OWC releases new Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet Adapter

AppleInsider · July 16, 2020 12:53PM

The new OWC Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet Adapter features smart auto-negotiation features and real-world transfer speeds of up to 900 megabytes per second.

The refreshed OWC Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet Adapter enables high-speed network connectivity for devices that don't have ethernet ports or devices that only have a Gigabit Ethernet port like the 2018 Mac mini. The adapter just requires a Thunderbolt 3 compatible computer -- such as a MacBook Pro -- and access to 10GBASE-T networks and devices.

Transfer speeds of over 900MBps means no more waiting when transferring large video files or raw photos. Users can easily send and receive large files for group projects and begin working immediately.

This adapter also supports auto-negotiation for 10Gb/s, 5Gb/s, 2.5Gb/s, 1Gb/s, and 100Mb/s Base-T Ethernet standards, ensuring it can be used with a wide range of networks.

It also boasts an energy-saving wake-on LAN feature. This feature allows it to wake a computer in sleep mode, giving you access to stored files, programs, or the ability to perform system management remotely.

The Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet Adapter is available now from MacSales and sells for $149.00.

rob53 · July 16, 2020 1:09PM

At that price it would be more economical to have it as part of one of OWC’s TB3 docks. I don’t remember seeing OWC sell any 10G switches. Time to include those?

Mike Wuerthele · July 16, 2020 1:39PM

rob53 said:

At that price it would be more economical to have it as part of one of OWC’s TB3 docks. I don’t remember seeing OWC sell any 10G switches. Time to include those?

AFAIK, the only 10gig dock that they have is the one that they got when they bought Akitio.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/AKiTiO/3DAA0007Y/

Retail was over $300.

rob53 · July 16, 2020 2:17PM

Mike Wuerthele said:

rob53 said:

At that price it would be more economical to have it as part of one of OWC’s TB3 docks. I don’t remember seeing OWC sell any 10G switches. Time to include those?

AFAIK, the only 10gig dock that they have is the one that they got when they bought Akitio.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/AKiTiO/3DAA0007Y/

Retail was over $300.

Are you talking about this one? https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-3-pro-dock My comment was more for OWC than users. I imagine OWC watches the AI forum. It's $320 right now, just $25 more than their standard dock, which has a lot more ports than the Pro dock.

Didn't realize MacSales sold Netgear switches, include two 10G switches. They aren't cheap but you get what you pay for, 10G transfer speeds. I remember installing gigabit switches that had 10G interconnects along with fiber connections between banks of switches a couple decades ago. My installation was one of the first where I worked and included around 400-500 desktops. Of course I didn't use my money to pay for them.

Mike Wuerthele · July 16, 2020 2:54PM

rob53 said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

rob53 said:

At that price it would be more economical to have it as part of one of OWC’s TB3 docks. I don’t remember seeing OWC sell any 10G switches. Time to include those?

AFAIK, the only 10gig dock that they have is the one that they got when they bought Akitio.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/AKiTiO/3DAA0007Y/

Retail was over $300.

Are you talking about this one? https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-3-pro-dock My comment was more for OWC than users. I imagine OWC watches the AI forum. It's $320 right now, just $25 more than their standard dock, which has a lot more ports than the Pro dock.

Didn't realize MacSales sold Netgear switches, include two 10G switches. They aren't cheap but you get what you pay for, 10G transfer speeds. I remember installing gigabit switches that had 10G interconnects along with fiber connections between banks of switches a couple decades ago. My installation was one of the first where I worked and included around 400-500 desktops. Of course I didn't use my money to pay for them.

Yup, that's the one!

In semi-related news, we are starting to fiddle with practical 10G wired networks for SOHO, and evaluation of practicality in speeds and cost. We'll get back to you on that.

mtlion2020 · July 16, 2020 3:04PM

Id would buy one, but
Since 2001, I regularly purchased items for my iMac, powerbook, Macmini and macbook air until this May
I need to complain or alert someone who works there that i could not order parts in May because my user names, password was never updated.
I did the 48 hour wait and sent emails and social media posts.
So i purchased a feather something 265GB ssd for the macbook air on Amazon, which works great, has a blue light and was cheaper at the time.
Hopefully someone at OWC will see this and proceed in resurrecting my account.
sorry for being unrelated, but a mac user has to do what ever to solve mundane problems.

rob53 · July 16, 2020 3:27PM

mtlion2020 said:

Id would buy one, but
Since 2001, I regularly purchased items for my iMac, powerbook, Macmini and macbook air until this May
I need to complain or alert someone who works there that i could not order parts in May because my user names, password was never updated.
I did the 48 hour wait and sent emails and social media posts.
So i purchased a feather something 265GB ssd for the macbook air on Amazon, which works great, has a blue light and was cheaper at the time.
Hopefully someone at OWC will see this and proceed in resurrecting my account.
sorry for being unrelated, but a mac user has to do what ever to solve mundane problems.

Have you checked here? https://eshop.macsales.com/Service/ I've used their chat service although they might not be able to address your account information for security reasons. I've also called and emailed them. With COVID you might need to wait a bit longer.

cia · July 16, 2020 3:39PM

I'm surprised 10G switches haven't come down in price that much. Lots available with one or two 10G uplinks, but straight 8, 12, 24 port 10G unmanaged switches are rare and not that cheap.

I know it's pretty damn niche (honestly for almost everyone gigabit is fine) but I deal with a lot of uncompressed ProRes flying around our station network. Moving 100+GB of video takes about 20 minutes on gigabit, and that's if the network isn't already being saturated by other users moving their own video around. We'd love to switch to 10G, all our internal wiring is already cat6, it's just the switches are super pricey still, and the adaptors aren't cheap either.

mtlion2020 · July 16, 2020 4:08PM

rob53 said:

Have you checked here? https://eshop.macsales.com/Service/ I've used their chat service although they might not be able to address your account information for security reasons. I've also called and emailed them. With COVID you might need to wait a bit longer.

Thank you, and
yes, i chatted with someone there, but they did not understand my original email was an @iwon.com and no longer accessible and insisted i had to use that one.
i waited and waited for over a week to get my account active, and even emails the owner Larry O'Connor twice, but nothing happened.
so i purchased over $150 worth of items for my macbook this May on Amazon instead.
i still need some more parts and feel comfortable using OWC. I have a external HD from them that will be 10 years old soon.

cpsro · July 16, 2020 4:57PM

FYI: If this adapter is like previously available 10gbe adapters, it uses a lot of power. Its use may prevent use of another dongle in the 2nd port of the same TB3 bus, and its use will impact battery life (when not on A/C, naturally).

auxio · July 17, 2020 4:03PM

cia said:

I'm surprised 10G switches haven't come down in price that much. Lots available with one or two 10G uplinks, but straight 8, 12, 24 port 10G unmanaged switches are rare and not that cheap.

I know it's pretty damn niche (honestly for almost everyone gigabit is fine) but I deal with a lot of uncompressed ProRes flying around our station network. Moving 100+GB of video takes about 20 minutes on gigabit, and that's if the network isn't already being saturated by other users moving their own video around. We'd love to switch to 10G, all our internal wiring is already cat6, it's just the switches are super pricey still, and the adaptors aren't cheap either.

Your particular scenario certainly sounds like it fits the niche for 10G. The time saved transferring those large files around would seemingly offset the cost unless everyone is a volunteer

While more speed would be nice for my home network (especially when restoring from network backups), there's no way I could justify the cost.

commentzilla · July 17, 2020 4:32PM

Mike Wuerthele said:

rob53 said:

At that price it would be more economical to have it as part of one of OWC’s TB3 docks. I don’t remember seeing OWC sell any 10G switches. Time to include those?

AFAIK, the only 10gig dock that they have is the one that they got when they bought Akitio.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/AKiTiO/3DAA0007Y/

Retail was over $300.

Almost all of the new Thunderbolt, RAID eGPU devices are from their Akitio acquisition. I never liked OWCs software RAIDs because they cannot rebuild without being attached to a computer but Akitio has some great hardware RAIDs.

https://www.akitio.com

fastasleep · July 17, 2020 11:42PM

mtlion2020 said:

rob53 said:

Have you checked here? https://eshop.macsales.com/Service/ I've used their chat service although they might not be able to address your account information for security reasons. I've also called and emailed them. With COVID you might need to wait a bit longer.

Thank you, and
yes, i chatted with someone there, but they did not understand my original email was an @iwon.com and no longer accessible and insisted i had to use that one.
i waited and waited for over a week to get my account active, and even emails the owner Larry O'Connor twice, but nothing happened.
so i purchased over $150 worth of items for my macbook this May on Amazon instead.
i still need some more parts and feel comfortable using OWC. I have a external HD from them that will be 10 years old soon.

Why would you not just create a new account with an email you have access to?

mtlion2020 · July 18, 2020 5:50PM

fastasleep said:

Why would you not just create a new account with an email you have access to?

thanks for your reply, i wanted to so the same thing, but in case something happens to recent purchases, and i was booted out of a mac forum for 2 accounts years ago.
i should try to bridge my account with them today or monday instead of typing about this.

OWC releases new Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet Adapter

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