Question SSD and 10GbE throughput of Gigabyte Z390 Xtreme

[tablespoon]

Hello, I have this motherboard with a built-in Aquantia 10GbE port. I am using a Samsung 970 Evo Plus SSD. I want to connect it to a M2 Pro Silicon Mac. If I get a Mac Mini, it can come with a 10GbE port. If I get a MacBook Pro, I have to buy a Thunderbolt 3 to 10GbE adapter. Now I have to choose between the two computers.

Is it true that if I don't raid the SSD of both computers, I can only get at most 1Gb/s (some stated different values. Who is correct?) of data transfer speed due to the speed limitation of the m.2 SSD? If that is the case, am I correct that even I buy a Mac Mini with an upgraded 10GbE port, I still cannot take advantage of the high speed 10G connection due to such limitation?

In a recent test, I added a 2.5GbE USB 3 adapter to a M2 Mac Mini. As I recall the fastest transfer speed I got was about 1Gb/s even the system stated that the connection was 2.5GbE. Is the speed limitation of the M.2 SSD the reason?

Z390 AORUS XTREME (rev. 1.0) Specification | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

 

[Justinus]

The 970 Evo Plus is capable of well in excess of 10GbE speeds. The Aquantia nic tends to transfer at a rate of about 800MiB/s, and the evo is capable of 3-4x that in read and pSLC writes.

 

[solidsnake1298]

What kind of switch or router are you using? It doesn't matter that the adapters and NICs are rated for 2.5GbE or 10GbE if the switch/router they are connected to is only capable of 1GbE. Based on what you've said, it sounds like you have a 1GbE capable switch/router.

In regards to the relative speeds of a SSD and 10GbE. A single Samsung 970 Evo should be able to max out a 10Gb network connection. The 970 Evo can achieve 3-4GB/s (bytes) transfer speeds, which translates to 24-32Gb/s (bits). So the 10GbE interface is the limiting factor, not the SSD.

 

[tablespoon]

What kind of switch or router are you using?

My router is just an old DSL modem provided by ISP. I think there should be an option to upgrade to Fiber Optics within this month once the ISP has completely upgraded the internet infrastructure in my area.

I don't have a switch. Currently all my computers and devices are connected through WiFi.

A confusion is that if I just connect the two computers directly, what does it has to do with the router? What is the purpose of adding a switch in this case?

 

[solidsnake1298]

My router is just an old DSL modem provided by ISP. I think there should be an option to upgrade to Fiber Optics within this month once the ISP has completely upgraded the internet infrastructure in my area.

I don't have a switch. Currently all my computers and devices are connected through WiFi.

A confusion is that if I just connect the two computers directly, what does it has to do with the router? What is the purpose of adding a switch in this case?

Most people using higher speed networking would connect via a switch capable of those higher speeds. But direct connections between PCs (and I think Macs) is possible.

If this is what you have done, but are still seeing 1Gb/s speeds, its possible that the ethernet cable you are using is not up to the task. Not all ethernet cables are equal. For 10GbE you need to use Cat 6 ethernet cables.

The rating of the cable is printed along the length of the cable.

 

[tablespoon]

Yes, I know. I am using CAT6 cable. Tested with a USB to 2.5GbE adapter. Windows shows 2.5GbE connection but actual transfer speed was about 1GB/sec.

 

[solidsnake1298]

Yes, I know. I am using CAT6 cable. Tested with a USB to 2.5GbE adapter. Windows shows 2.5GbE connection but actual transfer speed was about 1GB/sec.

Please confirm you used that correct "B" there at the end. 1GB/s (byte) translates to 8Gb/s (bit). Exceeding the 2.5Gb rating of that adapter.

Also confirm what kind of transfer this is. Is it a lot of small files? Or very large files?

 

[gdansk]

What do you have connected now? What is the Z390's Aquantia port connected to for your testing? A 2.5gbe adapter plugged into your Mac?

 

[Tech Junky]

Yes, I know. I am using CAT6 cable. Tested with a USB to 2.5GbE adapter. Windows shows 2.5GbE connection but actual transfer speed was about 1GB/sec.

Doesn't make sense. Internally from one drive to another GB/s would be possible. Looking at the table you would need 8gbps to hit 1GB/s. 2.5gbps would only net you ~300MB/s.

Thunderbolt 40gbps maxes out though around 3.1GB/s depending on the drive / enclosure / cable. Now, when the new versions comes out the bandwidth will jump to 80gbps and potentially be able to hit the max speeds of drives out today.

Now, with a C6 cable between 2x5GE ports for me I can max out my Raid 10 drives 400-450MB/s and still have bandwidth for other things on the network as in the table above there's still ~200MB/s available for use.

The issue here with your statement is the B size. B = Bytes and b = bits. bytes are 8*bit in size. That's why you get 125MB/s from 1gbps.

8 Ways to Connect Two Computers - wikiHow

This wikiHow teaches you how to connect two computers. You can connect two Mac or PC computers using an ethernet cable to share files or internet access between the two computers. You can also share files between computers using either an...

www.wikihow.com

 

[tablespoon]

What do you have connected now? What is the Z390's Aquantia port connected to for your testing? A 2.5gbe adapter plugged into your Mac?

Do you mean 2.5GbE or 2.5gbe?

I always get confused as it looks like sometimes different people use different conventions or just type everything is small or capital letters out of convenience. How do I know what they meant?

 

[tablespoon]

Please confirm you used that correct "B" there at the end. 1GB/s (byte) translates to 8Gb/s (bit). Exceeding the 2.5Gb rating of that adapter.

Also confirm what kind of transfer this is. Is it a lot of small files? Or very large files?

I double checked the record. When I connected the 10GbE LAN port of the PC motherboard to the 1GbE LAN port of the Mac Mini M2, I could transfer a 2.69GB file in 23 seconds.

When I connected a Plugable USB C to 2.5Gbps Ethernet Adapter to the Thunderbolt 4 port of the Mac and used it to connect to the PC, under both Windows 10 and Mac OS Ventura, it showed that the ethernet connection was 2.5Gbps. However, when I copied the same file from Windows to the Mac, it took 2 minutes and 33 seconds in one trial which is long compared with the previous test. In another trial, it took 9.6 seconds. Plugable Tech Support has no idea the cause for the sudden 2 minutes 33 sec long copying.

 

[gdansk]

Do you mean 2.5GbE or 2.5gbe?

I always get confused as it looks like sometimes different people use different conventions or just type everything is small or capital letters out of convenience. How do I know what they meant?

By historical convention network speeds are pretty much always given in gigabits per second instead of gigabytes per second.

 

[solidsnake1298]

I double checked the record. When I connected the 10GbE LAN port of the PC motherboard to the 1GbE LAN port of the Mac Mini M2, I could transfer a 2.69GB file in 23 seconds.

When I connected a Plugable USB C to 2.5Gbps Ethernet Adapter to the Thunderbolt 4 port of the Mac and used it to connect to the PC, under both Windows 10 and Mac OS Ventura, it showed that the ethernet connection was 2.5Gbps. However, when I copied the same file from Windows to the Mac, it took 2 minutes and 33 seconds in one trial which is long compared with the previous test. In another trial, it took 9.6 seconds. Plugable Tech Support has no idea the cause for the sudden 2 minutes 33 sec long copying.

It seems like you've done everything right. For the 2 minute transfer (waaaay slower than 1Gbps), was the transfer rate consistent across that time? Looking at the customer reviews for your 2.5GbE adapter, you aren't the only one having trouble with consistency. Someone mentioned installing a driver from realtek (for macs) that helped them.

 

[tablespoon]

In my use case, is it recommended to get a switch?

 

[tablespoon]

It seems like you've done everything right. For the 2 minute transfer (waaaay slower than 1Gbps), was the transfer rate consistent across that time? Looking at the customer reviews for your 2.5GbE adapter, you aren't the only one having trouble with consistency. Someone mentioned installing a driver from realtek (for macs) that helped them.

I don't remember exactly. I think it was consistent across that time. The strange thing is immediately after that I connected Support. Then, after I sent them the email and tried again, I got faster speed. They also told me that their adapter does not support Jumbo Frame as it is not available under MacOS. This is completely wrong as I could enable Jumbo Frame using the 1GbE port on the Mac Mini M2. Any other good 2.5GbE adapter? So there is no workable 5GbE adapter for the Silicon Mac?

 

[solidsnake1298]

Looking at the Realtek chipset fact sheet, jumbo frames up to 16k are supported. Try downloading Realtek's drivers?

Realtek USB FE / GBE / 2.5G / 5G Ethernet Family Controller Software - REALTEK

www.realtek.com

At the bottom there is a Mac OS download link.

 

[tablespoon]

Thank you.

How is the following products for my use case? Are there better products? Quietness/Silence is important.

QSW-308-1C | Cost-effective entry-level 10GbE Switch with 5-Speed 10GBASE-T/ NBASE-T and Gigabit Ethernet | QNAP (US)

QSW-M408-4C | Entry-level 10GbE Layer 2 Web Managed Switch for SMB Network Deployment | QNAP

QSW-M2106-4C | 10GbE and 2.5GbE Layer 2 Web Managed Switch for SMB Network Deployment | QNAP

 

[Tech Junky]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08977K9D2

This is what I use for 5ge.

 

[tablespoon]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08977K9D2

This is what I use for 5ge.

It looks like a very good product for Windows PC and Intel Mac but from the reviews, it is not compatible with Silicon Mac and the latest driver was released in 2019 before Apple switched from Intel to Silicon Mac.

For Switch, are we supposed to buy the transceivers separately? Which brand/model is good?

 

[Tech Junky]

For Switch, are we supposed to buy the transceivers separately? Which brand/model is good?

Depends on if you want flexibility of modules and more expense or prepackaged ports.

It gets complicated depending on the speeds you want the switch to handle. Not every 10ge switch will do speeds of 2.5/5 even with a sfp that does.

The sabrent adapter is aquantia based so, it should work and if it doesn't just send it back.

 

[gdansk]

You don't need a switch unless you want a 3rd machine in the network. But it sounds like you just want to directly connect your Mac to your PC. In which case a switch is just a more expensive way of connecting two devices.

 

[tablespoon]

You don't need a switch unless you want a 3rd machine in the network. But it sounds like you just want to directly connect your Mac to your PC. In which case a switch is just a more expensive way of connecting two devices.

Yes, connect a Mac directly to a PC and use the Mac with an external drive as an ad hoc SMB server and backup NAS for the PC, iOS devices and Linux box. I probably do not count those iOS devices and Linux box as a 3rd machine as I seldom need to transfer/backup files from them.

 

[aigomorla]

Yes, I know. I am using CAT6 cable. Tested with a USB to 2.5GbE adapter. Windows shows 2.5GbE connection but actual transfer speed was about 1GB/sec.

There is something horribly wrong with your last statement as i am 100% sure you can not get 1GB/s on 2.5G ethernet.
1GB/e caps at around 120Mb/S, so 2.5 would be 300Mb/S TOPS... not 1GB.

Please confirm you used that correct "B" there at the end. 1GB/s (byte) translates to 8Gb/s (bit). Exceeding the 2.5Gb rating of that adapter.
Also confirm what kind of transfer this is. Is it a lot of small files? Or very large files?

This is what a typical theoretical transfer cap speed is on a 10GB/e with Overhead.

Was only able to do it with a RAM Drive to RAM Drive transfer.
Meaning both Target and Source machines had ram drives setup.

 

[Tech Junky]

@aigomorla

10gbps = 1250MB/s which means that windows is lying to you. With overhead it should be ~1.1GB/s.

Even with thunderbolt 40gbps maxes out at 3.1GB/s.