{"id":23224,"date":"2026-07-19T18:45:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T17:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovatenews.site\/index.php\/2026\/07\/19\/i-connected-my-nas-directly-to-my-pc-with-10-gigabit-ethernet-and-skipped-upgrading\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T18:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T17:46:15","slug":"i-connected-my-nas-directly-to-my-pc-with-10-gigabit-ethernet-and-skipped-upgrading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovatenews.site\/index.php\/2026\/07\/19\/i-connected-my-nas-directly-to-my-pc-with-10-gigabit-ethernet-and-skipped-upgrading\/","title":{"rendered":"I connected my NAS directly to my PC with 10 gigabit Ethernet, and skipped upgrading\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The topic I connected my NAS directly to my PC with 10 gigabit Ethernet, and skipped upgrading\u2026<\/strong> is currently the subject of lively discussion \u2014 readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.<\/p>\n

This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies\u2019 decisions and competitors\u2019 reactions can quickly change the picture.<\/p>\n

When it comes to enhancing your Network-Attached Server\u2019s capabilities, you\u2019ve got plenty of tweaks at your disposal. Copying essential datasets to offsite nodes (or even cloud platforms) is something I\u2019d recommend all NAS owners to do regularly, as it ensures your precious files are retrievable in case of hardware failure.<\/p>\n

But as far as increasing your NAS\u2019 transfer speeds is concerned, upgrading your network stack is the fastest way to add some extra oomph to its read and write tasks, especially if you\u2019ve armed your storage server with blazing-fast NVMe SSDs. Unfortunately, once you go past the 2.5GbE mark, the cost of networking equipment starts to become somewhat expensive. That said, if you don\u2019t have the budget to grab ultra-fast switches and just need to share files at ultra-fast speeds between two devices, you can technically forgo the switch and just pair them together using a single Ethernet cable.<\/p>\n

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10GbE may be too overkill for normal setups, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else<\/p>\n

Unless you\u2019ve got top-of-the-line hardware that already has 10-gigabit capabilities, you\u2019ll need to grab a couple of products for your high-speed LAN setup. The NAS and the client device will require a 10G network card to avoid throttling the connection. Likewise, you’ll have to invest in Cat 6 (or Cat 6a, if you\u2019ve got your devices scattered across a really large house) cables if you\u2019ve got their slower predecessors.<\/p>\n

If it were just the NICs and cables, a 10G setup wouldn\u2019t be all that expensive. But what really makes 10G costly is the network switch, as the ones with enough 10GbE ports for your NAS server and clients can cost hundreds of dollars. For reference, I have a cheap LincStation N2 hybrid NAS with built-in 10GbE capabilities, so I only had to spend around $70 on a TX401 card for my PC and another $10 on the CAT6 cables.<\/p>\n

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The Zyxel network switch, on the other hand, cost me around $190 (with some extra bucks for shipping). I\u2019d shortlisted another TP-Link model with only SFP+ ports, and had I chosen it instead, I’d have to spend even more money on the right adapters to pair it with my client machines. In such a situation, saving money by hooking a NAS directly to a PC makes sense, especially if most of your local storage, archival, and backup tasks involve a single rig.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the configuration process for a direct PC-to-NAS connection is fairly straightforward. Once I\u2019d plugged one end of a Cat 6 cable into the 10GbE port on my PC and the other into my LincStation N2, I opened the TrueNAS web UI to modify the latter\u2019s network settings. I assigned a static IP address and used the Test changes option to force TrueNAS to use these updated settings.<\/p>\n

Then, I switched to my PC and headed to the Network settings within the Control Panel. Since I\u2019ve got two network cards hooked to my PC, I chose the 10GbE NIC and modified its IP address to match the same subnet as my NAS, while leaving the 2.5G card built into my motherboard at the same subnet as the rest of my home network. And sure enough, I was able to access my SMB shares once I entered the new IP address of my NAS within File Explorer.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about why direct PC-to-NAS connections are frowned upon by the community. NAS units with a single NIC such as mine may remain connected to my PC, but they’ll be inaccessible to every other device in my LAN. My PC has two network interfaces, but if I were on a single port setup, I wouldn\u2019t be able to access the Internet on my everyday rig, either. As such, I\u2019d have to constantly swap the Ethernet cables and network settings.<\/p>\n

Personally, I need my Xeon server to have the same 10G speeds, so I had no choice but to grab the network switch. But if you remove my home server from the equation, I\u2019d only need the 10G capabilities to transfer TBs of files between my NAS and PC. Now, ditching the network switch isn\u2019t something you\u2019d want to do in a regular setup. But when you\u2019ve got as many backups, videos, container data, and other bulky files as I do, it makes sense to save the uber-expensive switch for later and rely on a direct 10G connection between your PC and NAS in the meantime.<\/p>\n