Waveshare PCIe TO 2.5G ETH Board (C) low-cost PCIe x1 adapter adds a 2.5GbE port to the Raspberry Pi 5 using the board’s 16-pin PCIe interface. It’s plug-and-play and doesn’t require any additional drivers, making it a practical upgrade for DIY NAS, routers, or edge-networking applications.
The board is built around a Realtek RTL8125 controller and offers a 10/100/1000/2500 Mbps RJ45 port with link/activity LEDs. It includes a transparent acrylic mounting plate at the bottom to save space above the board. It relies on a PCIe Gen2 x1 interface, takes 5V power through the PCIe cable or 5V power connectors, and works out of the box in Raspberry Pi OS.
PCIe TO 2.5G ETH Board (C) specifications:
- Compatibility – Raspberry Pi 5 or other boards with a compatible 16-pin PCIe connector
- Ethernet
- 10/100/1000/2500 Mbps Ethernet RJ45 port via Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE PCIe network controller
- Link/activity LEDs (yellow = link, green = activity)
- Host Interface – PCIe x1 Gen2 (16-pin FFC connector for Raspberry Pi 5)
- Misc – Onboard power LED
- Power Supply Options
- Via PCIe FFC cable (default)
- 2-pin 5V/GND header
- 3-pin 5V/5V/GND connector
- Dimensions – 85 × 37.5 mm (PCB), 58 mm port-to-connector spacing
- Mounting – Side-mount design with acrylic plate and spacers
The interface enumerates as a standard PCIe x1 Gen2 network device, for full 2.5GbE operation out of the box, including auto-negotiation and link-status reporting. All standard networking features, such as ethtool configuration, hardware offloading, and VLAN support, work normally with the existing r8169/r8125 driver stack. More information should eventually be found on the company’s wiki, but at the time of writing, it’s empty.
Previously, we have seen 52Pi and Radxa try to do something similar with the 52Pi W01 U2500 HAT and the Radxa Dual 2.5G Router HAT, but those also include an M.2 socket for NVMe SSD storage or an AI accelerator, and Waveshare’s solution offers a simpler and cheaper upgrade, only enabling 2.5GbE networking. It competes against 2.5GbE USB 3.0 adapters and frees a USB 3.0 port on the Raspberry Pi 5.
The 2.5GbE PCIe adapter board for Raspberry Pi 5 is available on AliExpress for $13.72 and on the Waveshare store for $9.99. It might soon become available on the company’s Amazon store, too.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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