The card to get if you need 10 GbE on Cat6/7 networks
May 09, 2021

The card to get if you need 10 GbE on Cat6/7 networks

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • X540

Overall Satisfaction with Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X540

Our office's wired networking was all 1 GbE, which is perfectly adequate for most purposes, but started to become bit of a bottleneck between a couple of machines in particular, i.e., a hypervisor server and network attached storage. We already had an ethernet switch with some 10GbE ports and did not want to have to move to a fiber setup at this point, so we opted for adding an Intel X540 adapter to each of the machines. This bumped them up 10 GbE speeds whilst still using the existing Cat6 cabling and switch. Perfect!

Pros

  • Uses RJ45 ports, allowing you to use existing Cat6/7 infrastructure.
  • Widely supported by OSs, as to be expected with Intel adapters.
  • Relatively low cost upgrade for a massive speed boost.

Cons

  • There are cheaper alternatives, although admittedly not by much.
  • Intel drivers are readily available for all OSs.
  • Linux support is great.
  • Fanless operation. There's a rather large heatsink to dissipate heat, with no fan required. Makes for silent and maintenance-free operation.
  • Dual port.
  • Very low cost of entry to 10 GbE speeds for specific areas of our network.
  • Re-use of existing Cat6/7 cabling required no expenditure on infrastructure, other than the cost of buying the X540 cards.
  • The vastly improved network performance with 10 GbE allows us to make better use of our time, less time waiting for operations to complete.
I've used dozens of network adapters over the years, with a variety of operating systems. OS driver support can vary massively. If there's one manufacturer that stands out as generally being trouble-free, it's Intel. The X540 is no different here, and just works out of the box with the Linux distributions I use - no effort required at all. I had my eye on the X540 for this reason.

Do you think Intel 500 Series Network Adapters delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Intel 500 Series Network Adapters's feature set?

Yes

Did Intel 500 Series Network Adapters live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Intel 500 Series Network Adapters go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Intel 500 Series Network Adapters again?

Yes

I would recommend the Intel X540 to anyone who requires an upgrade to 10 GbE speeds whilst utilising an existing Cat6/7 wired network (i.e., does not wish to run fiber). As long as you have an ethernet switch with some 10 GbE RJ45 ports, all you will need to do is throw an X540 in to each machine you need the increased speed for, and you're done. Even without the switch, you could do a direct machine to machine link with just one of these cards in each machine. This makes it for a very low cost entry in to 10 GbE.

Having said that, if you are going to be deploying a lot of 10 GbE, this may not be the product for you. You will likely benefit from just making the swap to fiber. Especially so if you don't already have Cat6/7.

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