Waveshare PCIe to 4-Channel 2.5G Ethernet Board (B) for Raspberry Pi 5

Multi-gig wired networking for the Raspberry Pi 5, with four 2.5G-capable ports on one compact board.

A single onboard Ethernet port is the main thing stopping the Pi 5 from being a capable home-lab router, firewall or network backbone. This board connects to the Pi 5's 16-pin PCIe connector and adds four RJ45 ports rated up to 2.5 Gbps, so it links at full speed with modern 2.5G switches, NAS units and ISP gear. Power comes through the PCIe cable, so there's no extra supply to wire in.

Each port uses a Realtek RTL8156 controller, supported out of the box in Raspberry Pi OS with no drivers needed. All four ports share the Pi 5's single-lane PCIe Gen2 link, so combined throughput is shared between ports rather than 2.5 Gbps simultaneously on all four. Expect individual ports to beat Gigabit while total bandwidth stays within the PCIe link. Enabling PCIe Gen3 on the Pi won't speed this board up, as it runs at Gen2.

Getting started is quick:

• Mount the board to the Pi 5 and connect the included 16-pin PCIe cable, minding the cable orientation.
• Add dtparam=pciex1 to /boot/firmware/config.txt and reboot.
• Run ifconfig to confirm the new interfaces are recognised.

Features

• Links at 2.5 Gbps with multi-gig switches and NAS, and remains backwards compatible with 10/100/1000 Mbps networks
• Four additional RJ45 ports that turn a Pi 5 into a five-port router, firewall or network tap
• Driver-free in Raspberry Pi OS, using Realtek RTL8156 controllers
• Powered through the PCIe cable by default, with no external supply needed
• Mounting design that holds the Pi 5 securely in place
• Per-port activity LEDs, with green solid for link and yellow flashing for activity

Specifications

Resources

• Waveshare Wiki (setup guide)

What's Included

• 1x PCIe to 4-Ch 2.5G ETH Board (B)
• 1x 16-pin PCIe FFC cable (40 mm)
• 1x screw pack

Raspberry Pi 5 not included.