I had purchased the Intel 10GbE X540-T2 NIC card off of eBay in July 15'. It started going out on me. It would disconnect at random times and the only way to fix it would be to reboot the computer. Little did I know that the item I purchased was probably a "gray market" item since it was couple hundred bucks cheaper and it did not come with a "yottamark sticker."
Therefore, I went ahead and purchased this StarTech 10 Gigabit Ethernet NIC card (ST10000SPEX) to replace my Intel X540-T2. I made sure to buy it directly from Amazon this time so I know it's an authentic product of StarTech's.
I popped this card in the PCI-Express slot, inserted the driver's CD that was included, went into device manager, and instructed Windows to update the Ethernet driver by scanning my CD-ROM drive and install the drivers. Worked like a charm! I'm using this StarTech 10GbE NIC card with Windows 10, and the drivers did NOT install automatically. So good thing the drivers CD came with the package.
I am also using this StarTech 10GbE NIC card in conjunction with my QNAP TS-563 NAS server which also has a 10GbE port. That way I can transfer files back and forth faster than a standard 1Gb speed! If you're trying to accomplish faster transfer speeds between your computer and NAS, don't forget to go into Windows, and configure this NIC card and turn on Jumbo frames! I have mine set to 9014. Works like a charm! (You'll have to make sure you turn on Jumbo frames on your QNAP server too.) I can transfer large files to my NAS at about 280MB/sec! Much faster than the standard 100MB/sec I would achieve with a 1Gb NIC card!
You can find your Jumbo frame settings by going to:
1. Network Connections
2. Right-click on the StarTech NIC card, go to Properties
3. Click on Configure
4. Click on the Advanced Tab
5. Find Jumbo Frames in the "Property" box on the left-hand side
6. Change the value on the right to 9014.
7. Watch your transfer speeds increase to your NAS!
This is only day 1 with the card. I will come back and update my review should something happen later on the down the road.
| Brand | StarTech.com |
|---|---|
| Series | 1-Port PCIe 10GBase-T / NBASE-T Ethernet Network Card |
| Item model number | ST10GSPEXNB |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Windows 8 Windows 7 Windows Server 2012 Linux macOS Sierra (10.12) Windows Server 2016 macOS Mojave (10.14) Windows Server 2019 macOS High Sierra (10.13) |
| Item Weight | 1.92 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 3.3 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 3.3 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches |
| Color | black |
| Manufacturer | StarTech.com |
| ASIN | B01FJSW0OG |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | May 12, 2016 |
