I finally got tired of using Gigabit networking with my NAS, so I upgraded to 2.5GbE. The upgrade was actually cheaper than I expected, and the results were better than I expected. Moving to 2.5GbE completely changed how my NAS works in my homelab, and I think it will for you, too.
Gigabit is just too slow for large file transfers in 2026
It's 1998 tech, after all
When Gigabit networking was introduced in 1998, the average hard drive size was between 3.2GB and 5GB. Yes, the entire hard drive was 5GB or less. Today, most computers come with at least 256GB of storage, if not 512GB or 1,024GB (1TB). Similarly, hard drives could only move data at 10MB/s to 15MB/s back in 1998, while today the average drive speed is 5,000MB/s to 7,000MB/s for NVMe.
Many NAS systems have slots for NVMe cache drives, meaning you transfer files to that fast NVMe then the system handles moving the data off of it to the array at a later point.
I did some calculations, and for networking to have stayed ahead of storage tech by as much as it was in 1998, we would need to be on 200GbE by now. I'd love to be on 200GbE, but it's just not feasible ( though it technically does exist ). While Gigabit networking did come out in 1998, it wasn't until about 2008 when it became mainstream.
Fast forwarding the numbers to then, and we should reasonably be at 25GbE in modern desktops. Sadly, even that's not the case today. However, 2.5GbE is becoming more mainstream—10x less than what we should be at if technology kept up its pace.
Either way, Gigabit just isn't fast enough in 2026. Being limited to 100MB/s data transfer rates when spinning platter drives can hit several hundred MB/s in RAID is pretty crazy. I found that when my NAS was limited to Gigabit, I simply didn't do a ton of transfers to or from it. If I had to move several hundred gigabyte or a few terabytes of files to my NAS, I would try to set the transfer up to run over the weekend, because otherwise my network would slow to a crawl with all of the bandwidth being taken up for far too long. Something had to change.
Most NAS systems ship with at least 2.5GbE built-in
No NAS upgrades required
Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek
Most modern NAS servers actually have at least 2.5GbE built-in now, with many shipping with either 5GbE or 10GbE ports. A lot of NAS units are also including 10Gb/s USB ports, which can take faster Ethernet adapters if you want. My most recent NAS, the Ugreen iDX6011 Pro , has dual 10GbE, but also a full-size PCIe slot that I could put a faster networking card in—say, 25GbE .
Since most NAS units ship with this faster networking standard there's not really much else that needs upgrading except maybe your computer. In my case, my gaming desktop already had 2.5GbE built-in, but my MacBook didn't, so I had to add it there .
I also did have to upgrade some of my older NAS units that didn't have built-in 2.5GbE. The NAS that I built from an old retired enterprise server only had Gigabit Ethernet built-in, so I picked up a cheap 2.5GbE PCIe card to slot into it to get better transfer speeds on it.
The last piece of the puzzle for me was a 2.5GbE switch. While I looked at some Amazon switches, like the TP-Link TL-SG105S-M2 or the TRENDnet TEG-S562 , I ended up trying out this no-name 10-port 2.5GbE switch for $70. It didn't work well in my setup, and I couldn't get devices to uplink at 2.5GbE with it for some reason, so I decided to save some cash and buy the Unifi Flex Mini 2.5G , which is just $49—less than the TP-Link or TRENDnet with more features.
Really, if you already have a NAS with 2.5GbE, and a computer with 2.5GbE, then all you'll need is a switch capable of 2.5GbE to take advantage of the faster transfer speeds.
2.5GbE finally lets me use my NAS how I always wanted to
Moving data 2.5x as fast makes data transfers far less of a pain
Jordan Gloor / How-To Geek
Once my entire networking stack was ready to go on 2.5GbE, I could feel the speed increase immediately. For instance, moving 50GB of files over 2.5GbE takes under three minutes now, where it used to take seven minutes (or more) on Gigabit. I was able to move 70GB of data in just about five minutes, which was much faster than I would have seen over Gigabit networking.
With this newfound speed, I started to actually store more files on my NAS. In the past, I used my NAS as purely a cold storage pool or for media storage. Basically, archived files or photos would go to the NAS, but never anything that I would want to access with any regularity.
Now, with 2.5GbE, I'm able to edit RAW photos directly off my NAS with no issues. I even do video editing from my NAS on my MacBook Pro sometimes with relative ease. Bumping the transfer rate from 100MB/s to 250MB/s has fundamentally changed how I use my NAS, and I couldn't imagine going back to a slower internal networking speed.
At this point, I treat my NAS as an extension of my computer—so long as the data on it only needs to be accessed when I'm at home. I still keep a local copy of the current year's photo library on my MacBook, but I store almost everything else on the NAS now. It has way more storage than any of my computers ever could, it backs up to the cloud, and it has hard drive redundancy built-in. What more could I ask for?
Faster than 2.5GbE would be nice, but it's not necessary
When I first went to upgrade my network in early 2025 , I was dead set on going 10GbE. It felt like the "gold standard" of networking speeds, but I quickly realized it was an unnecessary standard for most setups. Sure, moving data at 1GB/s would be much nicer than 250MB/s, but 250MB/s is already such an upgrade over 100MB/s that the extra cash required for 10GbE wasn't necessary at the end of the day.
If you're still using Gigabit networking for your NAS, make 2026 the year you finally upgrade—you won't regret it.
