Review on TRENDnet 10 Gigabit PCIe Network Adapter | Converts PCIe Slot to 10G Ethernet Port | Supports 802.1Q VLAN | Includes Standard & Low-Profile Brackets | Compatible with PCIe 2.0 & PCIe 3.0 | Color: Silver | Model: TEG-10GECTX by Brian Nelson

So at the time of my purchase this card cost a little more than a bill. There were other options from Asus, ALFA, TP-Link and Rosewill to name a few, they are all cheaper than the TrendNet card (Rosewill is the cheapest) and some of them might even use the same Marvell AQTion controller but for me, I just trust TREDNet a little more and it's the 3rd version of the network adapter so I hope these guys fixed some bugs. me 10gbe wiring: I use my existing Cat6. Runs are much shorter than the 50m Cat6 10Gbe specification limit. (Category 6a or higher allows a range of up to 100 meters, although the range is limited to just 30 meters when using the SFP+ port, regardless of the cable used.) Switch: Zyxel XGS1250-12, firmware v1.00. (B08TC3VJ61) This is a new switch released, I'm still working on my review, in short it's cool! I tested connecting this NIC to one of the existing copper ports on the switch, as well as to a copper SFP+ transceiver (B075WMGBHX). I had no trouble installing and maintaining a 10GBE connection. Installation: That is the only point that bothers me in this review, when I installed the network card I downloaded the "latest" drivers from the trendnet website which listed as version v1.00 with date 08/31/2020 are. However, shortly after installing said driver and running Windows 10 updates (oh yes, I have Windows 10 20H2), the driver was updated to version 2.2.2.0 with the date 04/30/2020. If you go to the Marvell website you can download the "latest" driver version 2.1.21 dated 04/26/21 (the date I am writing this review is 04/25/21). this time when there is a version above 2.2.2.0. Nevertheless it works. Final Thoughts: So I have 2 computers both running Windows 10 x64 that I have these cards installed on. (GA-z87x-ud7 TH and x99 Taichi). I had enough space in each system and ensured good airflow. I see a lot of concerns about anything 10gbe about how hot things can get. I am attaching a screenshot of a simulated test I ran between both machines. Shortly after upgrading my network adapter, I discovered that my new bottleneck was the array of hard drives on my data server. I went from max 112MB/s (1GB) to around 377MB/s (10GB), although it was 3x what I got, it wasn't exactly 10x faster ;) So I have a RAM disk on built into both devices, i.e. hard drives excluded. Array specs (RAM disk hits around 23,552 MB/s) and I would start to see the max at 10GB (around 900 MB/s). My main workflow is photography, now I can start moving my data to my storage server (which offers multiple types of data protection) but work with these files as if they were stored on one of my local drives in my main editing. Just make sure your system meets the minimum requirements for this card, I'm sure you'll be satisfied.