2.5G Ethernet Networking is Definitely Worthwhile

Just built a new PC that has a 2.5G Ethernet adapter built in. I wanted to do some testing to see if I would really benefit from switching over my other machines to 2.5G Ethernet especially now that cheap 2.5G switches have just become available.

I started by picking up a 2.5G USB-C adapter for $20 from Amazon. I connected the new computer to my laptop using that adapter and directly connected it to my desktop machine with no switch. I definitely saw some huge performance improvements. So, I took the dive. I picked up an 8 port 2.5G switch from TrendNet (TP-Link also has one and both companies also make 5 port 2.5 G switches). I upgraded my other machines to 2.5G Ethernet adapters for $23 each.

So here are the results:

About the best speed you can get over a gigabit link is 113MB/Sec even if you are copying data from an SSD on one system to an SSD on another system. With the 2.5G Ethernet, I'm getting a dead stable and constant 280MB/Sec so that's a huge improvement.

That part was not a particularly large surprise, but what did surprise me was copying from an SSD on one system to a spinning HDD on the other system. The HDD in my system is not even a particularly fast drive but I was was continually exceeding the 113MB that gigabit Ethernet can do. The speed was bouncing up and down a lot but I was seeing speeds of between 140 to 190MB/Sec. So even with a "slow" HDD, when transferring data between machines gigabit Ethernet is the bottleneck. I would have thought that the HDD would be the bottleneck but now I know that gigabit Ethernet cannot even keep up with a slow HDD.

Bottom line: If you transfer a lot of data over the network, even between HDDs and not SSDs, the upgrade to 2.5G is worth the while and has now become very cost effective.

Components I tested with:

Built on the motherboard of my ASUS MB: Intel 1225-V 2.5G Ethernet
PCIe Adapters added to other systems: Cudy 2.5Gbps PCI Express Network Adapter, Based op Realtek RTL8125 ($22.99 on Amazon)
CableCreation USB-C 3.1 2.5G Ethernet adapter ($19.99 on Amazon). Great for laptop our temp connections to system without a 2.5G Ethernet adapter installed.
TRENDnet 8 port 2.5G switch, model TEG-S380 ($179.99 on Amazon)

Thanks for the feedback. Have been thinking of experimenting with 2.5 because my new desktop and wife's new desktop both have 2.5Gbps cards. It would be purely theoretical as there isn't really anything that we would transfer back and forth between each other.

I tend to move around terabytes of data on a regular basis, so it was well worth doing for me. However, I know that for the average user it may not buy a whole lot.