StarTech.com Thunderbolt 3 to Ethernet Adapter, 10GbE, Multi-Gigabit, Thunderbolt 3 to RJ45 Network Adapter, 10GBASE-T/5-2.5GBASE-T NIC, 10G Network Adapter Includes TB3 Cable, Win/Mac, TAA

I was pretty confused reading up on the handful of 10gbe adapters; from among the common issues reported with all adapters were they run hot, experience stability or connectivity issues, didn't reach full speed, or AirPlay didn't work on Macs. I decided to take the plunge on this one purely because it looked very solidly built; otherwise the chipset appears to be the same as the OWC number. Plus this one included a longer thunderbolt cable.Build quality: upon unboxing, it was clear to me that I was right in assessing its solidity from online pictures; it's heavy and built like a brick. No complaints in this department. Installation is super simple, just plug in to my Mac with no drivers needed.Operating temperature: it runs hotter the more work it has to do. Kinda stating the obvious here, but performing sustained transfers on a 10gbe link, hitting saturation, it gets real hot. But it doesn't drop performance, and keeps on chugging reaching 9.9Gb/s (jumbo frames on) or 9.4Gb/s (standard 1500 MTU) on iperf3 between my MacBook Pro M3 Max and a Synology NAS via a couple Unify 10Gbe switches. Real use, copying a 27GB file takes about 24 seconds with just standard MTU. When idling, it's less hot. Downgrading the link to 1Gbe makes it warm, not hot. But then again, why get this to operate at less than 10Gbe speeds.Stability/reliability: zero issues. Just works. No issues upon waking or rebooting my MacBook. When MacBook is sleeping it's still on, presumably because my laptop tells it to do so. This behavior was observed with my previous adapter, an Anker 2.5Gbe USB dongle.Compatibility: quite a few reviews of the Marvell Aquantia chipset mentioned AirPlay not working. I didn't experience this issue, I was able to airplay just fine.Mitigating high operating temperatures: just because I felt like it, I raised the adapter on 4 feet, giving it something like 1/2" clearance at the bottom. This because I placed it on a wood shelf, otherwise if on a metal shelf I'd have left it to make contact and better dissipate heat. But it works fine either way, this is something I did just because.

The product does transfer 10G speeds. But make sure you plug them directly into a "Thunderbolt 3 buss powered port on your mac!" You can't used this with a thunderbolt 2 to 3 converter unless you have a way to power the thunderbolt bus with power! Otherwise, it will not power up at all. I was able to get them to work with thunderbolt 2 to 3 adaptor but with a external hdd daily chained to the thunderbolt bus to provide the power for the network adaptor and it does work that way. Also they do get very warm! Make sure you have these adaptors in the open to cool them down! That is why they have metal fins surrounding them. :). Hope this helps!

10/28/2024 : It works seamlessly with the Caldigit TS4, plugged into one of the TB4 ports. One TB4 port goes to my 2023/2024 macbooks, and the other to a studio display. I have a second monitor connected via a high quality DP2.1 cable, using the DP port of the TS4. I wasn't sure the TS4 would handle all those connections, but it is handling it very well so far. The 10G adapter shows the blue light on the back, indicating usb connection, and green light on the front, indicating 10Gb connection to my TP-Link 10Gb switch 8-port, with a silent noctua fan replacement). All indicators show my MBP is running a 10Gb ethernet connection. My internet is only 1Gb, but my current NAS is 5Gb, and I can easily verify that with this StarTech adapter. I am looking to get an nvme NAS with 10Gb port, so will be able to update in the future about how well this StarTech adapter holds up. I guess everyone has different opinions about what is hot and what is not, but after my Nvidia 3090 RTX burned out, I take extra precautions. Heat is the enemy, and even if it doesn't die within a year or two, reducing heat simply extends the life of your product, so I went ahead and installed the heatsink/fan combo mentioned by one of the other reviewers, plugged here again for convenience ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C8M7FSS9 ) -- the fans run pretty silent (not noctua level, if you put your ear close), will likely make a noise in a few years, and only keep the adapter moderately warm to touch now. I guess it will do. Overall, all these adapters run super hot, so I'm very pleased with this model from StarTech because it was a super simple way to upgrade my network to 10Gb, and especially using a Caldigit TS4 dock. It definitely seems to be the newest adapter available as of now, so hopefully that means it's the most reliable and will last the test of time. I won't risk heat damage, but you go right ahead and do you.

Just make sure you a have Thunderbolt connection,. and a 10GB ethernet connection. I used with a laptop, and in my internal network got 10GB connections and 1GB throughput. Transferred a 8GB file from server to my laptop at 993 sustained for the 10 or so seconds it took to transfer. On the internet it can be finicky, sometimes pages won't load. I probably still need to delve into the settings, but some issues out of the box. It does get warm, so keep it in a ventilated area.

I've had this for about a week, and it's been working great with my 10 Gb/s home network and my 16" M2 MacBook Pro. Previously I was using the 10 Gb ethernet port on my OWC Thunderbolt Pro Dock. However, that dock would overheat and shut down when doing a lot of high-speed data transfers. I finally decided to try the StarTech Thunderbolt adapter, and it's been working flawlessly. It gets really hot, but it has been super reliable. This thing is pretty big and heavy, and that's why it works. The heat sink really does a good job of dissipating all of that energy. StarTech isn't a brand that I usually think of when looking for Mac-compatible products. However, after my experience with this adapter, I'll consider them for future purchases.