Anyone ordering the new Mini with the faster 10gig ethernet port?

[G5isAlive]

I recently purchased a MAC Mini P4 Pro with the 10 gig upgrade. The Port is total trash. Even when I can keep it connected, performance is all over the place. Upload speed is below 5mbps when they should be at 41.5 mbps for my internet service. Down loan sometime runs near full speed at 1.2 gbps (it should be 1.4 gbs) but often drops to under 100 mbps. I have a $24 USB c 2.5 gig adapter that runs perfectly all the time. I have tried many different cables (some very expensive) and both 2.6gb and 1gb switches but get the same results. the eternal Wi-Fi often take primary position when the port is acting up. If I disable the Wi-Fi to keep the ethernet port the primary then I lose network access all together even though the port shows connected.

Is internet speed the only way you are measuring port performance? Often it doesn't matter what your carrier quotes you as their top speed, at least with my carrier, they are never at peak (1gps), and I am happy if I get 800 mbps, often its far lower. Depends on how much activity is on the internet, not just my house.

As has been stated, the best way to get consistent fast performance that reflects on the port is direct connect hardware devices like a NAS or DAS, and even then it and your cables and your switches (which sounds like you have covered) must be appropriate.

 

[kbonnel]

I was considering getting the 10gb option, but the micro center 499 price was too good to pass up. Instead I got a usb-c 5gb Ethernet adapter (wisdpi model) and it is working great with my UniFi switch and an auto negotiating sfp+ rj45 module.

 

[Fishrrman]

kbonnel wrote above:
"Instead I got a usb-c 5gb Ethernet adapter (wisdpi model) and it is working great"

Could you tell us specifically which one?
Maybe provide a link?

 

[kbonnel]

kbonnel wrote above:
"Instead I got a usb-c 5gb Ethernet adapter (wisdpi model) and it is working great"

Could you tell us specifically which one?
Maybe provide a link?

Of course, I got this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DF2TTT9H?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

I started doing some research on the 5Gbps USB-C ethernet adapters after a friend told me about the WISDPI model they have been testing. It uses the Realtek 8157 chip, and a lot of other brands appear to be releasing models using the same chipset.

It was plug and play with Sequoia, the only "issue" is the connection speed under settings isn't correct, and shows 100baseTX. But, it is certainly connecting at 5Gbps, and I have done a ton of iperf3 testing against my 10Gbps NAS.

I also have a vlan configured on this adapter as well, and that has also been working perfectly.

 

[danniexi]

will probably consider it in the future if I ever get a NAS and faster ISP, but for now, I stuck with gigabit ethernet on my base M4. current ISP is at 9xx mbps, so even though my entire network is 2.5Gbe (ubiquiti setup), I have no real need for faster speeds.

 

[nsayer]

I just went through this exercise. We got 2.5GB fiber and I upgraded some of the core switches of our house network to 10GB, and the rest to 2.5GB. My wife has a she-shed and when we put that in I ran a multimode fiber cable out to it, and switching out the SFPs got that link up to 10GB as well.

I was upgrading a mac mini and ordered it with the 10 gbe option, and it works just as advertised. We have a NAS that has a 10 gbe port and it sure enough gets 9.mumble gb/sec transfers. Nice for Time Machine. For my MBP I got a 5GB USB dongle for it. There are 10GB Thunderbolt adapters available, but they're just comically huge.

Lastly, our house has 25 year old Cat-5 wiring in it, but that appears to be working just fine at 10GB, probably because none of it is terribly long.

 

[nsayer]

It was plug and play with Sequoia, the only "issue" is the connection speed under settings isn't correct, and shows 100baseTX. But, it is certainly connecting at 5Gbps, and I have done a ton of iperf3 testing against my 10Gbps NAS.

Apple may have fixed this in a recent update. I remember seeing the same thing on my 5GB dongle, but at the moment it correctly says 5000GB in the System Settings network panel.

 

[kbonnel]

Apple may have fixed this in a recent update. I remember seeing the same thing on my 5GB dongle, but at the moment it correctly says 5000GB in the System Settings network panel.

I concur, I just checked and it reports 5000Base-T under the Hardware tab of the adapter.

 

[BillyBurke]

For Future Proofing, a $100 Apple Upgrade seems quite reasonable. I'd do it even though I have no other 10GBE infrastructure.

 

[jimhanseng]

When I first got my MAC MINI P4 Pro, I got it with the 10Gig ethernet adapter. I switched to a 2.5gb Dongle because the 10 GB interface was HORRIBLE. Since then, I started running MAC OS 26 Developers Beta. I switched to the 10Gig port and it appears to be working. I will see if the OS upgrade fixed the problem.

 

[jimhanseng]

When I first got my MAC MINI P4 Pro, I got it with the 10Gig ethernet adapter. I switched to a 2.5gb Dongle because the 10 GB interface was HORRIBLE. Since then, I started running MAC OS 26 Developers Beta. I switched to the 10Gig port and it appears to be working. I will see if the OS upgrade fixed the problem.

The issues appear to be resolved. I am getting excellent performance on my 2.5 G network.

 

[H_D]

Got it, but haven't tested it much, as it is not my machine... doesn't seem to be too bad.

 

[whelmedjedi]

I had issues with the 1gb port on my 2018 mini and also on my new M4 mini. I never could get them to stay connected when I manually set them to 1gb. Otherwise they would always default to 100mb. Yet the OWC 11 port thunderbolt dock runs just fine at 1gb when it was hooked up to the 2018 and then moved over to the M4.

I didn't bother with getting any faster that 1gb since internet access is capped at 400 mb with Charter Spectrum. My choices for internet service is Spectrum or the new AT&T Internet Air. Who knows when fiber will be available in my small rural town.

The fastest internal network won't do much good if my internet speed is the bottleneck.

I currently use a 8 bay DAS connected to my 2018 mini as a file server and transfer speeds are fine between all of my Apple products.Transferign from a Windows 11 computer to the 2018 Mac is sometimes painfully slow though.

Can you give link for 8 bay das? Or brand - model? Thanks.

 

[BillyBurke]

I did order it. I think 1gbe is fine, but I have a 10gbe NAS and the 256gb is way too small.

You know...financial condition notwithstanding...a $100 upgrade from Apple seems like a no brainer to me. Future Proof.