Final Thoughts
Pricing
We don’t have the final price yet as the ASUS XG-C100C 10GbE card hasn’t been released. However, I got told that it should carry a suggested retail price of £99.99 inc VAT. It is currently scheduled to be launched in June.
Conclusion
Standard 1Gbps networking is so last decade which makes me welcome an addition to the market such as the ASUS XG-C100C that I’ve tested today. While Gigabit Ethernet is plenty for internet connections, local traffic is easily bottlenecked by it and that is a thing you can fix by installing this card.
The overall design follows other ASUS network device such as the wireless network cards. The red PCB and large heatsink give the card a look that will match most gaming systems. A heatsink on a network card might seem overkill, but it will be placed in high-end systems. High-end systems feature a lot of hardware that generates a lot of heat, such as graphics cards. When the network card is being placed between such heat sources, it needs something to cope with it. Overall, a great design.
The small size makes the card highly compatible. You will be able to install it in pretty much any system and it comes with a low-profile bracket included. It is also compatible with both Windows and Linux systems.
The performance was as expected, great. Gamers will gain further benefits as the built-in quality of service feature will boost those packages and make sure that you have a lag-free gaming experience.
Pros
- RJ45 10GBase-T 10 Gigabit per second Ethernet
- Heatsink
- Compact size with low-profile bracket included
- Built-in Gaming QoS
- Compatible with Windows 10 and Linux Kernel 4.4
Cons
- The rest of your network will need to match
“ASUS’ XG-C100C adds what has been missing in your system for years, a proper network connection that can match the performance from the rest of your system.”
Thank you ASUS for providing us with this review sample
I for sure was expecting to see tests with different cables. Like cat5e, cat6 and cat7 at different lengths to see what speed you could expect from your different existing cabling. Would have been very useful information.
Does anybody know the powerusage in idle and at 10 gbit?
I was looking forward to getting faster than 1GB up and running here. I have 10 PCs. Bought three of these adapters and connected to MS510TX. Sadly, the performance and reliability of the adapter is lacking. I get frequent disconnects (identified by an even log aqnic disconnect id 14 error) that takes down my VPN. After waking from sleep these adapters are extremely slow to re-establish connections, and at system start up take around 6 seconds to establish connections. Transfers across CAT6A are erratic.
Hi Yanta
I sadly don’t think you’re alone. The XG-C100C was among the first generation of consumer 10GbE and they don’t seem too reliable in the long run. Mine has stopped working in 10GbE mode and only delivers 1GbE by now. A sad truth.
If I was you, I would try and RMA them, if still possible warranty wise.
This might need some more research, see how widespread the problem is or whether it’s just us that are unlucky.
I did RMA one of the cards. The one I got back has the same issues. ASUS support here in Australia is non-existent. As they are Based in Sydney, and I am in Melbourne, warranty has so far proven to be unenforceable. A waste of $450.
There is a firmware update available on the Aquantia website but I haven’t been brave enough to to flash one of the adapters in case it bricks the card.
There is also a driver update available, but it actually results in several websites being inaccessible, funnily enough, ASUS’s being among them, and blocks access to my ASUS router. Is that Karma or what? The 2.5G on the ASRock motherboards, which use the Realtek Dragon chipset are far more reliable than this card.
It also runs very hot. I have a 12cm fan blowing across it and it idles at 45 celsius with 17 celsius ambient.
hi, thanks a lot for this test.
do you think i can connect two pc with this card for file transfer without router ?