2.5Gb PCIe Network Card 2.5GBase-T RJ45 Ethernet Network Adapter

Affordable, legit I226-V NIC. I have two of these in Fedora workstations and one in a Debian homelab server, they all work pretty much flawlessly. I did have some somewhat expected erratic behavior with aspm on, but with aspm off from BIOS and kernel flags, has been pretty flawless. Packaging is nice, great bang for your buck here. The LEDs are fairly bright with the PC off if you have wake on LAN enabled, did not matter to me personally (see photo). $ lspci -nn | grep -i net 0c:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V [8086:125c] (rev 04) I didn't bother with iperf results, but below is my speedtest through a Unifi Flex Mini 2.5G and a UCG Max on 2gbps fiber: Speedtest by Ookla Idle Latency: 20.19 ms (jitter: 2.22ms, low: 19.35ms, high: 23.47ms) Download: 2277.02 Mbps (data used: 2.8 GB) 19.90 ms (jitter: 0.29ms, low: 19.50ms, high: 24.70ms) Upload: 2144.24 Mbps (data used: 2.4 GB) 20.36 ms (jitter: 0.62ms, low: 18.60ms, high: 26.35ms) Packet Loss: 0.0%

I have an older PC that has been repurposed to be my NAS using Unraid. I purchased this to replace an intel based 2x1Gbps card that was running as an aggregated LACP bond. It took a little bit to learn how to get Unraid to make this the primary NIC, but that's not the card's fault (it wasn't really that hard, I am just not familiar with Unraid just yet). After installing the card and getting it connected to my Ubiquiti Unifi Cloud Gateway Max, I ran In iperf3 test to another Unraid system on the network. I am no network engineer, but I'm getting "close enough" to the advertised maximum bandwidth to make me very happy. My iperf3 results are below: iperf3 -c 10.0.20.21 Connecting to host <targetIP>, port 5201 [ 5] local <sourceIP> port 58840 connected to <targetIP> port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd [ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 282 MBytes 2.36 Gbits/sec 0 311 KBytes [ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 278 MBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 0 308 KBytes [ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 279 MBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 0 311 KBytes [ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 278 MBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 0 305 KBytes [ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 280 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 308 KBytes [ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 278 MBytes 2.33 Gbits/sec 0 305 KBytes [ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 280 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec 0 308 KBytes [ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 278 MBytes 2.33 Gbits/sec 0 311 KBytes [ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 279 MBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 0 308 KBytes [ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 278 MBytes 2.33 Gbits/sec 0 5.66 KBytes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 2.72 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec 0 sender [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 2.72 GBytes 2.34 Gbits/sec receiver I may try to set up jumbo frames (I don't know if that' still a good way to increase throughput, but I seem to remember 'back in tha day' it being one way to improve performance) but I'm not sure. For now, it gave me what I wanted: a very affordable and fast speed boost on my small home network.

This card reports the connection speed as 2.5Gbps, but it performs close to 100 Mbps. See the iperf3 results: [ 5] 0.00-1.01 sec 7.50 MBytes 62.6 Mbits/sec [ 5] 1.01-2.01 sec 11.5 MBytes 96.5 Mbits/sec [ 5] 2.01-3.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.7 Mbits/sec [ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 11.4 MBytes 95.3 Mbits/sec [ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 11.4 MBytes 95.2 Mbits/sec [ 5] 5.00-6.01 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.3 Mbits/sec [ 5] 6.01-7.00 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.4 Mbits/sec [ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.5 Mbits/sec [ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.5 Mbits/sec [ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.3 Mbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 109 MBytes 91.4 Mbits/sec sender [ 5] 0.00-10.05 sec 109 MBytes 90.6 Mbits/sec receiver A different card on the same computer and the same switch perform as expected. [ 7] 0.00-1.00 sec 283 MBytes 2.36 Gbits/sec [ 7] 1.00-2.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 7] 2.01-3.01 sec 280 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 7] 3.01-4.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 7] 4.01-5.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 7] 5.01-6.00 sec 280 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 7] 6.00-7.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 7] 7.01-8.00 sec 279 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 7] 8.00-9.01 sec 282 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 7] 9.01-10.01 sec 280 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 7] 0.00-10.01 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec sender [ 7] 0.00-10.01 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec receiver

Detected fine in an Asus AMD x570 motherboard. No windows 10 drivers automatically found. Unfortunately Intel's website makes it a bit harder than it should be to find drivers. Search for "Intel Network Adapter Driver for Windows 10". Version 29.1 installed without issue. I ordered a second one and will update review if there are any problems. Edit: Also working fine on another ASUS AMD x570 motherboard on windows 11, a Gigabyte A520 board on windows 10, and an ASUS Intel H770 board running Debian Linux. 2.5 GB link throughput: [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 284 MBytes 2.38 Gbits/sec [ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 283 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 2.00-3.01 sec 284 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 3.01-4.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 4.01-5.01 sec 284 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 5.01-6.00 sec 279 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 283 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 7.00-8.01 sec 284 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 8.01-9.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec [ 5] 9.01-10.01 sec 284 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-10.01 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec sender [ 5] 0.00-10.02 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec receiver 1GB link throughput: [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-1.01 sec 115 MBytes 962 Mbits/sec [ 5] 1.01-2.01 sec 107 MBytes 893 Mbits/sec [ 5] 2.01-3.01 sec 113 MBytes 943 Mbits/sec [ 5] 3.01-4.01 sec 113 MBytes 942 Mbits/sec [ 5] 4.01-5.00 sec 111 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec [ 5] 5.00-6.01 sec 112 MBytes 940 Mbits/sec [ 5] 6.01-7.01 sec 111 MBytes 929 Mbits/sec [ 5] 7.01-8.01 sec 112 MBytes 941 Mbits/sec [ 5] 8.01-9.01 sec 112 MBytes 941 Mbits/sec [ 5] 9.01-10.00 sec 111 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.09 GBytes 938 Mbits/sec sender [ 5] 0.00-10.01 sec 1.09 GBytes 936 Mbits/sec receiver

I've updated my review after more testing and a direct comparison with the TP-Link TX201 2.5G card. I was frustrated when I couldn't get this card working on my B550 Aorus Pro AC motherboard, but the issue was with the motherboard, not the XikeStor SKS-i226-2.5ET card. At PCI 3.0 in the bottom slot, it would disable the second M.2 slot (not documented behavior) and still not be visible to the kernel. The TX201 at PCIe 2.1 works fine in that same MB/slot. However on a Proxmox server Asus Z170-Delux MB, I could get both cards running at full speed at the same time, allowing for comparison. Using IPerf3 for testing, I found that the SKS-i226 card was on average 10% faster, and had 48% fewer retries than the TX201. I was also getting higher maximum bit-rates (2.26 Gbits/s vs 1.96 Gbits/s). In general, I already had a preference of the i226-V over the RTL8125, so I'm happy I could get this card working on one machine.

I achieve >gigabit speeds with it. Its installed in a NAS and my file transfers are now faster on my 2.5GbE LAN than they were with the 1GbE onboard nic. I don't really have a way to test the full 2.5Gb (my drives top out somewhere between 1Gb and 2Gb) but i kinda trust that it does. Maybe if you are a heavy user more heatsink would be needed, the included one is pretty small compared to others i've seen. the activity LEDs are incredibly bright. I don't sleep with my NAS though so this is not something that bothers me. Buyers might want to be aware though. Seems to have Intel chipset. At least insofar as it works flawlessly plug-n-play on TrueNAS Scale. I am told non-Intel chipsets are not always compatible w/Linux.

This eventually worked quite well once I figured out a few things. For starters, when plugged into my PCIe X1 port, the lights went on but Windows never detected a device at all. I thought it was defective, but U moved it to an X16 port and suddenly Windows detected the device. However, Windows still had no idea what type of device it was and did not automatically download drivers even though I had my original network card/connection still available. It was simply an exclamation point "Unknown network device". Since the product comes with zero drivers or even much in the way of documentation, I had to go hunting for the chipset and compatible Intel I226-V drivers. Once that was installed, all worked as expected and speed tests show a nice bump. The only problem I have with this card is that it has VERY bright lights that flash constantly. Even when the computer is OFF! I've turned off Wake from LAN but it still stays flashing away while the PC is off. Very annoying.

It was easy to install and comes with a little screwdriver so I could change the bracket for a small half height slot. Just needed to enable the PCI slot in the BIOS and it was seen by Proxmox and it works well with Ceph. It was recommended by Copilot and has worked well, better than the USB C 2.5Gb adapter. It was cheaper than the USB C adapter as well. Well packaged had a little cover on the PCI fingers, make sure you take it off before you try and install it. I works with HP and Dell SFF computers.

Worked great on a FreeBSD system

2.5Gbpsで大満足している者のレビューです。 ASUS PRIME Z390-Aで使っていますが、通信がとても快適になりました。

Ottima scheda e funzionante con VMWARE ESXI in modalità plug & play senza fare altro.

Geïnstalleerd in de PCIe-poort en werkt perfect. Geen problemen op Ubuntu Server. Direct klaar. Het heeft een knipperend groen lampje dat aangeeft dat het werkt. De snelheid is zoals aangegeven.

I recently upgraded my server with the XikeStor 2.5Gb PCIe Network Card, and I couldn't be happier with the results! This network adapter, featuring the reliable Intel I226-V Chip, has been an absolute game-changer for my home network. Installation was incredibly straightforward – simply slot it into a PCIe 3.1 X1 or greater slot, and it was ready to go. What truly stands out is its exceptional compatibility. It worked perfectly right out of the box, delivering the promised 2.5GBase-T speeds without any fuss. Even more impressively, I tested it with both VMware ESXi 8.0U3 and Proxmox 8.4.1, and the card was picked up by both hypervisors without requiring any additional drivers installed – a huge time-saver! The performance uplift is immediately noticeable. File transfers are significantly faster and the system feels a lot more responsive than previously. The speeds have also been consistently excellent, running at full 2.5Gbps line speed, which is a true upgrade from standard gigabit Ethernet, providing that extra bandwidth for demanding tasks. If you're looking to future-proof your network connection and experience genuinely faster speeds, the XikeStor 2.5Gb PCIe Network Card is an outstanding choice. It's reliable, easy to install, and delivers on its promise of high-speed, stable connectivity across various operating systems and virtualisation platforms. Highly recommended for anyone seeking a significant network performance boost!