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Apple Now Offers $100 10Gb Ethernet Add-On for Mac Mini
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You are probably thinking of 2.5 GbE, which costs about $3. (Example: $2.4 for the Intel i225-V. Source: https://www.servethehome.com/current-intel-i225-2-5gbe-nics-are-missing-big-feature/
Realtek chipsets should be even cheaper.)
10 GbE is commonly $100-$150 for PCI-E boards, or $150-$250 for Thunderbolt-based external solutions. In fact, $100 is a quite competitive price.
I would rather complain that they are launching new machines (e.g. the new 24" iMac) with only 1 GbE when it is so cheap to add 2.5 GbE. Buying 2.5G afterwards as an external USB adapter is not super expensive at about $30, but is not as convenient or elegant as having it integrated. (Plus the number of available ports is limited.)
However, since most people only use the network for connecting to the Internet, 1 GbE is not a bottleneck for the vast majority of people so I'm not surprised either.
Those of us who want faster home networking for NASes and such typically get 10G (or even 40G, which is quite affordable if you buy used server gear, but that's admittedly a tiny niche within an already small niche).
You do realize that $100 is the current price for a big chunky PCIe 10gig ethernet card right ?
**I should really have gone forward a couple of pages**
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$100 for 10gb ethernet is a decent upgrade price when you look at just how much 10gbps networking actually costs.
I'm more concern over the stability/quality of 10gbps over ethernet though. Usually in corporate world you're relying on DAC's or Fibre for such throughput.
I haven't really seen any good reliable reviews/discussion for 10gbps over ethernet. typically people report that 2.5-5gbps seems to be the reliable max.
still $100 aint bad for 10gb when a SFP+ to module to ethernet convertre often costs in the hundreds
I'm more concern over the stability/quality of 10gbps over ethernet though. Usually in corporate world you're relying on DAC's or Fibre for such throughput.
I haven't really seen any good reliable reviews/discussion for 10gbps over ethernet. typically people report that 2.5-5gbps seems to be the reliable max.
still $100 aint bad for 10gb when a SFP+ to module to ethernet convertre often costs in the hundreds
For the kind of semi-pro environment that most Macs are deployed, the 10G speed is typically only needed for bursts among few users over short distances. From my experience (my studio has a small 10G media serving network independent from the backbone 1G LAN), copper is more than fine for this purpose. In fact the switching throughput in a "only" prosumer grade access layer switch is probably the bottle neck.
And even when the 10Gbps cannot be sustained or reliably achieved, just raising the traffic headroom from 1G to somewhere halfway is already decent enough for most scenarios.
You can get a 10gbit ethernet dongle via USB 3 for ~$20. The comment was for $3 "more" which is what a 10gbit costs OVER the price of the 1gbit they are already including.
Reading comprehension. $3 _more_ is about what it costs them to make the 1gbit ethernet they are including in the base a 10gbit ethernet you're paying $100 for. You can also get a 10gbit usb3 dongle for ~$20.
Where do you you see that dongle for $20 ? Linky?
Sounds like someone is fudging the numbers. The best I can find is a 5g for $79 or 1g for sub $20.
As USB-C is 10gbit maximum, allowing for conversion loss, I don't think its possible.
The cheapest external true 10gbit solution I could find is OCW's Thunderbolt one which is $150
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The Aquantia chipset that's used for Mac mini / iMac built-in 10G port retails at least $70 as a standalone card. Granted it maybe orders of magnitude less for manufacturer, but still it shouldn't be "$3 more" than the commodity 1G parts.
Also, to approach sustained and stable 10G externally, USB cannot be in the equation (probably won't change even for USB4). As far as Macs go, 10G has always required a direct PCIe card or an indirection PCIe connection where Thunderbolt is. I would consider the current type-C multi-gig dongles available to be false advertising if it says over 5G. Actual 2.5G is as far as USB can go practically, even when used in a dongle with something like Realtek / Trendnet 5G chipset.
Also, to approach sustained and stable 10G externally, USB cannot be in the equation (probably won't change even for USB4). As far as Macs go, 10G has always required a direct PCIe card or an indirection PCIe connection where Thunderbolt is. I would consider the current type-C multi-gig dongles available to be false advertising if it says over 5G. Actual 2.5G is as far as USB can go practically, even when used in a dongle with something like Realtek / Trendnet 5G chipset.
First of all it does not cost $3 more (a 10 GBe IC itself costs at least $20 per piece for bulk purchase). And there are other costs to integrate it. Second, the price for anything is "market price", as opposed to "raw material-motivated price". The price as it is lower cheaper than alternatives (dongles, pcie cards etc...).
Also the raw material price is not wise in terms of "distributing resources". If you make 10 million computers that have different configurations (say 16,64,128GB RAM, 256GB,1TB,... storage etc...):
1) you can't configure them all with top tier specs (there are IC, SSD shortages regularly these days)
2) if everything is priced per "raw material price" (by Apple and by they suppliers) then the price for top-tier configuration will not be that much higher than for a base configuration
As a result: everyone would but top-tier configuration, as it would be not that expensive. The people who actually need it would see it "out of stock" and be forced to re-buy them from people who bought it but do not need it. This is called scalping in popular terms, and "price arbitrage" in economics.
In short: the price model you propose would be a complete mess for everyone. Naturally, the pricing for the SSD upgrades is insane (as it has a much cheaper alternative, which has 95% of functionality and the advantage of not being soldered to the motherboard).
what the price of something is is what a company can charge that bears sufficient sales->profit. Sure, it’s a heinous scheme done by dubious companies across the globe. So shun these companies that have solid profit and growing stock prices, and only go with companies with rock bottom pricing and razor thin to virtually no profit. Your problem is solved.
Apple (for better or worse) doesn’t flood a market with inexpensive->cheap models. They could. They could contract with a ‘extremely tight to the cost vest’ factory to make the Apple TV mini stick for 39$, a 99$ IPad, a 299$ Mac mini, 350$ iMac, they could license the OS, open it and open it wide open for apps — as well as make vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens and blenders. That’s probably closer to the eventual norm for most consumer electronics behemoths (sell lots of the low end at razor thin profit but volume makes it plentiful — but if possible also compete for some of the mid to upper end). Apple is that rarer commodity that’s stubbornly chosen to keep it toward the higher end though into the mid). As such it’s almost always a premium when compared to the others who go after different/all levels of a market. Apple with this business model type cannot price it at cost +”fair” amount of profit. If they did then they are headed toward cheap macs and the iBlender.
For those consumers looking for the best bargain/their budgets are very tight, Apple probably isn’t for them (Neither is a BMW or etc etc). Nothing wrong with either ways IMHO.
I work in audio and the 10gigabit port in relation with T2 chips is unusable with Dante Protocol on 2018 MM. I would definitely never order a machine with that chip until they really start testing it thoroughly. I had a month and half nightmare back and forth at apple store regarding this, talking to robots...
Its not exclusive to the 10GB NIC. Audinate's support pages document a change to the networking stack in 10.13 and they urge caution when using built-in NICs with Dante. I had the exact same problem until I switched to using an ethernet port on my OWC thunderbolt dock. Has worked perfectly fine since then.
macOS: DVS Clock Sync Locked / Unlocked | Dante
Due to a change in the OS X networking stack since OS X 10.13, we have found that our multicast clock traffic can be interfered with on some Mac OS systems, resulting in DVS periodically losing sync with the leader clock. We are working on a resolution for this in the next DVS release. We have...
www.audinate.com
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