M.2 10GbE network card sells for $86

Almost two years ago, we wrote it was possible to add 10GbE to your system with a M.2 network card based on a Marvell AQC113 chip for about $170. But I’ve now been made aware prices may have come down a lot as another M.2 10GbE network based on the Marvell AQC107 chipset is now selling for $86 including shipping (to Thailand).

Just like the previous model, the M.2 card does not include an RJ45 port, instead, it’s included in a separate board that’s mountable to a standard PC plate and connected through a flat cable to the M.2 module.

Specifications:

Network controller – Marvell AQC107
- PCIe Gen3 x4 10Gbps Ethernet controller supporting 10GBASE-T, 5GBASE-T, 2.5GBASE-T, 1000BASE-T, and 100BASE-T (but not 10BASE-T)
- Aquantias AQrate PHY up to 10GbE using Cat 6a cables, as well as 5 GbE and 2.5 GbE over 100 meters with Cat 5e cables
- Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE)
- IEEE1588v2 precision time protocol
- Large send offload (LSO), receiver scaling (RSS), direct cache access (DCA), and headers’ checksumming
- IPv4, IPv6 and IPv6/UDP checksum offload
- Jumbo frames up to 16kbytes
- Quality of Service (QoS)
- Up to eight traffic classes and Data Center Bridging (DCB)
- Management functions – IPMI pass-through via SMBus or NC-SI, iSCSI boot, Wake-on-LAN, PXE remote boot, VLAN filtering
RJ45 port via external board connected over FPC cable
Misc – Heatsink for cooling
Dimensions – M.2 B+M key module
Temperature Range – Operating: 0 to 55°C; storage: -40 to 70°C
Humidity – 90% RH, non-condensing at 35°C

The M.2 10GbE network card is said to come with a CD (for drivers?) and a “short iron piece” for mounting. The seller says it can work with desktop PCs, workstations, servers, and embedded systems with a spare M.2 Key-B or Key-M socket. Supported operating systems include Windows 7/8/8.1/10/Server 2012/Server 2016 32 or 64-bit and Linux distributions with kernel 3.10 and above. Windows 11 is not listed, but I don’t see why it would not work…

Thanks to Willy for the tip.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.