
- less than a quarter the price of fiber.
- latency is much higher with copper, average of 1-2 milliseconds according to reviews
- range is max of 100 meters
- can produce zero heat with OPTICAL FIBER!
- buy pre-made cables for ~$50 each or learn to work with fiber optics.
- latency is 1-2 nano seconds!
- range is easily over 10 kilometers!
10Gb switches have funny looking plugs called SFP+ these can be populated with modules for copper or optical
- will produce heat with 10GBase-T copper, each port costs 2-5 watts on each end
What about CABLES? The average Ethernet cable I see lately is cat 5 or cat 5e. Both of those flavors will work for 2.5 or 5, and quality cat 5e will work for short runs of 10Gb. If you want heavy 10Gb use up to the maximum distance of 100 meters, you will want cat 6a Ethernet cables.
What do you want to connect?
- desktop Cheaper and lower power just this month due to the recently released RTL8127 chip. https://www.servethehome.com/cheap-10gbe-realtek-rtl8127-nic-review/ There’s now an affordable and low-power PCIe Gen4 x1 card! consumer motherboards don’t have many PCIe slots, so this is great!
- laptop - https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-5-dock-ts5-plus/ The CalDigit TS5 Plus has 10 Gb copper, but also costs $500 ! (yes, I have one) The CalDigit TS4 has 2.5 Gb copper. (yes I have one) You can buy USB-C or Thunderbolt widgets that claim 2.5 or 5 and while I do own one, I haven’t done any speed testing.
Random warning: 10GBase-T copper ports on a card or switch might not support 2.5Gb or 5Gb, if you need that, make sure your switch/card does!
What switch would you use to hook ‘em all together? Constraints: 10Gb copper switches usually have LOUD fans because each port can dump 5 watts of heat at full utilization. (Look for the “Note from Patrick” on https://www.servethehome.com/trendnet-tl2-f7080-review-a-cheap-8-port-10g-web-managed-switch/3/ ) After hours of research I found a fanless four port 10Gb copper switch reviewed on ServeTheHome that also supports 2.5Gb and 5Gb on each port. It’s going for $180 online, but it’s not here yet!
Extras and tidbits: We did not discuss more expensive options such as 25Gb copper, 40Gb fiber, 100Gb fiber, 400Gb fiber, or 800Gb fiber. One of my friends does run 40Gb fiber in his apartment, for really good reasons! If you work in a datacenter, 10Gb has been demoted to the low speed management ports!