> 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.
Aside from the cost, ACQ107 is not very reliable in my experience. I have one that randomly drops the connection every now and then, even at sub-10Gbps speeds. Switching to a different NIC makes everything rock stable.
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.
I get my 10g stuff off ebay. x520 dual sfp+ cards are about $10, x540-T2 dual 10g-base-T cards are about $20.
For me, using sfp+ means paying for a transceiver or a DAC, vs using my existing stash of rj45 terminated cables. Some of the ebay cards come with fiber transceivers at no extra cost though. So from that perspective, total cost is about the same either way. And I can use the cabling that's already in my walls.
However, switch pricing is still way in favor of sfp+, and my two 'core' switches have only 2x sfp+ and 2x 10g-base-T, so I use the ports I have.
$30/card out the door isn't bad, although I wonder what the power draw is like. I've noticed my SFP+ 10gbit cards and transceivers get quite warm (different models from what you linked).
I'm not sure about power. The only way running these old machines is economical for me is because I have solar... that 2013 haswell machine draws about the same power as a znver4 machine I built last year, but it takes several days to build a Yocto image the znver4 builds in two hours.
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?
But $10 is not a cheap price point - if it's a component on a motherboard, it really needs to be sub 25 cents in 10k volume orders before motherboard manufacturers start shoving it into mid level boards just to have one more bullet point on the spec sheet of a motherboard which sells for $50.
Consumers don't need to detach/attach the actual modules. They can just plug in their ethernet cables like normal, except they'd also have the option to switch to something better in the long run.
It's more expensive but hardly an impossible fit. My router comes with an SFP+ port on the fiber side, it's just not labeled as such.
Combining SFP+ with fiber in consumer spaces is going to be more of a challenge (although I'll gladly accept it if it somehow makes it to market somehow).
What would be the benefit of using SFP+ on mainstream consumer motherboards? It would further increase the effective price to consumers as they'd have to purchase a separate transceiver, which are bulkier and might overly crowd an already compact I/O shield layout.
On an ATX motherboard, SFP cages would impede into the space normally taken up by VRMs, their heatsinks, and the CPU socket. For a built in NIC, on consumer boards, an RJ45 port takes up way less space, no more than the USB ports and WiFi card does at the back of the board.
Few people these days use any wired networking. And an even smaller percentage of those people would migrate to fiber. 10gbe is still easily done over copper.
Readit News
ref: https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/05/22/realtek-rtl8127-rtl8...
https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/05/22/realtek-rtl8127-rtl8...
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.
I redid the thermal paste on my cards and haven't had any issues since.
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.
For me, using sfp+ means paying for a transceiver or a DAC, vs using my existing stash of rj45 terminated cables. Some of the ebay cards come with fiber transceivers at no extra cost though. So from that perspective, total cost is about the same either way. And I can use the cabling that's already in my walls.
However, switch pricing is still way in favor of sfp+, and my two 'core' switches have only 2x sfp+ and 2x 10g-base-T, so I use the ports I have.
I have an x540-T2 in my firewall and it's performant if hot. I keep a fan on it.
$30/card out the door isn't bad, although I wonder what the power draw is like. I've noticed my SFP+ 10gbit cards and transceivers get quite warm (different models from what you linked).
Dead Comment
pcpartpicker shows ~89 such boards, with mid-high level pricing: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#c0=2x10000-2x...
If that's retail price, it's not much more than a 1G add-in nic. That gives it potential for mass adoption.
Realtek also makes some low cost 10g and 2.5g/10g switch chips that are reasonable cost if you shop on aliexpress.
Having another vendor should help drive down retail pricing as well.
Generally editors write headlines while the journalist writes the text, so when they conflict, the headline is usually wrong.
A $10 retail price for a board would be a big deal.
A $10 wholesale price for a chip is not news.
From a physical pov it’s not rated for anywhere near as many mating cycles and requires user care to protect against environmental damage.
From a connectivity pov you’re limited to short runs for DAC or extra cost to add a transceiver on each side.
It's more expensive but hardly an impossible fit. My router comes with an SFP+ port on the fiber side, it's just not labeled as such.
Combining SFP+ with fiber in consumer spaces is going to be more of a challenge (although I'll gladly accept it if it somehow makes it to market somehow).
https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/05/22/realtek-rtl8127-rtl8...
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.