If you have read our ASRock ASRock X370 Gaming Professional review you will have noticed how much I appreciated the implementation of the Aquantia 5 GbE ethernet jack. If you have read my MSI, Gigabyte ASUS and other reviews, you will have noticed I was complaining about the lack of them. Aquantia will be launching their own 5 GbE and 10 GbE ethernet adapters.
Aquantia will launch the AQtion AQN-107 and AQN-108 thus supporting 10 GbE or 5 GbE Ethernet. The adapters follow the IEEE 802.3bz standard meaning thet can manage 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps and 10 Gbps. This will all work over your standard CAT 5e and 6e cable. You would need a supported network switch though.
| Card | AQN-107 | AQN-108 |
| Controller | AQC-107 | AQC-108 |
| 100/1000/2.5G / 5G BASE-T | Yes | Yes |
| 10G BASE-T | Yes | No |
| Ports | 1 | 1 |
| Price MSRP | $127 | $99 |
Ethernet has been slacking and lacking as Intel and Realtek simply refuse to update to newer standards. Look at your NAS unit, it's all locked in at 1 Gbps offering roughly 120 MB/s. With HDDs and SSDs much faster these days, how good would 250 to 500 MB/sec transfers be ? It is time to propagate and evolve I say. The 5G Aquantia cards are PCI-Express x1 based and the 10G are on a 4x lane configuration. Both are available in a single-slot low profile form factor. The 10 Gbps AQN 107 will cost 127 USD, the 5 Gbps AQN 108 will cost 99 USD. The cards are hopefully available soon, worldwide. In the USA you can spot them here at Arrow.com
Oh and motherboard manufacturers, can we please get at least the 5G version embedded in the high-end motherboards, please .. pretty please with a cherry on top?
Aquantia Launches AQtion 5 GbE and 10 GbE Ethernet Adapters
