Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter

13
Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Port 1
Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Port 1

This is one of those little bits of tech we have been using in the lab for the past year or so. It felt like it was time to do a mini-review of the Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE adapter. It does what it sounds, connects to a Thunderbolt 3 port, and provides 10Gbase-T connectivity.

Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter

The box itself has a single port on it. Sonnet also sells a SFP+ version as well as multi-port adapters.

Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Port 2
Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Port 2

The case itself is a giant heatsink.

Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Case
Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Case

On the other end, there is the Type-C Thunderbolt 3 port.

Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Type C
Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Type C

The bottom has six rubber feet. We still do not know why there are six instead of what we would normally see as four, yet here they are.

Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Bottom Feet
Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Bottom Feet

This is far from the most exciting, but one point worth noting is that this feels very solid. We have used many external adapters before, but this one does not feel cheap.

Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Performance

For a quick performance check:

Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Performance
Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Performance

This is decent performance. We should also note that we have used it over the past few quarters for 2.5GbE and 5GbE networks.

Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 Edition
Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 Edition

We have used these for some time. It certainly gets warm when connected for a long period of time.

Final Words

When we look at mini PCs, we often discuss Thunderbolt ports insofar as they exist. A $199 adapter that is only 10Gbase-T is not the cheapest 10Gbase-T adapter out there. On the other hand, it is very easy to use.

Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Port 1
Sonnet Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 10GbE Adapter Port 1

This is one of those pieces of tech that works reasonably well. Sometimes you just need 10GbE and you have a Thunderbolt port available.

Where to Buy

We purchased our adapter on Amazon. You can find the Amazon affiliate link here.

13 COMMENTS

  1. No PCB shot? What chipset does this have?
    Gets warm suggests high power consumption, not ideal. Measurements would be nice…
    No offense but very little useful content in this review.

  2. I think it is a waste of TB port if there are no dock involve. Only 10Gbps over 40Gbps lane.

    And for $199, that is insane.

  3. Aquantia aqc107 Thunderbolt-based solutions like the one the article don’t properly support the full gamut of Apple’s AirPlay features. Like using the Mac as a network speaker for example. Bug in the hardware or macOS. Unclear which.

    Aqc113s is the way to go however. Thank me later.

  4. Aquantia aqc107 Thunderbolt-based solutions like the one the article don’t properly support the full gamut of Apple’s AirPlay features. Like using the Mac as a network speaker for example. Bug in the hardware or macOS. Unclear which.

    Aqc113s is the way to go however. Thank me later.

  5. @Nanochip That is kind of weird as these adapters support other protocols like AVB to provide network audio that Apple does leverage. The acq107 has been used in several Macs (the first 10 Gbit capable Mac Minis and iMacs).

  6. @Expensive This isn’t at the top of my shopping list; but it seems like it fills a legitimate niche: ‘dock’ normally means requiring external power and doing a bunch of different ports, which is fine for your desk but not so helpful on the move; and USB-based 10GbE remains kind of tepid(absolutely faster than 1 or 2.5 GbE; but not actually 10Gb); while if you want RJ45 copper there’s nothing faster that you could use instead.

    If you were going optical something faster that is capable of falling back to 10Gb would be a lot more attractive, if only for future proofing; but over copper that’s not really an option.

  7. I have the QNAP version of the TB3 to 10GbE adapter. I have run it off the USB4 port of a mini-PC and it works great, but it does get warm with high use.

    I checked the bandwidth from the USB4 controller to the TB3 bridge and it was 38-39Gbps. Also worked great with a Goshen Ridge TB hub in same USB4 port.

  8. Any idea if the same kind of adapter exists in USB 3 version?
    It surely wouldn’t reach the full 10Gbps of the network but should be better than 5Gbps.
    And Thunderbolt is not as widespread as USB3

  9. Just to say @Nanochip is right.
    That said, we’ve used both this Sonnet and the Caldigit units extensively and the Caldigit ones are superior due to their bigger heatsink.

  10. I use a similar one from Startech, also with an AQC107, attached to one of the downlink ports of a Thunderbolt 4 dock and it works great. The added Thunderbolt to PCIe bridge alongside the NIC also adds some extra heat, but nothing I would consider unreasonable.

  11. I’ve had one of these for a few years; I probably wouldn’t buy one new, but it works fine for my uses.

    Entertainingly, I was even able to use it with a Ubuntu 24.04 installer with 0 hassle last month. I plugged a laptop into my TB3 hub for power, and was halfway through installing before I realized that it hadn’t asked about WiFi.

  12. @Joeribl It’s because this IS old. I have this, I bought this back in 2020 if not 2019 – certainly before Covid. I’m slightly surprised there’s a “review” of such an old device but, at the same time, I would agree it is still useful for certain users in 2025.

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