SABRENT Thunderbolt 3 to 10 Gbps RJ-45 Ethernet Adapter (TH-S3EA)

This is one SOLID network adapter. I was very surprised at how much it weighs. It is a block of metal, which is also encased in a rubber sleeve which is removable, but the rubber sleeve is nice so that it won't scratch other items you might place it on. There are no heat sink "fins" on this adapter though, it is just smooth black metal but it is large enough that it should dissipate heat without issue.My primary use for this item will be with one of the Ryzen 7 Mini PC's with USB 4/Thunderbolt 3 ports; However, I don't have that PC yet. I did test with with a Mac Mini (M1) and it was plug and play. I just plugged in the Thunderbolt cable, plugged in the network cable, and I was off and running. I see no reason why the Ryzen Mini PC will be any different.I tried using this adapter plugged into 1gig, 2.5gig, and 10gig network ports and it worked with them all. The port speed negotiation seemed a bit slow (at first I thought it wasn't going to work) but with a bit of patience, all worked as expected. Not sure why one would pay the price for a 10gig ethernet adapter and only use 1gig or 2.5gig, but at least the flexibility is there if you need to connect to a non-10gig port in a pinch.This is an Ethernet/RJ45 adapter only. You cannot use an SFP+ module with this adapter, so if you need an optical connection, you'll need to look elsewhere. However, if your only need is RJ45, this adapter is a good value compared to some other Thunderbolt 3 options.PROS:Solid metal build quality for heat dissipationIncludes a rubber cover to protect metal device from scratches/getting scratchedStatus LED's on RJ45 connector to let you know link speed (10gig or <10gig, and activity)Tested with 10gig, 2.5gig, and 1gig, all work fine. 5gig not tested.Thunderbolt cable included in boxTested "plug and play" on Mac Mini M1CONS:No light to indicate active thunderbolt connectionNo thunderbolt pass-through portOnly RJ45, not SFP+ module compatibleConclusion: I looked at several other thunderbolt 3 10gig ethernet adapters which were significantly more expensive. This one is a good value from a trusted brand.

Works as expected out of the box on Windows 11.However, if you're on Linux or BSD you'll need to make sure that you're running a somewhat recent version of the r8152 driver. This device uses an r8157 chipset which is supported properly only in newer versions of the driver. I tried to find release notes for the driver to identify when support was actually added but those don't seem to exist anywhere.Even the upcoming Ubuntu release beta - 25.04 Plucky Puffin - only includes version 1.12.13 of the r8152 kernel module. This is fine for other adapters in the family, including 2.5G adapters, but won't recognize or properly initialize the R8157 chip.If the newer driver versions aren't available, a fallback driver will be used that results in very flaky behavior. Connections are negotiated at 705 mb/s, for instance, and actual throughput is inconsistent, fluctiating dramatically over time.Thankfully this can be fixed by finding an updated package for the r8152 kernel module th at works with your distro and installing it. For ubuntu I used the "awesometic/realtek-r8152-dkms" package on github via the PPM method they recommend in the readme.With the latest driver version installed - 2.19.2 when I'm writing this review - the device set itself up properly, negotiated a 5G-BASE-T conneciton, and worked as expected.

Works well with a MacBook

It works as intended and it feels greatly constructed.However, its usb-c, it would be very welcomed if it had an usb-c to usb-a adapter.

When first shopping for a 10GbE Ethernet adapter for Thunderbolt, I was surprised at both the lack of choices and the large amount of critical reviews. I decided to pick one of the less expensive devices (almost at random) to try it out...First of all, this is NOT a USB device. Despite the fact that it plugs in via a USB-C connector, it doesn't "speak" USB. It uses Thunderbolt. If your machine doesn't explicitly support (and have enabled) Thunderbolt 3 or 4, this device won't work for you.Second, this device can't magically make your network go faster. If this is plugged into a switch that's slower than 10GbE, it will only negotiate a speed up to the capability of that switch. If the ethernet wiring is poor, it might even negotiate a SLOWER speed.Finally, this device WILL get hot. That's just the penalty of using 10GbE RG45 devices. Don't want the heat? Find another adapter that uses an SFP+ connector and use either fiber or a DAC (direct attached copper) cable to another SFP+ jack.All that being said, the device worked perfectly on both an M2 Macbook Air, and on a mini PC running linux (debian 12) without having to install special drivers. The linux box did require enabling thunderbolt and a reboot. I haven't been able to test this under Windows, though it should work fine with Marvell ACQ107 drivers.Once properly installed (with proper CAT6 or better cables), this device maintained full 10 gigabit transfers to other 10 GbE devices both directly connected and via a 10G switch. It full supports jumbo frames (at least up to 9000), VLANs, etc. It's been reliable enough that it's become the "permanent" network device on my proxmox server (running on a mini PC.)

Works as expected, BUT I have a one strange thing, maybe it is my M1 Max Macbook, but it shows 100 megabits uplink in the device settings, but in fact it is 5 gigabit transfer speed)