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Fenvi 2.5Gbps PCIe Network Card US$8.45 (~A$13.01) Delivered @ Factory Direct Collected Store AliExpress

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Low price on this PCIe network card with 2.5Gbps and 1Gbps support. These are a good option if you're wanting faster local transfer speeds if you have devices with 2.5Gbps support. I personally have my PCs and NAS' all connected up on a 2.5Gbps network with a KeepLink switch.

This one is using the Realtek RTL8125B chipset with drivers available for Windows from Realtek directly and Linux is supported as of kernal 5.4.x. The network card comes with both normal and low profile brackets.

AU$ based on current Mastercard rate and GST inclusive.


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closed Comments

  • +1

    AUD$11.85 delivered for me

  • +4

    just in time for these nbn gigabit speeds

    • +5

      to be fair a 1000 mbps lan adapter shouldn't bottleneck the NBN as the ports on the HFC and FTTP NTDs are also 1000 mbps max

      • +3

        Yeah but youll be bottlnecked on a gigabit nic if you're accessing a NAS (or other internal device) while downloading a steam game at 1Gbit for example.

        • Yeah for sure that's where this product is of use in Australia

      • I was part of the roll out fiber everywhere you dumb ;'nts crew until they rolled out docsis 3 which made this happen and i forgot how to even spell fiber/fibre

  • +5

    and Linux support through Github

    I think that's just a wrapper around their pre-compiled ("blob") driver.

    Realtek Linux support is really hit and miss; if you want a NIC for Linux I'd spend the extra $10-20 and get an Intel.

    • +5

      Normally yes, but Intel I225-V has reported issues. Some people are not convinced it is fully fixed (even in v3 revision).

      • +2

        Not sure why you get negged. People refuse to learn new knowledge and so stubborn on outdated info.

        I purposely got Realtek 2500Mbps nic for my xpenology box, because the Intel drama.

      • +2

        Skip I225-V completely and go for I226.

        • +1

          Are we sure I226 has all the reported issues of I225 fixed? I use that as an excuse to buy both Intel I226 and Realtek RTL8125B.

          • @netsurfer: Reddit tells me it could still be an issue. I just don't think it's as bad now.

        • +3

          This.

          I've got an i225-v3 pci-e card, and it is kind flakey under both linux and windows. I also have an i226 card and it solid as a rock.

          Oddly, I have a minipc with i225-v3 ports, and it's rock solid under linux.

          • +1

            @qwijibo: I have a NUC with I225-v3… It is unusual for Intel not able to fully address the issue. Problem is, there are still reports on I226 having issues (I do have devices with I226).

            It is annoying that I bought a Realtek NIC just in case one of my Intel NICs plays up. It really sounds and feels weird… buying a Realtek NIC to cover a potential issue with Intel NICs.

    • Linux has native support courtesy of Dr Google. You're welcome.

      • I know it's supported; I'm using the motherboard's built in Realtek NIC in my UnRaid server as I'm out of PCIE slots.

        I still think it's a pre-compiled blob, though; and Dr Google will point you at any number of people complaining of flakiness. In my case I can kill UnRaid's (Linux/Slackware) network access by enabling jumbo frames, The NIC (theoretically) supports it, my desktop supports it, the switch supports it; but turn it on and you can't even ping the UnRaid box any more (and there's no way ping responses take 9kb to send, so it should be using regular frame sizes to respond).

        • The thing is it is not safe to recommend Intel 2.5Gbps NICs either. Just a simple Google can find people having issues with I226-V, even with linux.

          Saw a comment that a user had to use the same workaround Intel recommends for I225-V (disable EEE) to solve his I226-V issue on Debian. In his case, he only wanted to get gigabit ethernet working. Without the workaround, he only gets 100Mbps from I226-V.

          • +2

            @netsurfer: I have more faith in Intel's ability to fix drivers than I do Realtek's.

            Realtek's Linux support has been iffy for over a decade; Intel's had one dodgy chipset that plays up on both Windows and Linux. Seriously, I looked for 225-v complaints and the dozen results I got were Windows users.

            Besides, I've seen Intel engineers patch video driver bugs reported by emulator authors. Some non-commercial open-source author finds a bug that no one else has seen, and the Intel engineers thank him for finding it, explained that no one else seemed to use that code path, and fixed it.

            That gives me a lot of faith in their ability and motivation to solve problems.

            • @jong: Intel have had a large number of driver debacles over the years.

              I personally got shafted by the broken NIC Teaming in Windows 7 PROset (for over. a. year.) and then by the terrible Intel Realsense drivers for Windows Hello (seriously, who decides a driver installer should flash the firmware on every install ?!) and finally by the Intel networking in the Dell 9020 that would advertise and subscribe to all multicast streams it could see but only while the machine was sleeping - which would bring down entire Cisco switches under the load when there were a number of sleeping 9020s connected. But when all the machines were awake, everything worked fine.
              Yes, that was very difficult to troubleshoot, and yes we were very glad when other Enterprises started reporting the same issue.

              There are many more stories, but those are the three I was personally affected by.

  • +4

    What is the consumer application of this over Gb ether?

    When I were a lad, we had 10Mb coaxial, which cost $500 per node. And we were grateful.

    • +5

      What is the consumer application of this over Gb ether?

      Faster local transfer speeds. For me to copy backups, media and other files across my network is much faster than a gigabit network. Heaps of motherboards and other network devices are having 2.5Gbps LAN now. It's becoming the new standard.

      • +4

        Agree with the above. It's best if you have a NAS or server, and have to transfer files on your network.

        Otherwise gigabit network speeds will be ok for most consumers. And you will benefit more if using SSDs on the NAS and local drives.

        Gigabit network speeds gives a maximum of 1000/8= 125 MB/sec which is about rhe speed of a mechanical HDD from quite a few years ago.

        2.5Gb/8=312.5 MB/sec maximum rate which is closer to SSD speeds when transferring files across the network.

    • +1

      I have a server. Would love if it had 2.5Gbe.

      If I'm downloading to it at full speed (gigabit), I cannot file transfer from it or stream from it. I'd say if I had all of my friends streaming from my Plex server all at once then they'd bottle neck it, but I don't have that many friends…

      • +3

        You let your friends stream from your Plex server? I'll be your friend.

        • Maybe if I get a 2.5Gbe adapter and switch ;)

      • I run NAS and Plex on separate 10gb Vlan - clients then run off another 10GB link.
        Because yeah - when several friends are streaming or transcoding 80GB 4K moves 0 bandwidth form NAS to PLex can get chewed up fast.

    • +2

      I agree, 640kb ought to be enough for anyone!

      • Said no-one.

  • Comments getting hella technical for a dumb SOB like me..

    Would this help me play FS2024 better with my steamlink? 😅

    • +4

      If your PC is already connected to your network with ethernet, than it’s unlikely. You don’t need 2.5gb unless you know you need 2.5gb.

  • +1

    really wish more ITX board can have a way to accommodate new network cards……..

  • I don't wanna sound like the US congress, but do I need to be worried about my data being sent to the CCP, since this is a literal wifi card?

    • +3

      Do you need to be worried? Certainly not.
      If you’re feeling paranoid your NIC is sending traffic to china, you could always intercept its packets to verify it’s not until you’re satisfied.
      I wouldn’t say that’s necessary, thought.

    • +3

      First, it's not even non-literally a WiFi card.
      Second, why would that matter?

      • I suppose a no you dont need to worry about that would've been kinder

        but thanks anyway

  • +1

    Anyone recommend something other than realtek or intel then? Maybe chelsio? I just want a solid NIC with jumbo frames that supports all the OS.

    • If money is no object, than Mellanox (now Nvidia).
      If money is an object, maybe Broadcom?

  • +1

    How inflated is the paypal conversion vs 28 degrees, are we talking a few cents or dollars?

    • A couple of dollars usually.

  • Realtek does have a bad wrap for support, however I was able to get this chipset working on PfSense (freebsd 14) with a pkg from their normal repo. Just had to disable a couple checksum features, but VLANs working no issues.

    Unsure about getting this working in ESXi though.

  • +2

    I bought a Fenvi i226-v model a few months ago. Works perfectly fine for me:
    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005957421035.html

    I had to manually download and extract the appropriate driver from the Intel site though as Windows 11 did not detect it.
    https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/15084/intel…
    Once extracted navigate to the PRO2500/Winx64/W11 folder and update with device manager from there.

    I think that I bought the adaptor at the right time as earlier posts on Reddit and other forums mentioned issues with earlier driver editions. Currently on version
    2.1.4.2 which works well.

    • Windows 11 did install the driver for me (same card). Windows 11 needs to download the driver from the Internet so if the PC isn't connected to WiFi, you need to keep the PC temporary connected to the existing LAN port, make sure the driver is installed, then switch to that one.

  • Thanks OP bought 3 hoping to end my intel 225v woes

  • I've got a 225 on my Asus motherboard and it works fine. Not at all saying people don't have problems though. Maybe it's because it's not under heavy use and only running at 1Gbps?

  • Does it have WiFi or blutoth

    • +1

      Neither.

      • dangg i need a budget one like this but with

        • +1

          I will post a deal later with a few.

        • Cheapest I could find

          The WiFi 6/6E prices are pretty ordinary right now.

  • Hmm why does a network card need a heatsink?

    • +2

      They get really hot. Particularly once you go above 1Gbps.

  • is there a half height version of this ? looking for SFF

  • +1

    Got one recently for my synology DS1821+ and was plug and play. Have it running for a few days and no issues so far

  • +1

    Got mine today. I had to disable the onboard NIC for it to work under Debian

    • why is that ?

      • what is Debian or what is a NIC???

        • I had to disable

          why is that ?

  • +1

    got my "IOCREST" branded one today and it works well on NAS <-> PC direct connection at 2.5 GbE, still waiting for keeplink switch

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