ASUS Intros XG-C100C V3 10GbE PCIe NIC

[btarunr]

ASUS over the weekend introduced the XG-C100C V3, a client-segment 10 GbE PCIe network interface card. The card features a ubiquitous RJ-45 connector that supports 803.2an (10 Gbps), and slower standards, such as 5 GbE, 2.5 GbE, 1 GbE, and 10/100 Mbps. The single-slot, half-height (low-profile) card features a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface, and uses a Marvell AQtion AQC113 controller, with a heatsink. The card features dual-color link/activity LEDs. OS support includes Windows 11, Windows 10, and most recent desktop Linux distributions. The company didn't announce pricing.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[ncrs]

The card features a ubiquitous RJ-45 connector that supports 803.2an (10 Gbps), and older standards, such as 5 GbE, 2.5 GbE, 1 GbE, and 10/100 Mbps.

803.2an - 10GBASE-T from 2006 specifies 10GBit/s over Cat 6A cabling.
802.3bz - 5GBASE-T & 2.5GBASE-T from 2016 specifies 5GBit/s and 2.5Gbit/s over Cat 5a and 6 cabling.

So in fact 2.5 and 5Gbit/s are not older but newer standards than 10Gbit/s

 

[Alan Smithee]

The original XG-C100C was an Aquantia AQC107 from 2016, so the V3 is just an update to the AQC113, from 2021. Asus even used the same heatsink as on their earlier card.

Downside is that the Aquantia posts drivers for the old AQC107 on their web site, whereas drivers for the AQC113 have to be obtained from the vendor, and the vendors never update the drivers. You have to spend a lot of time hunting around for the latest driver version which is probably only posted for some newly announced motherboard with onboard AQC113. Also there were firmware updates for AQC107 and the firmware for AQC113 is either not updateable, or the tool is only available to OEMs.

 

[ncrs]

The original XG-C100C was an Aquantia AQC107 from 2016, so the V3 is just an update to the AQC113, from 2021. Asus even used the same heatsink as on their earlier card.

Downside is that the Aquantia posts drivers for the old AQC107 on their web site, whereas drivers for the AQC113 have to be obtained from the vendor, and the vendors never update the drivers. You have to spend a lot of time hunting around for the latest driver version which is probably only posted for some newly announced motherboard with onboard AQC113. Also there were firmware updates for AQC107 and the firmware for AQC113 is either not updateable, or the tool is only available to OEMs.

Marvell who bought Aquantia publishes combined drivers that support AQC113 including OEM designs on their site under MARVEL PUBLIC DRIVERS. From the latest package - aqnic650.inf:

%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_94C0 ; AQC113CS
%AQtion-5G.DeviceDesc%           = Antigua5G,               PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_93C0 ; AQC114CS
%AQtion-5G.DeviceDesc%           = Antigua5G,               PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_03C0 ; AQC114-B1-C
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_04C0 ; AQC113
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_14C0 ; AQC113C
%AQtion-2.5G.DeviceDesc%         = Antigua2.5G,             PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_12C0 ; AQC115C
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_34C0 ; AQC113CA
%AQtion-1G.DeviceDesc%           = Antigua1G,               PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_11C0 ; AQC116C
%AntiguaSample.DeviceDesc%       = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_00C0
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_94C0&SUBSYS_0B221028 ; AQC113CS-B1-C
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_94C0&SUBSYS_07601B21 ; EPSON-Endeavor series-AQC113CS
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_94C0&SUBSYS_07901B21 ; EPSON-N790 AQC113CS
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G.SE.on,        PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_04C0&SUBSYS_105E17AA ; Lenovo Manta AQC113
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G.SE.on,        PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_14C0&SUBSYS_104E17AA ; Lenovo Tomcat AQC113C
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G.SE.on,        PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_14C0&SUBSYS_105617AA ; Lenovo Hornet AQC113C
%AQtion-10GBASE-T.DeviceDesc%    = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_14C0&SUBSYS_E0001458 ; AQC113C
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_14C0&SUBSYS_D1131849 ; AQC113CS
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_14C0&SUBSYS_30218086 ; AQC113C
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_04C0&SUBSYS_A1131849 ; AskRock AQC113 AQC113-B1-C
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_04C0&SUBSYS_94C01849 ; AskRockInd AQC113
%AQtion-10G.DeviceDesc%          = Antigua10G,              PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_04C0&SUBSYS_04C01849 ; AskRockRack AQC113

I've used these drivers with an ASRock motherboard, ASUS and TP-Link PCIe NICs without a problem. There's no AQC113 firmware on Marvell's site, but I've successfully updated both older ASUS and TP-Link cards using the AQC107 firmware package from Marvell.

 

[Tigerfox]

AQC113 is PCIe3.0x2 or PCIe4.0x1. Why is no one introducing an x1 card for board which don't have an x4-slot?

 

[rusTORK]

Even with red PCB and heatsink. Nice!

 

[bug]

A nifty device for sure, but plagued by the classical problem: you need other 10Gbps-capable devices and a 10Gbps-capable router to put it to good use.

 

[roberto888]

A nifty device for sure, but plagued by the classical problem: you need other 10Gbps-capable devices and a 10Gbps-capable router to put it to good use.

Well duh...

 

[RayneYoruka]

I can already smell the heat of it.

I think still better to grab a connect X 3 or 4, a sfp+ module and call it a day for half of the price.

 

[Hakker]

I can already smell the heat of it.

I think still better to grab a connect X 3 or 4, a sfp+ module and call it a day for half of the price.

Not only that RJ45 is a dead end road. There literally is nothing beyond 10gbit. 25, 40, 100 and 400 are all only fiber. and you can bend current fiber pretty damn well. Sure it needs a looser bent curve than cat5/6 for that matter but it's far from horrible. But yes a lot less power is needed for fiber connections.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I have the V2 with the 107 chip, and I cant say im impressed. It's finicky and doesnt really pull much load off the CPU.

AQC113 is PCIe3.0x2 or PCIe4.0x1. Why is no one introducing an x1 card for board which don't have an x4-slot?

Because that would require actual R+D, tooling changes, ece, as opposed to slapping an updated chip on an already finished product for a niche market.

I can already smell the heat of it.

I think still better to grab a connect X 3 or 4, a sfp+ module and call it a day for half of the price.

I have the V2 version, and it doesnt get hot. It seems to barely do anything, the CPU takes most of the load, and that annoys me to no end.

 

[bug]

Well duh...

Point being add-in cards are niche. Until you get the NICs on-board and into the routers, they will serve few people.
That's not to say they're useless. You can buy a bunch of these, insert them in a RPi board or smth and build your own router. And that's just one example.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Not only that RJ45 is a dead end road. There literally is nothing beyond 10gbit. 25, 40, 100 and 400 are all only fiber. and you can bend current fiber pretty damn well. Sure it needs a looser bent curve than cat5/6 for that matter but it's far from horrible. But yes a lot less power is needed for fiber connections.

10GTek has lots of SFP+ stuff relatively cheap on amazon. Going fiber has never been easier. Now if we could get more SFP+ only switches.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

As a home NAS owner, upgrading to 10GbE was such a massive improvement in network performance, I consider it one of the best tech decisions I've made. Can't wait for it to become mainstream.

 

[TheLostSwede]

A nifty device for sure, but plagued by the classical problem: you need other 10Gbps-capable devices and a 10Gbps-capable router to put it to good use.

Actually, you can use two network cards directly connected to each other, it's a bit of a pain to set up though and it tends to interfere with a second NIC connected to your router for internet access.

I can already smell the heat of it.

I think still better to grab a connect X 3 or 4, a sfp+ module and call it a day for half of the price.

Power draw appears to be around 4-5 Watts.

Not only that RJ45 is a dead end road. There literally is nothing beyond 10gbit. 25, 40, 100 and 400 are all only fiber. and you can bend current fiber pretty damn well. Sure it needs a looser bent curve than cat5/6 for that matter but it's far from horrible. But yes a lot less power is needed for fiber connections.

Sorry, but that only applies to big corporations.
For consumer and small businesses, copper and RJ45 is going to live on for a very long time.
And more power only applies to current gen 10 Gbps cards, Realtek's 5 Gbps Ethernet controller only draws 1.7 Watts.
They should have a much lower power 10 Gbps solution in a year or two.

Realtek's 5 Gbps Ethernet Solutions Will Reduce Cost and Power Draw Significantly

Realtek has decided to take consumer Ethernet speeds to a new level later this year with a family of 5 Gbps parts that are unlike anything its competitors have announced so far. The RTL8126-CG PCIe 3.0 x1 controller is a tiny QFN56 chip that measures 8 by 8 millimetres and consumes up to 1.7...

www.techpowerup.com

Point being add-in cards are niche. Until you get the NICs on-board and into the routers, they will serve few people.
That's not to say they're useless. You can buy a bunch of these, insert them in a RPi board or smth and build your own router. And that's just one example.

The RPi doesn't have fast enough PCIe for these, you can't go beyond 5 Gbps.
This site has a bunch of tests https://www.jiribrejcha.net/2024/06...ry-pi-5-with-iocrest-realtek-rtl8126-adapter/

Also, none of the generally available Arm SoCs can do 10 Gbps, as it requires hardware NAT offloading which only the router SoCs have.
All of today's modern router SoCs have a secondary offload engine to handle the networking.

As a home NAS owner, upgrading to 10GbE was such a massive improvement in network performance, I consider it one of the best tech decisions I've made. Can't wait for it to become mainstream.

Same here, got my OG Aquantia cards on a Black Friday sales in 2017 and I haven't looked back since.

 

[Chrispy_]

Well duh...

Not quite as "well duh..." as it seems - since this is a CONSUMER 10GbE solution, but there are very very few consumer 10GbE switches, routers, and hardware that would go with it. So many of the sub-$500 10GbE switches only offer a small handful (2 or 4) 10GbE ports, usually SFP+, not RJ45 - entailing the purchase of a 10Gbase-T to SFP+ transceiver as well for each device using one of these client RJ45 10GbE NICs. I think the cheapest name-brand multi-port, 10GBase-T switches come from Netgear and they start at about $800 if you don't need management and don't need many ports.

More importantly, dirt cheap enterprise 10GbE SFP+ switches are all over the used market and Amazon alphabet-soup brands. Unless you're really really trying to re-use internal Cat5e/6/6A cables routed through your walls, it's a lot cheaper and easier to just go down the fibre or copper SFP direct-connect cables route, I think.

And more power only applies to current gen 10 Gbps cards, Realtek's 5 Gbps Ethernet controller only draws 1.7 Watts.
They should have a much lower power 10 Gbps solution in a year or two.

I've been hearing and reading things like that* for about three years now, and we're still waiting, hopefully not for too much longer....


*specifically the multi-port controller ASICs that affordable switches would use

 

[bug]

Actually, you can use two network cards directly connected to each other, it's a bit of a pain to set up though and it tends to interfere with a second NIC connected to your router for internet access.

I know. But I haven't done that since I was in college, like a quarter of century ago...

The RPi doesn't have fast enough PCIe for these, you can't go beyond 5 Gbps.
This site has a bunch of tests https://www.jiribrejcha.net/2024/06...ry-pi-5-with-iocrest-realtek-rtl8126-adapter/

Well, there goes that idea then. Maybe something built around a cheap Atom/Celeron?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Not quite as "well duh..." as it seems - since this is a CONSUMER 10GbE solution, but there are very very few consumer 10GbE switches, routers, and hardware that would go with it. So many of the sub-$500 10GbE switches only offer a small handful (2 or 4) 10GbE ports, usually SFP+, not RJ45 - entailing the purchase of a 10Gbase-T to SFP+ transceiver as well for each device using one of these client RJ45 10GbE NICs. I think the cheapest name-brand multi-port, 10GBase-T switches come from Netgear and they start at about $800 if you don't need management and don't need many ports.

More importantly, dirt cheap enterprise 10GbE SFP+ switches are all over the used market and Amazon alphabet-soup brands. Unless you're really really trying to re-use internal Cat5e/6/6A cables routed through your walls, it's a lot cheaper and easier to just go down the fibre or copper SFP direct-connect cables route, I think.

The 5-port TP-Link TL-SX105 can be had for under $240 and xinese "brand" Nicgiga has an 8-port 10 Gbps switch for under $280, so it's far from as expensive as it has been to get a 10Gbaste-T switch these days. Amazon even sells a 5-port Nicgiga for $199.99 after a $30 instant rebate. Trendnet also has a 5-port 10 Gbps for under $230.

You need a noise insulated room to use old enterprise switches though... The 5-port 10Gbase-T ones are passively cooled.

I know. But I haven't done that since I was in college, like a quarter of century ago...

I was running like that for about six months, but it got annoying. I got lucky and got a really good deal on a Netgear GS110EMX for something like $170 at the time.

Well, there goes that idea then. Maybe something built around a cheap Atom/Celeron?

Maybe, it depends which CPU you get, especially as most boards with those CPUs don't have two PCIe 3.0 x4 slots... or even x2 slots (which are still x4 physically).

I've been hearing and reading things like that* for about three years now, and we're still waiting, hopefully not for too much longer....

*specifically the multi-port controller ASICs that affordable switches would use

Well, that's what I was told last year at Computex, but it took them a year to get their 5 Gbps parts to market, but those are starting appear on most higher-end motherboards now and can be bought online fairly easily. I guess we'll have to wait and see if they deliver on the 10 Gbps promise, would be nice if they could manage to end up around 2-2.5 Watts.

 

[Makaveli]

I'm using V2 version of this card at 2.5 Gbps on my current desktop.

I didn't know you could do firmware updates on the original model I until someone mentioned it above but its only for V1

How to upgrade firmware for ASUS XG-C100C Network Card? | Official Support | ASUS Global

 

[csendesmark]

Just ordered my XG-C100C V2 card from Amazon, since it has a great deal going on now:
-38% €70.99 RRP: €114.95
Now I know why!

AQC113 is PCIe3.0x2 or PCIe4.0x1. Why is no one introducing an x1 card for board which don't have an x4-slot?

Good question, maybe the PCIe v4 boards costs more?

Also would briefly rant about ASUS' website,
Why is the tech companies fail so hard with such an easy task?

Search - Search product page｜ASUS Global

asus official site

www.asus.com

Site search gives no information about this product.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Just ordered my XG-C100C V2 card from Amazon, since it has a great deal going on now:
-38% €70.99 RRP: €114.95
Now I know why!

I guess that's not a terrible price in Europe, but you could've had this for €1 more, which is based on the AQC113.

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Network-Controller-Ethernet-NIC-Windows10/dp/B0D87439N7

It's all reference designs anyhow.

I picked up a pair of TP-Link cards based on the older AQC107 for the equivalent of €56 a few months ago.

 

[persondb]

I have the V2 version, and it doesnt get hot. It seems to barely do anything, the CPU takes most of the load, and that annoys me to no end.

It has the basic offloads that consumer NICs tend to have like Receive Side Scaling(RSS), LSO(Large Send Offload) and checksums.
What might be happening is that you have those offloads disabled or (which is also likely) that 10 gbe has a lot more packets to process.
I do not believe that there will ever be smart NICs or those with extra features that can take more of CPU load into the consumer space.

 

[Ravenas]

The TP Link NIC provides identical functionality for $79.99 on sale at Amazon versus the higher priced $90.73 ASUS unit. Same theming.

 

[TheLostSwede]

The TP Link NIC provides identical functionality for $79.99 on sale at Amazon versus the higher priced $90.73 ASUS unit. Same theming.

There are far cheaper cards in the US for $70 or less.

 

[csendesmark]

I guess that's not a terrible price in Europe, but you could've had this for €1 more, which is based on the AQC113.

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Network-Controller-Ethernet-NIC-Windows10/dp/B0D87439N7

It's all reference designs anyhow.

I picked up a pair of TP-Link cards based on the older AQC107 for the equivalent of €56 a few months ago.

Should I change my order?