Realtek 2.5G RTL8125B Network card any good?

Cyber-Mav · 13 Dec 2024 at 19:06

AtaRo said:
Did you get the 4 port or the 8 port?
The 4 port is less than 20 and the 8 is 27, good price if working no problem.

its 4 port, the 4 rj45 ports are 2.5g and it has 2 x sfp ports which i have converted to rj45 too, i did run 10g dac from it with no issues so they are good.
the switch runs fairly warm when placed on top of my server but then the servers heat goes into it. now its wall mounted it runs at room temp

AtaRo · 14 Dec 2024 at 09:59

Cyber-Mav said:
its 4 port, the 4 rj45 ports are 2.5g and it has 2 x sfp ports which i have converted to rj45 too, i did run 10g dac from it with no issues so they are good.
the switch runs fairly warm when placed on top of my server but then the servers heat goes into it. now its wall mounted it runs at room temp

Good to know.
Thanks for the info.

Vimes · 14 Dec 2024 at 21:42

Cyber-Mav said:
its 4 port, the 4 rj45 ports are 2.5g and it has 2 x sfp ports which i have converted to rj45 too, i did run 10g dac from it with no issues so they are good.
the switch runs fairly warm when placed on top of my server but then the servers heat goes into it. now its wall mounted it runs at room temp

Just ordered 3 switches at around £209 each. The four port type. Easy enough to get the 2x sfp ports to convert to RJ45..? How is that done, with an adaptor...?

Thanks

Cyber-Mav · 15 Dec 2024 at 07:57

Vimes said:
Just ordered 3 switches at around £209 each. The four port type. Easy enough to get the 2x sfp ports to convert to RJ45..? How is that done, with an adaptor...?

Thanks

Whoa big spender, 209 quid per 4 port switch? You opted for the solid gold diamond encrusted ones?

As for the sfp module just search for sfp transceiver and you get lots of options. Can get sfp to rj45 in like 1gig or 10gig , may even have a platinum plated one if that's your style :cry:

Vimes · 15 Dec 2024 at 08:07

Cyber-Mav said:
Whoa big spender, 209 quid per 4 port switch? You opted for the solid gold diamond encrusted ones?

As for the sfp module just search for sfp transceiver and you get lots of options. Can get sfp to rj45 in like 1gig or 10gig , may even have a platinum plated one if that's your style

Honestly my fat fingers get me into so much trouble.
£20 sounds better.!
Thanks for the heads-up about those transceivers. Hopefully the switches and cards will work out fine. If they do, incredible savings.

Carefully checking above before posting.

Cyber-Mav · 15 Dec 2024 at 09:24

Transceivers are around 2 quid in cost.
Having 2.5gig Lan is amazing speeds up all the stuff I do from one pc to the other. Running VMS from remote storage is also huge difference

Cyber-Mav · 15 Dec 2024 at 13:37

Just to add my server has mostly mechanical drives in it but even they are more than capable of saturating gigabit Lan and benefit from 2.5g.
The SSD drive deffo has huge advantage with the 2.5g Lan and begs for more but go to take into account cost and power consumption when going to 10g

Vimes · 15 Dec 2024 at 14:17

I have managed for so many years at 1G, and I consider it a luxury, not vital, to have the chance to get to 2.5G with minimal cost. I'll probably need to replace one section of LAN cabling, I'll see.
10G is just beyond diminishing returns for my needs, the cost would be just silly and totally pointless.
All of my server capacity is done with using mechanical drives and, hopefully, all should be nice with 2.5G, even if they do not saturate fully a 2.5G connection.
Both costs and needs to do any different are way beyond what I would like.

Heck, I remember being chuffed with BNC's and coax cabling for our first LAN, lol.

Cyber-Mav · 15 Dec 2024 at 20:26

These 2.5g switches which come with 10g sfp ports are just excellent value for money some good future proofing in this bit of kit. Can't believe iv been wasting money on Netgear, drink, hp etc switches when these cheapo china ones give so much more for the money

Vimes · 16 Dec 2024 at 09:27

Cyber-Mav said:
These 2.5g switches which come with 10g sfp ports are just excellent value for money some good future proofing in this bit of kit. Can't believe iv been wasting money on Netgear, drink, hp etc switches when these cheapo china ones give so much more for the money

I was reminded that, to a point, when my trusty and aged Netgear POE switch no longer was able to keep up with the growing demands for POE. As it had been great I bought another. Oh my, extremely poor interface and functionality for the very expensive cost. I bought a TP-Link, way cheaper, and much more functionality.
Perhaps, taking that further, I would now consider Ali as a very real choice.

Brand loyalty has a place, being careful with some cheaply made electrical items, if possible, but there are choices......

Three of these arrived today....

Vimes · Saturday at 14:50

Cyber-Mav said:
These 2.5g switches which come with 10g sfp ports are just excellent value for money some good future proofing in this bit of kit. Can't believe iv been wasting money on Netgear, drink, hp etc switches when these cheapo china ones give so much more for the money

Gotta love the fused, not, plugs these come with on their PSU's.....

thankfully, I had 3 12v 1.5A PSU's not used from Shucked WD drives.

Rainmaker · Saturday at 15:15

Following on from the switch talk, I'm just looking at OM3 LC/LC UPC pre-made cable to replace the dodgy Ethernet cabling between our upper and lower floors. My plan is to put the YuanLey unmanaged switch upstairs, a PoE variant downstairs as the new core switch, then link them with a 15 metre pre-made fibre cable. The existing Cat 6 connection is flaky, and by the time I've re-pulled and terminated and installed new boxes, I may as well just link them via SPF+ with an armoured fibre and be done with it.

I did consider just going 10G for the core and doing it 'properly', with multiple 2.5G clients (a lot of my boxes coincidentally are 2.5G NICs) sharing the larger backbone to ease any potential for congestion. For example, my Proxmox box often slows when nzbget is downloading at full speed and something is also using WAN or backuping up on LAN to the NAS. Thing is, I end up chasing the dragon and ever faster speeds are needed. I settled on 2.5G WAN and backbone LAN, and limiting most clients to 1G (no one client needs more than symmetric gig, except maybe nzbget and backup server).

Sone · Monday at 22:04

Cyber-Mav said:
These 2.5g switches which come with 10g sfp ports are just excellent value for money some good future proofing in this bit of kit. Can't believe iv been wasting money on Netgear, drink, hp etc switches when these cheapo china ones give so much more for the money

Ordered a few myself. Currently use a couple of QSW-2104-2T sure paid over £100 each so interested see how these perform when turn up

Vimes · Monday at 22:18

I have been pleased with the three switches and LAN cards, two of those in use.
Surprised as part of the wiring of our home LAN, not sure if just CAT 5, but quite old, did not need replacing as I'm seeing upto 280MB/s transfer. Doesn't last though, as expected, due to the mechanical HD's and their speeds etc.
Green lights on the switches, indicating 2.5GB connections.