The BrosTrend 2.5GbE PCIe network adapter is a cheap network adapter that we found recently, so for about $19, we wanted to see what it offered. These are simple devices, but for many, adding a 2.5GbE NIC in machines, plus an inexpensive switch from our Ultimate Cheap Fanless 2.5GbE Switch Buyers Guide, offers a significant upgrade in performance over 1GbE or slower WiFi connections. Sometimes, it is nice to just go faster. Here is an Amazon affiliate link to what we purchased.
BrosTrend 2.5GbE PCIe Network Adapter Hardware Overview
The NIC itself has a simple 2.5GbE port on one end. It supports lower speeds, but our sense is that you will only use this if you are planning to primarily use the 2.5GbE speed.
We have the full-height bracket installed, but there are two screws that keep that bracket installed and the card also comes with a low profile bracket.
These are tiny PCIe 2.1 x1 cards, so they work in even fairly old motherboards.
Onboard is the Realtek RTL8125B/BG chip, but it is covered by a metal enclosure. These switch chips and cards draw low single-digit watts, so a small thermal solution like this works. However, we generally prefer larger heatsinks. To be fair, Realtek RTL8125B/BG chips are often found on motherboards bare, without any thermal solution.
Sam took a profile view photo which we have not shown in many of our reviews previously, but it does a good job of showing just how low profile the card is. If you need to route cables close to this slot, having a compact card like this can be useful.
The back of the card has a label, but not much else.
We popped this into a system just to see the performance.
BrosTrend 2.5GbE PCIe Network Adapter Performance
We did a quick iperf3 test with this NIC:
Overall, that is exactly what we would expect. We have seen so many of these 2.5GbE RTL8125 implementations at this point that there is not much variability.
Final Words
When the RTL8125 first came out, driver support was very rough. These days, almost every modern OS should support the cards. For most of our readers, if you have an updated OS and a PCIe x1 slot, you should be set with this card.
If you just need to add cheap 2.5GbE to a system, then the BrosTrend 2.5GbE PCIe network adapter worked. It is not fancy, and it is hard to differentiate this versus other Realtek adapters on the market. That means this is often a good or bad buy based on its pricing. Still, we wanted to at least get one in and try it since we recently saw the BrosTrend S3 8-port 2.5GbE Switch which was really interesting since it uses a MaxLinear switch chip.
Where to Buy
Here is an Amazon affiliate link to what we purchased.
