Intel X520-SR2 10G SFP+ Ethernet PCI-e Adapter E10G42BFSR

The Intel X520-SR2 (E10G42BFSR) is a dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet server adapter built around Intel's 82599ES controller, one of the most widely deployed 10GbE chips in data center and enterprise environments. Each of its two SFP+ ports supports short-range multimode fiber connections, making it well-suited for in-rack and cross-rack server connectivity where low latency and high bandwidth are essential. The card plugs into a standard PCIe slot and is recognized out of the box by virtually every major operating system and hypervisor, including Windows Server, Linux distributions, VMware ESXi, and FreeBSD.

Beyond basic Ethernet connectivity, the X520-SR2 functions as a converged network adapter capable of handling iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) traffic alongside standard network data. For virtualized environments, SR-IOV support allows the adapter to create virtual functions that can be passed directly to individual virtual machines, bypassing the software switch layer and reducing CPU overhead. This makes the X520-SR2 a practical choice for hyperconverged infrastructure, NAS builds, and any environment where reliable, high-throughput networking is needed without investing in the latest generation of 25G or 100G hardware.