Vogzone 10Gb PCI-E NIC Network Card for Intel X520-DA2/ E10G42BTDA,100MbE/1GbE/10GbE Dual SFP+ Ports, with Intel 82599ES Chip,10GbE PCI Express 2.0 X8 Ethernet Adapter Support Windows/Linux/VMware

🟢 Installation: Setup was a breeze. Truly plug-and-play – no drivers needed, no configuration hassle. Worked right out of the box on my Windows setup.🟢 Usage: I upgraded to 5Gb fiber internet and needed my desktop to keep up. This NIC handled it with no issues and immediately unlocked full bandwidth potential.🟡 Heat: It does get warm to the touch during extended use, but not enough to raise serious concerns. A bit of airflow should keep it in check.🟢 Performance: Rock-solid connection and consistent speeds. Great value for unlocking multi-gig speeds.Verdict: If you’re upgrading your home network to 2.5/5/10GbE, this is a reliable and affordable card to bring your system up to speed. Just make sure you have some case ventilation in place.

I installed this network card in my custom OPNsense pc router. It was basically plug n play, although I did have to set the interface speed manually to 2.5Gb, as auto detection didn’t work. I didn’t test it with anything faster but I do get full speed at 2.5gb and I’m confident it would work fine up to 10Gb.

I can’t believe the affordable price of this device. You could literally buy two of these for the price of a single TP-Link 2.5GB network card! And that’s why I bought two of the Vogzone cards. I thought if these don’t work, I’d return them and buy Intel-based network cards. But the Realtek are so much cheaper that I thought it would be worth a try.I installed the Vogzone network card with curiosity, unsure if it would work or not. Pleased to see it works well without having to install drivers in Ubuntu 24.04. I installed the 2nd one in an unRAID server (running Slackware Linux) and that also worked fine, no issues. Speed tests show 1.5-2.3gbps for the devices that are connected to a 2.5 gigabit switch, so I am happy with that.Looks like Ubuntu and unRAID/SlackWare are using the “r8169” kernel driver for this network card. BTW these cards show up in Linux as “Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller (rev 05)”.I’ll update the review if anything of interest happens, but so far I’m happy with the purchase. Yes, it is a bit more work to open a computer case and install a card, but these are so affordable I think it is worth it. If you are OK with spending a little more (around $20 per device), you could buy an RTL8125-based USB 3.0/USB-C dongle and use that instead. In that case you just plug it into a port on the case! Because the Realtek 2.5GB network devices generally have the same chipset (RTL8125) then that should work fine as well. By buying these Vogzone cards I saved about $16 total, which means the switch I bought to use with these cards only cost $32 instead of $48 as I applied the savings to that! (BrosTrend 2.5GB white plastic 8 port switch; works great too). I recommend this device based on preliminary performance.The device comes in a plain box with a printed label. Inside the box is a plastic bag (doesn’t appear to be anti-static, might be?) containing the very small network card. It also includes a half-height card bracket, which you could easily swap if you need the shorter bracket. By default the card had the full-height bracket installed, which worked perfectly in my mid-tower PC case.I’m taking 1 star off as the packaging is very minimal. The cardboard box isn’t sealed at all, not shrink wrapped, so it feels like anyone could have tampered with the product before it was delivered. It also contains zero instructions; no spec sheet, driver information, etc. If you want any details you’ll need to review the Amazon product listing! So the customer experience isn’t fantastic, but experienced users will be able to easily install the card and enjoy the savings from the lower cost. Working great so far!

Works great in my OPNsense router. No issues as of this date, 2 months heavy server use.

Bought this to replace a dead ethernet port on my motherboard. I liked the fact that this model had a heatsink since heat can can induce thermal throttling for these types of things and in terms of a network adapter, that will affect the transfer speeds (i.e. reviews complaining about thermal throttling for USB network adapters).Also it was cheap enough that I wouldn't feel too bad if it didn't work. A few months later after installing and it's still going strong. I get sustained 2.5gbe speeds out of it transferring files within my network to and from my server so I can't really complain.Only minor negative I can think of is it has a bright red activity light that constantly flashes on the inside of your case. This is a problem if you have a windowed side panel like I do. Not a deal breaker and can be addressed, but annoying nonetheless.

Because my server runs linux (TrueNAS), i was able to see why this card wasn't connecting at 2.5gb.Turns out, the card is CAPABLE of connecting at 2.5gb speeds but doesn't ADVERTISE (tell) that to the switch, so they always auto-negotiate at 1gb.In linux, run "ethtool [interface name. example, 'ethtool eth5']" and look at the capable and advertised speeds. This means that you need to create a service/unit file with systemctl in order to run this at bootup "ethtool -s [interface name] speed 2500 duplex full autoneg on".This is what is known as a work around. I did not pay $130 for a work around.

Needed to upgrade my internet speed and this easy to install component is doing the job!Great price and value.

I ordered the X550-T2 for my pfSense build, but the first card arrived defective. I reached out to the seller, and they immediately sent me a replacement with no hassle.The new card works flawlessly in our pfSense setup, delivering reliable 10Gb performance. While the product is great, the highlight of my experience was the seller’s exceptional customer service. They resolved the issue quickly and made the process stress-free. Highly recommend both the NIC and this seller!