USB 3.0 Gigabit Network Adapter

After my unsuccessful experiment with a USB network adapter, I decided to try my luck again and this time ordered a USB 3.0 network adapter.
Is it really faster? Let’s take a look and find out :)

First, I should say that this review will be a little unusual for me: it’ll be short :)

In my previous review, I tried using a USB network adapter to work with digital cameras via a tablet, but the speed was low and the whole setup was pushed to its limits. The next idea was to try a USB 3.0 adapter, but replace its cable with a MicroUSB 2.0 one. Obviously, there was no chance of getting gigabit speeds that way, but it should still have been better. While the adapter was on its way, though, I decided to do things differently and use it as-is in the future.
The thing is, I replaced the second network card in my computer with a board that has two USB 3.0 ports, and it turns out that sometimes you really do need two network cards. So I’ll occasionally use this as a second network card, especially since I won’t need it very often.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.
As always, I’ll start with the classics: a couple of photos of the packaging.

The package contains a software CD, a small instruction manual, and the adapter.
The software CD already feels a bit archaic to me. It’s high time manufacturers started including a small storage area in devices for the driver instead of bundling CDs.


The manual is short, but it covers all the necessary installation steps, even though it’s in English.


The adapter is quite large, as you can see from the photo next to a matchbox.
The MAC address and serial number are on the bottom.


Of course, I had to open this adapter up. At the very least, I wanted to see whether it had galvanic isolation (the previous one didn’t).
At first, I tried to pry the case open, thinking it was just held together with clips. No such luck: it turned out there were a couple of screws under the label.
Overall, it looks quite neat. The only thing that spoils the picture is the hot glue holding the cable in place.
Speaking of the cable, it’s fairly thick and a little stiff, and about 20 cm long including the connector.


I had no particular complaints about the circuit board: the soldering is neat and everything is clean. But the insulation on one of the cable wires is damaged; it looks like it melted a little from the glue or soldering.
There’s a footprint for flash memory on the board, but the memory chip hasn’t been soldered on, even though it’s present on the manufacturer’s reference demo board.


This adapter uses an ASIX USB 3.0 to 10/100/1000M Gigabit Ethernet controller. The model is AX88179
The board also has a PWM regulator providing 3.3 and 2.5 V to power the controller.


The underside of the board looks almost fine; the dirt around the connector spoils the picture.


And this is what I wanted to see.
As soon as I opened the adapter, I realized it used a socket with a built-in transformer. But guessing is one thing; seeing it for yourself is another.
Unclip the two latches on the sides of the connector and you can see inside. The cover won't lift very far because a ground wire is soldered to it, but that's enough to see what's inside.


The packaging said “Plug and Play,” but unfortunately, the old XP didn't understand what was expected of it and asked me to find a driver :( Apparently, it was intended for more modern operating systems, Windows 7 or Windows 8.


So, off to the controller manufacturer's website to download the driver for our OS. I was surprised by how much material the manufacturer had on its website. It has everything, right down to the PCB layout for a demo board, though unfortunately some of the materials require registration.
There are loads of drivers for Windows, Mac, and Linux (Android).
For some reason, the Windows XP driver comes in the largest archive.


The first warning sign was how slowly the file downloaded. I even had the thought that their servers were running through their own USB network adapters :)
123 KB/s on a genuine 50 Mbps connection.


Well, I downloaded it, unpacked it, and ran it. I'm sure this is a familiar routine for many people.


I have VirtualBox installed on my computer, so XP politely asked me to confirm that I really wanted to install this on the system. But there weren't many options, so I clicked that I agreed and wanted to continue. There was no getting out of it.


At first, I had the adapter plugged into a USB 2.0 port, so I was duly notified that I had a USB 3.0 device but had plugged it into the wrong port. Plug it into the right port, though, and everything will be just fine :)
I'm not switching it over just yet, since I decided to run some tests over the USB 2.0 connection first. That was just as interesting to me.


There are a lot of settings, and surprisingly, some of them have even been translated.
There's also a setting to wake the computer over the network. Naturally, I tried it, but unfortunately it didn't work: I couldn't turn the computer on remotely. This may be a quirk of the test motherboard, though, so I won't say for sure.


And, of course, the tests.
First, I simply copied a movie (1500 MB or 1.46 GB) over the network and timed it. Here are the results:
USB 2.0 connection — 232 seconds
USB 3.0 connection — 85 seconds.
That works out to about 50 Mbps and 140 Mbps, respectively. Not much to write home about; I expected a bit more.

To demonstrate the speed more clearly, I decided to try something a little unconventional.
I shared a folder on one computer and mapped it as a network drive on another. To measure the speed, I used the well-known CrystalDiskMark program. I measured performance with a network hard drive.
Here are the results.
The first two tests are in USB 2.0 mode, the third in USB 3.0 mode.


There were no bottlenecks; the hard drive was capable of speeds well above what I got during testing. I tried several times, with different file sizes and in both directions (testing the speed when accessing each computer in turn), but the result I got was the best one :(
The maximum I got was 220 Mbps. I don't know what the problem is yet. One computer used its built-in gigabit network card, and the other used the USB adapter under review.
CPU usage wasn't very high, so I don't even know what to blame. In both cases, the connection speed was 1 Gbps.

To sum up.
Pros
Neat packaging
Equally neat assembly (I'd give it a 4+)
The adapter works.
Galvanic isolation.
Lots of settings
Good software support from the manufacturer.

Cons
I haven't been able to get the advertised speed yet
I couldn't get the WOL function to work (waking the computer over the network).

My opinion. It's a real shame I couldn't get the advertised transfer speed. Of course, I wasn't expecting 120 MB/s, but I thought I'd get at least 50–60; 27 is a pretty poor result. I was also a little surprised that the speed is noticeably lower in USB 2.0 mode, even though in both cases the transfer speed was below the USB 2.0 limit (60 MB/s for the interface, around 35–38 MB/s in practice). I don't yet know what caused this bottleneck.
As for WOL, I think it's more likely to work than not. This feature doesn't always work even with a network card built into the motherboard, and this one connects over USB. So I wouldn't count on it too much. The most reliable implementation so far is through dedicated pins on the board.
In any case, I'll use it occasionally as a backup, just in case.

I hope this review was useful and helps you make the right choice.

The product was provided by the store for review.