The NIC will set your system back four PCI Express 3.0 lanes as required by the Aquantia AQtion Client Controller. There are two specifications that make this product stand out from other 10GbE NICs shipping today. The first is the low $99 price tag. Amazon already has a product page for the XG-C100C, but doesn't have stock at time of writing. The MSRP is low and we expect pricing to get better over time. The second standout feature is related to why the market has adopted the AQtion AQC107 controller: it consumes very little power, and thus produces very little heat. The products we've seen use a low-cost heat sink--or no heat sink at all, in the case on onboard designs. Both features run contrary to enterprise-focused products, which are expensive and require cooling beyond what most of us use in our quiet desktops.
The question many will ask is: What the hell do you do with 1,000MBps of network bandwidth? If you have to ask, then this might not be the upgrade for you. More products will support the 10GbE and Multi-Gigabit standards in time. Wouldn't it be nice to watch a high-definition movie from across the network without stuttering? 10GbE ships on nearly all of the latest network-attached storage appliances costing north of $450. Just like USB 3.1 Gen 2, Thunderbolt 3, and NVMe, 10GbE enhances storage bandwidth, and that's what you need to increase before life-like gameplay can become a reality. Until then, you will just have to live with very fast file transfers and lower latency.
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