Question What to look for when buying 2.5 Gbit/s PCI-based network card?

[King Mustard]

The cheapest ones according to skinflint.co.uk are currently:

• £26 Syba SD-PEX24065 (Realtek RTL8125)
• £28 Icy Box IB-LAN300-PCI (Realtek RTL8125B)
• £28 Akasa AK-PCCE25-01 (Realtek RTL8125)
• £30 Trendnet TEG-25GECTX (Realtek RTL8125)
• £35 QNAP QXG-2G1T-I225 (Intel I225-LM)
• £35 DeLOCK 89564 (Realtek RTL8125)
• £49 StarTech ST2GPEX (Realtek RTL8125)

For example, I presume all the RTL8125 cards will be the same, so would go for the cheapest? - or is there more to look for than just the chipset?

 

[kanewolf]

The cheapest ones according to skinflint.co.uk are currently:

• £26 Syba SD-PEX24065 (Realtek RTL8125)
• £28 Icy Box IB-LAN300-PCI (Realtek RTL8125B)
• £28 Akasa AK-PCCE25-01 (Realtek RTL8125)
• £30 Trendnet TEG-25GECTX (Realtek RTL8125)
• £35 QNAP QXG-2G1T-I225 (Intel I225-LM)
• £35 DeLOCK 89564 (Realtek RTL8125)
• £49 StarTech ST2GPEX (Realtek RTL8125)

For example, I presume all the RTL8125 cards will be the same, so would go for the cheapest? - or is there more to look for than just the chipset?

Vendor support is always important. If you need drivers, do you want to search Realtek site or get it from the vendor. I don't know if I would try to RMA a £30 part, but that is a consideration.