The 10 Gigabit Ethernet standard is something that every NAS and home server owner wishes to add to their setup. While it may sound tempting to install a 10GbE network into your system for sky-high bandwidths, it’s not something that every computing enthusiast needs to concern themselves with.

So, if you’re wondering whether your workstation(s) can benefit from NIC upgrades, then read on. In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know before you invest in 10GbE network cards for your home lab.

When is 10GbE useful?

Let me preface this section by adding that we won’t cover ISP shenanigans in this article, as that’s another story in and of itself. Instead, we’ll go over home networks and LAN setups, where you’re likely to require higher bandwidth to ensure fast transfer speeds and response times when accessing a server.

First, let’s get one thing straight: the b in 10GbE refers to bits rather than bytes. As such, the 10GbE is actually ten Gigabits, not Gigabytes. For the uninitiated, bytes are the most common metric when transferring files, and each byte is equivalent to 8 bits. As such, a 10GbE NIC will net you a speed of 1.2 Gigabytes/s, while the more commonly found 1GbE cards can only hit one-tenth of this speed.

Clearly, upgrading to 10GbE will skyrocket your bandwidth. On an SSD-powered server, you’ll definitely see a noticeable improvement in the transfer speeds when sending over huge files, especially if you’re coming from the old 1GbE standard. But unless you’re using multiple NVMe SSDs in tandem or have complex RAID configurations set up, the average NAS owner won’t see a massive difference in performance when upgrading to a 10GbE NIC from a 5GbE or even a 2.5GbE card. While there are other elements at play, here are some scenarios where you should switch to a 10GbE connection:

Powerful home lab server

Especially when multiple users/systems need to access the server at once

Let’s say you have a powerful Xeon server capable of running hundreds of containers and just as many virtual machines. If you have multiple computers that can connect to the server, it can quickly saturate lower bandwidth NICs, and upgrading to 10GbE will make a lot of sense.

However, if you just have a single laptop and/or some mobile devices that you need to connect with a server and access the contents of your favorite Docker containers, it might be worth sticking to a 2.5GbE or a 5GbE NIC instead.

High-end NAS

Where you're transferring TBs of data to and from SSDs

All-flash NAS enclosures have started popping up recently, and it’s far easier to saturate their bandwidth as compared to your average HDD-equipped NAS. In fact, when I reviewed the Aiffro K100 a few weeks ago, my biggest complaint about the device was that it could only support 2.5GbE instead of 10 GbE.

NVMe SSDs have insanely fast transfer speeds and even older drives utilizing the NVMe protocol can clog the bandwidth of your average network card. And that’s just a single SSD. If you’re planning to use multiple NVMe drives in the faster RAID setups, it’s even possible to max out the 1.2 GigaBytes/s limit of a 10GbE NIC!

Extensive video editing

Involving high-resolution video files

Clearly, sending humongous amounts of data over SSDs can choke slower network cards. However, for those who store long footage on a dedicated NAS, upgrading the device’s NIC can drastically reduce the render times, and 10GbE is practically necessary if you don’t want to wait hours when rendering 4K/8K videos at high bitrates.

Should you upgrade your servers with 10GbE NICs?

For the high-end computing user with several nodes connected to a server, a 10GbE card is a great investment, and the same holds true for professional video creators and data hoarders. But for the average NAS user, you’re not likely to encounter any issues sticking with 2.5GbE, as even a 5GbE connection may be overkill for everyday server-related tasks.

Since we’re on the subject of Ethernet connection, there are a plethora of other factors in the equation. The types of switches and even the cabling can have a huge impact on the NIC of your choice, and you should forget about installing a 10GbE NIC if you’re rocking outdated networking peripherals. There’s also a huge difference between the prices of 2.5/5GbE components and 10GbE compatible network accessories, and you might need to shell out hundreds of dollars for higher bandwidth that you might not even require in your workload.

All that said, I’d definitely advise most server users to switch to 2.5GbE if your rig contains a 1GbE card. Sure, streaming movies from Plex or performing light virtualization tasks won’t result in major bottlenecks. But file transfers are a different story, as it’s pretty easy to saturate a 1GbE connection. Heck, if you’re using professional-grade hard drives in your NAS/server, even a single HDD can hit too close to the 120MB/s transfer speeds of a 1GbE connection, making a 2.5GbE card a worthwhile upgrade for your home server.