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Good User

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 23, 2014
57
1
I bought this brand new adapter quite a bit cheaper than other resellers and I am in doubt whether it's original or a Chinese copy:
 

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I bought this brand new adapter quite a bit cheaper than other resellers and I am in doubt whether it's original or a Chinese copy:

My genuine adaptor has this on the reverse of the LAN part :

Designed by Apple
in California Model A1433
EMC 2590 China
"3 logos"
FCC C E
 
At the reverse of the Lan port has this:
Designed by Apple
in California
Model A1433 EMC 2590
Assembled in china
3 logos
fc ce(2 logos)
 
At the reverse of the Lan port has this:
Designed by Apple
in California
Model A1433 EMC 2590
Assembled in china
3 logos
fc ce(2 logos)

Then you are good to go. Power issues are irrelevant here. I'm presuming the data rates are fine ? Mine gets 100+ MBps when linked to a Mini.
 
£25 isn't expensive for the hardware you get. There's a Thunderbolt controller and a Broadcom NIC in the dongle. By all means get a cheap USB 3.0 ethernet adaptor but it's more CPU intensive, probably slower and will require drivers installing.

You're going to waste much more time trying to save a fiver than it's worth. I've wasted more time on this post than it's worth if I'm honest.
 
Hmm… I read somewhere that a1433 2590 was gen 2 and not gen 1!! Most of the sellers don’t know if it’s gen 1 or 2. This is so confusing.. lol.
All of these adapters are Thunderbolt 1, if that's what you're asking. It's more than enough bandwidth to saturate the 1Gb ethernet connection.
 
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All of these adapters are Thunderbolt 1, if that's what you're asking. It's more than enough bandwidth to saturate the 1Gb ethernet connection.
Ya I know that gen1 or gen2 doesn’t matter for gigabit Ethernet. But it’s just when buying the adapter on eBay the seller doesn’t know if it’s gen1 or gen2. As I’m not sure if I’m paying 30$ for gen1 or gen2.
 
Ya I know that gen1 or gen2 doesn’t matter for gigabit Ethernet. But it’s just when buying the adapter on eBay the seller doesn’t know if it’s gen1 or gen2. As I’m not sure if I’m paying 30$ for gen1 or gen2.
are you even sure there are different generations of this? All Thunderbolt to ethernet adapters that Apple sold, and sells, are Thunderbolt 1 only, but they all work fine with Thunderbolt 2, and with Thunderbolt 3 or 4 if you use the Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter.
I have 6 of these adapters here in front of me. Every one is model A1433 and shows exactly the same data in System Profiler as shown above in post 14 of this thread.
 
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Yes cos gen1 has 10 gb/s where as gen2 has 20gb/s transfer rate. What I am not sure of is are the model numbers different for both or apple just kept same model number for both, which would be stupid.
 
Yes cos gen1 has 10 gb/s where as gen2 has 20gb/s transfer rate. What I am not sure of is are the model numbers different for both or apple just kept same model number for both, which would be stupid.
Apple does not, and has never, sold a Thunderbolt 2 gigabit Ethernet adapter. They still sell the same one today that they introduced years ago. Specs are on this page: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD463LL/A/thunderbolt-to-gigabit-ethernet-adapter. Again, there would be no advantage to make it Thunderbolt 2.
 
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