USB to 5GbE Adapters the Good Bad and Ugly 

It is always a joy listening to Patrick, no matter what he is reviewing or saying.

The moment I saw USB 3.1 Gen 1 on the chart the problem was obvious. The decision to have this Gen 1 / Gen 2 stupidity attached to USB 3.1 is a source of endless annoyance.

11:55 and that's why it don't read ZDNet articles...

Engineers: Boss we did it 5gbps QA Team: we have a small issue, its not consistent Boss: Don't worry about it, most people wont even notice. STH: USB to 5GbE Adapters the Good Bad and Ugly Boss: Oh no, oh noooooo

After watching your written reviews. I was really hoping you'd a youtube video for all these 5gbe adapters. Thank you Patrick you are amazing. And hope 2021! Will bring even more video reviews. !! Happy new Year!!

Thank you for the comprehensive testing and thorough review of these 5Gb Ethernet adapters. Stay well!

Happy new Year STH! Love your work and detailed reviews! Please try to review QNAP one

Thanks for the comparison, I'm looking at getting some of these to speed up my laptop testing, pretty annoying none of them are using USB 3.1 Gen 2 as that's 10gbps, at least then in theory these 5gbe models would get full speed. Like you say though, I'll still take the 3x+ boost over gigabit.

Awesome content. Have a great year Patrick!

Your channel is a goldmine for info, thanks for all the videos sir !

Great video! With USB3.1gen1 you have 20% overhead just from the bit encoding scheme, which brings the max data throughput down to 4Gb/s, before any protocol level overheads. Gen2 has a 5% or so encoding overhead, and supports store and forward in the hub when talking to slower speed devices, so you should be able to jam a lot of high performance devices (even previous gen USB3) on a single root controller. That’s something I have been playing with for 4k video capture cards and external drive arrays as a flex. Might be a fun video or review to do on mini micro systems.

when you mentioned backpacking if the concern is potability/mobility detachable cable is a very big plus, that cable can be used for lots of things

I use the Sabrent unit for work. No issues beyond not getting the full speed, and heats up after significant use over a long period. Our use case is for ingestion of engineering machines data. For backup or replication. We have also used it when needing to download large model libraries to engineer work stations.

Cheers for the gen 4 optane info on STH site, very cool.

Thank you bro I really appreciated the knowledge and understanding 👍

Love sth always great stuff :)

It makes a lot of sense that is a usb limitation, given that 3.5 Gbit equates to a bit over 400MB/s which is the max transfer speed most SSDs over USB 5Gbit reach as well

This was useful. Thank you!

Been waiting on this video. Good stuff. I just bought the 2.5gbe Sabrent adapter, still glad I did. It was about $30. Even if the $60 Sabrent 5gbe adapter is the best deal of the 5gbe adapters... When compared to the 2.5gbe adapters, it is 2x the cost, and definitely NOT 2x the performance.

great content.. much appreciated

Great review. Pros/Cons, the Sabrent units seems the best but my only concern is a cable being pulled might undo the connection as it has more failure points if that happens, would still buy it instead of the others for the cable options. It would be a cool dongle to have when troubleshooting servers in the data center for the far off failure of a NIC and a quick way to get data/config off such a server.

Wow what a great review. First time watching this channel and im a fan.

wow, I mean wow - i love how cavalier some people are about this video. This is a great in depth vid regarding real problems I am facing right now. My current issue - Jabra Panacast conference room camera. They give you a 5 ft cable. I have to get this camera feed to the conference room table and actually work. I would guess 35 - 45 ft (from camera, through raceway in floor, back up poke through, tie into hub mounted under table, then feed to computer on table. Sounds easy right, ha! Try getting the data needed to support video feed at the correct rate at that distance knowing the camera has a USB-C connection. Not easy unless you are ready to drop $2500 on a USB 3.1 over ethernet extender kit. I greatly appreciate your video and the labor you performed on all your testing. That is a lot of work and I am impressed!

Really well done review, thank you

Please do the third one and add the results in on a card or in notes. It would be interesting to see any data points that you can gather.

Always showing off your newest camera gear in the left corner? This time the RF 70-200 2.8. Such a workhorse of a lens!

Now that was nerdy, nice. Thank you

Wish I knew about the Sabrent adapter sooner. Might have saved maybe $15-20 per adapter over the Qnap 5gig USB3.1 adapters. Wondered about the not-quite 5gig transfer rates. Makes sense about the usb overhead. Very informative review.

I have the QNAP usb-c 3.2 gen1 version around 3 Gbits/sec as well. It's been pretty reliable so far.

"This is much longer than that." - the sort of review content we need.

Need more 10gbe ones

Great information. Great effort.

Well, if you're limited to a 5 Gbps USB connection, you know immediately that you cannot possibly break 4 Gbps due to the 8b/10b encoding used by 5 Gbps USB. And then you have more protocol overhead on top of that.

Very helpful. Thank you!

Thanks for the review. I had issues, similar to what you reported, with TRENDnet and my MacBook Pro.I got QNAP QNA-UC5G1T instead.

Curious if any of those adapters, particularly the Sabrent works well with pfSense. If you could use the built in NIC + an adapter on a micro form factor system that'd be sweet!

Thanks for the info, I actually would have bought the trendnet model, I have had good luck with their products in the past.

I wonder if there are any USB 3.1 gen 2 adapters and how these would perform in linux/bsd.

In terms of if the price premium over 2.5 gig adapters is worth it: sometimes you just want to get the fastest networking speed you can on a machine that has no internal expansion or thunderbolt ports, and 3.5 is more than 2.5. On the other hand, if you do have thunderbolt ports, it appears that OWC's 10 gigabit TB3 adapter is down to $149, so that's actually more gigabits per dollar.

Thanks for this interesting test. I hope there will be some USB 3.1 gen 2 or higher options soon with 10gbit USB you should be able to get 5 gbit out of the ethernet side...

Thanks guys

I bought a Trendnet TUC-ET5G and notice the problem but never took the time to investigate, but after seeing the video I contacted TrendNet and created an RMA for it. Let see when the new unit arrive

Can you review the TB3 10GbE adapters? There are entries from OWC, Sonnet, QNAP, and CalDigit, and I haven't found a comprehensive comparison

I'm glad I haven't bought one of those (I was tempted to buy the QNAP one) and went just with a 2,5Gbe instead.

If there's no extra changes on the trendnet unit, you might be able to manually install the standard Marvel driver and make it work fine. I wonder if it's posible, at least you have an alternative if you already own it or don't have the other models available

So... how well does the Sabrent work in Linux? I have an Aquantia 5G PCIe card that chokes when I try to upload anything large to my server (confirmed with iperf, it's not just samba or whatever I happen to be using then). It's a commonly reported problem and is probably an inter-frame gap issue but I haven't figured how to fiddle with that, so I'm wondering if these behave differently.

I would be very interested in seeing a video about USB-eth module in Linux (TCP over USB)

So if you want to build some small SFF pc for backups (like bare debian with nfs/iscsi) what are the base CPUs which would allow to squeze 3,5Gbps from these?

Both Startech and QNAP make 5GbE NICs that install into a PCIe x1 slot. I would like to know how those adapters perform vs. the USB adapters.

Hi With the trendnet adapter have you tried to disable some low power mode in advanced settings?.

Great informative video! I want to ask a question of you as you're better informed than I am. I recently upgraded my home's cable modem from a Netgear C7000 that I've had for years for under 1gbps connection speeds. Now, Comcast Xfinity offers 1200mbps in my area and I wanted to try it out. I now own a Netgear CAX80 which has a single 2.5GbE port. My PC's motherboard is a X570 ASUS Dark Hero which has a Realtek 2.5GbE NIC. I am on the latest firmware and driver on my hardware, but for some odd reason the 2.5 keeps cutting out and auto negotiating down to 1gbps, even when I force it through software to only choose 2.5GbE. I brought this up to both companies (Xfinity and Netgear) and they're playing the finger pointing game. I am looking for clarity if possible: Purchase an add-on card or USB 2.5GbE or swap to another brand's 2.5GbE modem. Thank you for your help.

Powerful start, followed by performance drop after device gets warmer?

Did you disable the power saver option on the trend net unit in the nic properties?

Any testing done on linux and macs ? ARM, Intel and Apple Silicon drivers ?

Can you recommend any 10GBase-T NICs?

PLEASE add chapters so we can dispense with the pleasantries and get to the content we're here for.

This (10Gbe Thunderbolt 3 Adapter) gets extremely hot and i wonder if the rubber casing adds to the heating problem - after it gets too hot it stops working until it cools down, also needs to be plugged in via Ethernet to a primary internet connection (not daisy chained switches) drivers can be a bit tricky to install......not meant for extended consistent use. Heatsinks do very little to dissipate the extreme heat.

Are there are any other reasons besides cost to choose a Realtek-based 2.5Gbps adapter instead? For instance, what about latency, jitter, stability, driver compatibility (Linux, Freebsd, VMware), switch compatibility, CPU utilization, thermals, power consumption, TCP offloading/queues ?

Any new recommendations now that a year has passed? Looking for one for my Surface Pro 8 and M2 Mac Air. Any recommendations? Thank you!

The Realtek 2.5gb dongles also have wide variance in driver quality. Does Aquantia make a 2.5 gig variant?

How is that flow control working and what about Linux kernel support? Are there any gen2?

Would these have ranked higher if they locked them to 2.5gbe? Does the Sabrent have a thermal connection between the chips and the case to help with thermal problems? I ran into this a lot when trying to use a usb-gigabit adapter for pfsense, if I clamped then to a cool rack shelf, they would work longer between drop outs. Gave up on USB adapters for firewalls, but it would be REALLY handy to have a good solid device that didn't drop out for quick or cheap builds.

Awesome video.. Now I have to go check my ASUS 10GB adapter to see if it using the same chipset. EDIT: It has an AQC107.... and I am curious if this is also limited. Time for some testing.

Is there a chip on any of these adapters from your extensive research that supports usb 3.1 gen 2 for the full 5 Gbps?

I have a QNAP one and I do want to see a review on it. I use it on a Hackintosh and it sometimes drops connection, but I don't know if it's a problem with the Hackintosh USB patch or the adapter itself.

Have you tried enabling jumbo frames(9014) or tweaking the iperf parallel session count? I'm wondering if you can get it closer to 4.5Gbps?

Question, if a NAS such as a Synology or QNAP has 4 x 5 Gb USB3.0 ports on the back do each of them get 5Gb or is the 5Gb shared across the 4 ports?

Do they get hot? How much power do they consume? Did you compile a chart on transfer speeds? I'm thinking what it like transferring 50k small files vs equivalent size few large files, I.e. real world.

Wish the Sabrent had been available when I got my Startech. To me it comes down to anything with a built in cable is likely to die eventually where the cable goes into the case, whereas a USB-C port probably wont. Oh and yes getting the 5Gbit adapters is a good thing vs the Realtek, as they stopped supporting new Linux kernels instead telling you to rely on the stock USB Ethernet support which doesn't do Jumbo frames and spams the logs with link/up down messages. I mean it works, but the Realtek driver worked better and just abandoning it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Considering this seems to be driver related, I'd be curious how this works out on macos and linux. I wonder if anyone has tried that?

Happy to provide data on qnap 5gbe adapters through a 10gbe switch?

I have been using the a pair of the QNAP 5GbE unit on my MicroServer Gen10 Plus and EC200a. It had no problem with either Windows or Proxmox VE, but the QNAP unit will cause Arch Linux to hang on boot if it was plugged in. I have not managed to pinpoint what's going on so I moved one of the QNAP NICs that was for my laptop to my EC200a (to speed up rsync backups between the two servers). Maybe I should grab a pair of the Sabrnet cards because the QNAP cards also use a customized firmware/driver stack, and maybe that's why it was hanging Arch Linux. I've had bad luck with Realtek 2.5GbE adapters, they constantly drop connections (very severe on Proxmox, better on Arch and Windows), and the Sabrnet one was not available back when I built my MSG10+, and the QNAP one was the best bang for the buck back then.

I have an 5gbit Aquantia NIC on my x299 Deluxe Prime II. While the performance is fine, at high incoming throughput it crashes. I invested weeks without success (drivers, firmware, cooling, config parameters ...). Got an Intel x550-t2 instead.

Based on your review, I bought the Sabrent 5Gb USB to Ethernet adapter. I just got AT&T 2Gb fiber (it's actually 2.5Gb/s fiber) at my house for our Internet connection, and wanted to take full advantage of that speed and bandwidth, so built out a 10Gb environment as a mini-backbone. Attached the AT&T gateway/modem to the 10Gb switch via the built-in 5Gb Ethernet connection on the back, then purchased two Engenius EWS377AP Wi-Fi 6 access points that have 2.5Gb Ethernet POE ports, and they also are attached directly to the 10Gb switch. I connect the Sabrent directly to the 10Gb switch as well. I'm getting 1.2Gb/s to my PC, via Wi-Fi 6, through the Engenius APs, and 2.3Gb/s through the Sabrent 5Gb adapter, so even though it can't get much more than 3.5Gb/s in your tests, it completely fulfills it's purpose in my system.

Will you be reviewing any TB3 10G (rj45 or SFP+) units? I'm interested in the Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 to SFP+ 10 GbE adapter

This is review cranked up way past Beast mode! Subscribed. Any 10Gbe usbc-gen 2 adapters that don't cost 500$?

What if you try running the Trendnet on Linux ?

I like the detachable cable design of the Sabrent. My understanding is the the design of the USB-C connector puts the parts subject to most wear on the plug rather than the socket as the plug is typically part of a replaceable cable and the socket part of a more costly device?

Do these work with truenas as well? I’m just looking for something to get faster than gigabit speeds

Have you tried any of them under linux?

Given the choice, would you buy a PCI-e internal 10Gbe NIC or a Thunderbolt 10Gbe?

Have you tried jumbo frames to reduce the bottleneck?

I cannot help but notice, that these test where done out of the box, with Windows 10. Which actually, lately, has a notorious 3.5Gbit's cap, even on 10Gbe. Not sure if these can run on Linux out of the box, but that would be one way of getting around this. Another could be to try and disable Interrupt Moderation in the Network Adapters Advanced settings. Just to make sure, Windows isn't the bottleneck.

15:45 because ever so often we need 5Gbps ethernet when backpacking... :p

Can you please add in the review for qnap too. Thanks

Two years on, any gen2 adapters yet?

I have a pair of the QNAPs, they're basically identical to the Sabrent, although a bit smaller apparently. Metal body, uses standard drivers, USB-C port with 2 (shorter) cables supplied and work fine. Was aware of the limitations but there's just nothing better since there are no Gen2 chips yet and TB3 10Gs are just too huge and expensive.

some of those adapters are only usb 3.0 like the Sabrent. Did you also test those using a usb 3.1 gen 2 usb port?

When you saw the Trendnet unit 'drop' were you still able to ping between units? We've had reliability issues with USB3 to 5GBE adapters (we use the QNAP UC5G1T on laptops to allow for high rate data export from servers) where after some time the unit simply stops receiving data (well, effective receive rate drops to < 100k/s) but the upload is not affected. You could still ping between systems. I initially suspected the issue was with the Netgear switch, but with further testing I believe the issue is due to the QNAP USB 5GBE. More info and full use case here: community.netgear.com/t5/Smart-Plus-and-Smart-Pro-Managed/XS512EM-with-Aquantia-10Gbe-stops-uploads/td-p/1925484

Somthing you can try: take the Trendnet one apart to reflash its configuration memory to something stock original, for example the configuration from another onein this review, and re-benchmark?

Can you please do one for 10GBE base T as well!

Awesome video, have you guys tested this with pfsense at all? hoping to add an easy "5gbps" connection to by box since it doesn't have any extra expansion slots.

If you were backpacking why would u need a 5gbps nic?

I could not believe your test results with the Sabrent NT-SS5G. Clearly 3.1 Gen 1 is the problem, but this can be fixed to a certain extent. I have a hybrid 2.5/10 Gbs wired network of TP Link ER-707 M2 router and two NICGIGA 8x10Gbs switches, 4 x570 AMD Ryzen 9 5900 and 5950 desktops (10GBS NIC's), along with 4 Acer Laptops with PCI 4 throughout and USB 3.2 Gen 2. The laptops all have 2.5 Gbs Realtek adapters and 2 M2 2280 slots which carry 4TB each, hence the need for 5 Gbs Ethernet. You need to use jumbo frames at 16 K, set receive and transmit buffers to the max (4k), and switch off everything else that you can, with interrupt moderation set to adaptive. Also, make sure the ethernet/usb line ends at an unmanaged switch and not in a router, or you just add to flow control overheads. I managed to get 4.2/4.25 Gbs laptop to desktop, and 3.9/4.0 GbS laptop to laptop. CPU overhead was around 7.5-8.0%, what you would expect with 12 /16 cores on the desktop and 8 on the laptop. This equates to 80-85% of notional throughput; the old 2.5 Realtek USB ethernet units deliver around 290/292 MBs (93% of notional) and desktop to desktop transfers around 1.15/1.16GBs (92.5%). Why? Well, the problem is that all interrupts and data derived from USB ports need to travel over the PCIE bus, and with NVME drives and GPU's hooked directly into the processor they become third class citizens. 2.5 Gbs Ethernet hooked into USB 3.1Gen 1 will work at rated speeds (there's 50% unused headroom), but while the Sabrent connects at 5Gbs, the PCIE bus then has no headroom at all, certainly not on a laptop. Having USB 3.2 Gen 2 on the laptops does speed things up, allowing the slower 3.1 devices rather more bandwidth. USB devices are not often latency critical, but ethernet traffic is, and suffers as a result. One has only to consider the lamentable performance of some USB 3.1 HDD backup devices for tangible evidence of this. Always use powered units; Seagate Expansion drives (based on DM004 4TB video HDD's) are the best that I've come across. The software overhead for network file copies is around 7-8%; even on high performance networks with no shortage of host resources, the lack of priority on PCIE 4 bus will degrade performance by another 12% at a minimum based on my results; I suspect that you may have tested a few PCIE 3 devices in your surveys, in which case we can say that what should notionally be 92% of maximum throughput has been reduced to 70%. Lastly, if you do buy one of these, then buy the Sabrent. The metal case is a useful heatsink (why I bought the 2.5 Gbs Realtek units), it has two decent sized cables, and it's also the cheapest.

could this be a dos/windows copy speed limit that Linus TechTips talked about when they were trying PCI-E network cards with fiber cable???

It'd be interesting to look at the drivers behind these. I think they're losing a lot of performance to USB overhead and bad drivers.

Actual physical speed of 5GbE is 4.688 Gbps minus assume 10% encoding and header loss come to about 4.2 Gbps. Furthermore there is USB lantency. The reason for gradual slowing down is because fragmentation, enable jumbo frame on your network adapter and switch would solve this problem.

Did you try lacp link aggregation? Tcp/udp will run over USB just fine.

Please test the Qnap USB 5Gb adapter

The Sabrent packaging/design I much prefer.