NICGIGA 6-Port 10Gbps Unmanaged Network Switch

Missing Safety Marks - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

If you're asking why this product is so cheap compared to other network switches of the same speed, the reason is that it lacks several required electrical safety marks, i.e. UL. This product probably shouldn't be sold in the U.S. Use at your own risk.

Chance Ill

June 1, 2026

A bit concerned with its "passive cooling"

I purchased two of these. While the network switches work fine, (so far) they get unusually hot and that's concerning. I'm expecting failure due to heat. I will update this review in time

About what I expected for the price, but I'm keeping it

I ordered this switch because it provides exactly what I need for a particular use case: I want to split a 10Gbe input into one 10Gbe output and one 100Mbe output. This switch is unmanaged, and has a recessed "Reset" button on the right rear panel. Hopefully, I'll never need to press it because this switch is now in a crawlspace. This switch uses passive cooling and has no fan. It did not get very warm during my testing.

Basically, I'm using this to provide Ethernet to a doorbell which is presently being fed by a 10Gbe swtich (but it only needs 100Mbe), and splitting the connection to feed another 10Gbe device downstream of the doorbell. In theory, this would result in a 1% (maxium) reduction in bandwidth to the downstream device, but right now that downstream device is only getting about 900Mbps via a MoCA/Ethernet bridge, so it's a big upgrade there.

Anyway, I did not expect much from this switch based upon the low price. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the 10Gbe ports work quite well. I got full 10Gbps speeds through them using iperf3. When I tried 10Gbps in both directions at once (with two iperf3 clients & servers), I saw a throughput reduction of 0.6%, which is barely worth mentioning.

I also tested the 2.5Gbe ports with the same setup, and although I got full 2.5Gbps speeds in one direction with iperf3, I noticed that the speeds dropped by 50% while running in both directions at once. I repeated this test multiple times with different interfaces and compared against a better ($500) switch, so I'm certain that the issue is with this switch. It seems that the backplane for the four 2.5Gbe ports caps out at 2.5Gbps total, and not the 5Gbps that would be required for full bi-directional full-rates on two ports, or the 20Gbps that would be required to provide full bi-directional rates on all four 2.5Gbe ports.

I saw the same asymmetrical speed behavior when testing between a 2.5Gbe port and a 10Gbe port. I know these ports are all full-duplex because that's how 2.5Gbe works and how switches (as opposed to bridges) work, but the 2.5Gbe ports on this switch behave as though they were half-duplex ports with respect to the throughput speeds.

Fortunately for me, the functionality that I need from this switch is not impacted by this shortcoming.

I like that this switch is powered by a (5521 coaxial) 12VDC power source. There's an included power brick, but I wanted to power this from the upstream PoE++ switch (previously powering the doorbell directly), so I used a 10Gbe POE++ splitter and a 48V-to-12V buck converter to power this switch. (I also added a few PoE injectors for the outputs. One was required by the doorbell, but the other was optional.)

This switch worked out well for my use case, and (presently priced) at less than $80, it saved me about $300 over my next choice of hardware for this integration.

It's a great switch, but don't expect to get full speeds from the 2.5Gbe ports in high-bandwidth environments.

Nicholas Calderone

October 23, 2025

Not just warm. Burning hot

I have a setup that requires 10GBe Ethernet. My switch connects my Mac Studio and UGREEN NAS, allowing both to be on the network and enabling super-fast file transfers over 10GBe. It's been easy to use, and connecting the cables has been hassle-free, unlike with other low-end switches. The size is perfect, and as shown in the photo, I have it mounted under my audio interface. The speed has been great, achieving full speeds during my tests without any drops. However, the switch does get quite warm, actually, extremely hot. The bottom is well-vented, but placing your hand in the center can burn your fingers. I've had larger brand switches get warm, but nothing like this. While I don't think it will cause damage, I am considering upgrading soon.

Reliable, Fast, and Quiet

I bought this NICGIGA switch for my growing home lab, and it’s been fantastic so far. Setup was truly plug-and-play — I just connected power and cables, and it worked right away without any configuration needed.

Performance has been rock-solid. All ports deliver full advertised speeds, and I haven’t noticed any packet loss or random disconnects, even under heavy file transfers between my servers and main PC. I also appreciate how quiet it is — no loud fan noise, which makes it perfect for a home office or bedroom setup.

The build quality feels solid and premium for the price. The metal housing helps with heat dissipation, and it stays cool even after running 24/7 for weeks. I’m using it with a mix of 1Gb and 10Gb connections, and it handles them seamlessly.

If you’re looking for an affordable but dependable switch for your home lab, office, or gaming setup, this NICGIGA model is a great choice. It’s simple, reliable, and doesn’t run hot or noisy. Highly recommend!

Scooter

August 1, 2025

Inexpensive, and works great!

Okay, so I do a lot of home lab, game, etc. stuff that loads down my home network. That said, I only had 1 Gen3 PCIe x1 slot in my home server, and my desktop gaming PC has a 5GB NIC. The fastest I could get for my Server was a 5GB Gen3 PCIe x1 capable 5GB NIC.

I needed a switch that was capable of 5GB speeds. This was the only one I could find that advertised 5GB capable throughput on the 10GB ports. So I bought it.

10GB Ports - can in fact run at 5GB speeds!

From here, I mounted it where my old 8 port 1GB switch was, and now I'm cookin with grease.

NOTE: I did end up putting some foam/rubber feet on the bottom, just to mitigate any possible vibrations given it's just resting on the screw mounting holes.

Tiny switch. Low power. LEDs too bright and bleed into each other.

Super compact, about half the depth of the common 5-port offerings. All ports on one side, LEDs opposite. I like that the wall mount punchouts leave the metal there to protect the circuit board, but it prevents mounting with the ports to the side.

The switch chip is well cooled. Both a heatsink, and a thermal pad on the back connecting it to the case.

I ran 5 machines doing chained iperf (1->2->3->4-5->1) for about an hour. The switch drew 0.43-0.45A under this kind of load. Total bandwidth achieved was 4.58 Gbits/sec. The case got warmest on the bottom where the thermal pad is, but it only reached about 35C (95F).

The LEDs indicators don't have any separation so they bleed into neighboring indicators. They're a bit bright (green) when viewed straight on, and the lights bleed out of the case seams in the dark. At an angle they're bearable, but still a little brighter than necessary.

== Power supply ==

Power supply is marked 5V 2A, seems a bit light. The circuit design looks isolated, but seems to lack feedback between the primary/secondary like a typical switching supply. Very short cable, only 22 inches (56cm). I put a USB load on it.

Here's voltage at a few current loads:

0.4A 5.0V

1.0A 4.75V

2.0A 4.2V

2.5A 3.5V

It topped out at 2.5A even as I increased the load. I would prefer, like most other supplies, to cut off in these overcurrent conditions because I think the reset cycle will produce less heat than just blasting their max current. I don't like that this one seems to stay on. Perhaps it has a thermal cutoff, but I didn't test for that.

With a constant 1A load the supply's case got to about 36C (96F). This is over twice what the switch seems to ever draw so it should stay pretty cool normally.

Very compact, comes with 120V power supply

Switch supports Ethernet speeds up to 1 Gpbs. It's got steel case for better cooling and durability. Case has mounting holes on the back and can be hanged on the wall. There's a LED array in front that displays active state for each of 5 ports. My other 8 port switch doesn't have this feature and the only way to figure out if port is active or not is to look on the blinking Ethernet port lights on the back. It also dwarfs this compact switch by size. It comes with 2 Amp 120 V power adapter. Small switches usually consume less than 1 Amp at 5V. Extra current is necessary for power-over-ethernet (POE) devices. I use 5th port as uplink. I think this switch can automatically configure any port for uplink connection.

Small, but agile

Great performer in a small package. Perfect for an entertainment cabinet where LEDs are visible and cables are not. I'd like to see a longer power cord as it's pretty short.

An inexpensive 5 port Gigabit switch

This review is for the 5 port Nicgiga Gigabit ethernet switch.

This is a simple, un-managed, 5 port switch without POE or any special features. The switch is plug and play, as it should be.

The switch is small, just under four inches in length by about two inches deep by an inch tall. It is housed in an all-metal case with two key slots in the back for wall mounting. The switch comes with a plug-in wall style 12-volt 2-amp power supply. No documentation comes in the box, the listing claims a 10Gbps switching capacity across the five ports.

In my testing the switch performed as expected. I did not experience any network slowdown or issues.

This switch’s small size and fan-less design makes it ideal for home theater or home office use. At the time of my order, it was priced under $12, which seems like a good value for a 5 PORT Gigabit switch.

5 port switch

All metal body and 5 ports. This is a great gigabit switch for a personal desk. Take your one ethernet jack and split it off to your PC, printer, gaming console, smart tv device, or whatever else you've got around. It's a nice compact little unit with 1000 mbps to help you upgrade from your old 10/100 switch.

Works well

It's a great price for a 5 port gigabit switch. Very compact. I like the metal case which includes slots in the bottom to wall mount. I have used NICGIGA POE switches and have had no problems with them so I would expect the same from this. It comes with one year warranty and life time technical support. My only complaint is the power cord. It's a standard 5 Volt DC power supply but the cord is only about 21" long. How much could another foot or two of thin gauge two wire cord have added to the cost? I knocked off one star for that.