Hacker News

New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

95 points by calcifer 3 hours ago | 22 comments

superjan 3 minutes ago

[delayed]

jordand 12 minutes ago

For Thunderbolt 4/5 docks, I've held off from buying a high-end Thunderbolt 5 dock as many still have 2.5GbE Ethernet and other limitations with displays. The CalDigit TS5 Plus is one of the only options with 10GbE and its $500 (and usually OoS). I managed to buy an ex-corporate refurb HP Thunderbolt 4 G4 dock for only ~$64 and would recommend others do the same (this has an Intel 2.5GbE and good display outputs)

deepsun 59 minutes ago

Is it also possible to power a laptop through those adapters? PoE++ can deliver up to 100W of power, more than enough for most laptops.

eqvinox 47 minutes ago

Theoretically yes, practically that hasn't been built yet. I've only seen it for 2.5Gbase-T, and only for 802.3bt Type 3 (51W).

If anyone's aware of something better, I'd be interested too :)

(Then again I wouldn't voluntarily use 5Gb-T or 10Gb-T anyway, and ≈50W is enough for most use cases.)

[ed.: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807960919319.html ("2.5GPD2CBT-20V" variant) - actually 2.5G not 1G as I wrote initially]

Iulioh 26 minutes ago

Eh.

A lot of laptops won't accept less than 60w

My work laptop won't accept less than 90w (A modern HP, i7 155h with a random low end GPU)

At first everyone at the office just assumed that the USB C wasn't able to charge the pc

spockz 33 seconds ago

[delayed]

burnt-resistor 16 minutes ago

With 802.3bt type 4 (71W delivered, 90W consumed), absolutely achievable with the proper electronics, but would you trust a no-name, fly-by-night NIC to not fry your expensive devices? That's the biggest hurdle. Possibly a company like Apple, Anker, or similar megacorp or high-trust startup could pull if off.

GeertJohan 2 hours ago

A Framework expansion card was also announced this week. https://frame.work/nl/en/products/wisdpi-10g-ethernet-expans...

topspin 2 hours ago

That link notes:

"Card supports 10Gbit/s and 10/100/1000/2500/5000/10000Mbit/s Ethernet"

Nice to see; some NICs are shedding 10/100 support. Apparently, it's not necessary to do this, even in a low cost device.

userbinator 2 hours ago

Low-cost devices are exactly where 10/100 is still widely used. On PCs, it's a common power-saving mode.

fmajid 11 minutes ago

FWIW I got a Xikestor 10G adapter with the Realtek chipset from AliExpress and it underperforms my much cheaper 5G one.

sva_ 2 hours ago

It seems like a lot of laptop manufacturers skipped the USB 3.2 Gen2x2 in favor of USB4/TB4.

TMWNN 2 hours ago

Conversely, the last time I checked a couple of weeks ago, it was impossible to find any USB4 external SSDs on Amazon; only USB 3.2.

justinclift 12 minutes ago

If Amazon is a strict requirement, then this won't help. But if you're ok with AliExpress then it's probably a win:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008555989592.html

I have one of these, though I'm using with a USB 3.x port as that's what my desktop has. For me it's working fine, and for others with actual USB 4 ports it seems to be working properly for them.

whilenot-dev 36 minutes ago

Wouldn't it be better to just buy an M.2 NVMe adapter, eg. ICY DOCK ICYNano MB861U31-1M2B[0]?

[0]: https://global.icydock.com/product_247.html

justinclift 12 minutes ago

That doesn't seem to be USB 4?

sva_ 36 minutes ago

Really? I see plenty when I search for 'usb4 nvme enclosure'

userbinator 2 hours ago

The PCIe version: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46423967

eqvinox 45 minutes ago

Too bad this is 10Gbase-T, that energy-wasting hot-running garbage needs to die sooner rather than later. Good thing the ranges for 25Gbase-T are short enough to make it impractical for home use.

(Fibre is nowhere near as "sensitive" as some people believe.)

zrm 21 minutes ago

The problem with fibre isn't the sensitivity. It's that most endpoints have a 1Gbps copper port on them and then Cat6A ports can be used with the common devices but also allow you to add or relocate 10Gbps devices without rewiring the building again.

HappMacDonald 15 minutes ago

However — unlike copper twisted pair — the bandwidth current fiber media can carry is nearly limited by nothing but the optics at each end.

zrm 9 minutes ago

That doesn't solve the chicken and egg problem.

What probably would is something like having PCIe and USB to 1Gbps fiber adapters that cost $5.

user34283 2 hours ago

I have a RTL8157 5 Gbps adapter from CableMatters.

Interestingly it seems to get burning hot on the MacBook M1 Pro while it remains cool on the M5 Pro model.

Maybe the workload is different, but I would not rule out some sort of hardware or driver difference. I only use a 1G port on my router at the moment.

shevy-java 41 minutes ago

Will they be cheaper? I look at the RAM prices. Granted, RAM is in a different category than USB adapters, but I no longer trust anyone writing "will be cheaper" - the reality may be different to the projection made.