Waveshare PCIE TO 4-CH Gigabit/2.5G ETH Board (B) is a 4-port Gigabit or 2.5 Gbps Ethernet board designed for the Raspberry Pi 5. This board connects four RJ45 ports to the Pi’s 16-pin PCIe interface and also includes a mounting option for the Pi5 Connector Adapter (C). The only limiting factor is the Pi’s PCIe Gen2/Gen3 x1 interface, as the 2.5GbE ports share the available bandwidth and cannot operate at full speed simultaneously.
The Gigabit Ethernet variant features Realtek RTL8153 USB to Ethernet controllers, while the 2.5GbE variant relies on RTL8156 controllers, and both integrate a VL805 PCIe to USB bridge chip. The board also includes status LEDs for link and activity indication, and draws power directly from the PCIe interface without requiring an external power supply. The device is plug-and-play and supports Raspberry Pi OS out of the box with no additional drivers required. Applications include routers, firewalls, network test systems, and multi-interface edge or lab setups built around the Raspberry Pi 5.
PCIE TO 4-CH Gigabit/2.5G ETH Board (B) specifications:
- Compatibility – Designed for Raspberry Pi 5, but should work with other SBCs with a compatible 16-bit PCIe FFC connector
- Host Interface – 16-pin PCIe FFC connector for interfacing with the Raspberry Pi 5 via a VL805 PCIe to 4x USB 3.0 host controller chipset
- Ethernet
- 4x Gigabit Ethernet via RTL8153 chips (PCIE TO 4-CH Gigabit ETH Board (B) variant)
- 4x 2.5 Gbps Ethernet via RTL8156 chips (PCIE TO 4-CH 2.5G ETH Board (B) variant)
- Misc
- Mounting option for Pi5 Connector Adapter to add full HDMI ports and M.2 PCIe socket
- Green LED – link status
- Yellow LED – activity status
- Power Supply – 5V via PCIe cable (no external power input required)
- Dimensions – 91.5 x 85 mm
- Operating Temperature – -40°C to +80°C
The expansion board is all well and good, but as mentioned earlier, the main limiting factor is the Pi 5’s PCIe Gen2 x1 interface, which officially supports up to 5.0 GT/s of bandwidth (around 4 Gbps usable). Unofficially, PCIe Gen3 x1 can be enabled to increase bandwidth to up to 8 GT/s, but as this bandwidth is shared between the four ports, not all Ethernet interfaces can be used at full speed simultaneously, although three 2.5GbE ports may be used at almost full throughput.
The 4-Port Ethernet board is plug-and-play, so no specialized software is required for Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu, OpenWrt, and other operating systems. At the time of writing, the Wiki is still under development. We had seen other 2-port Raspberry Pi 5 or CM5 routers with the likes of Supernetworks’ “Secure Programmable Router”, Radxa Dual 2.5G Router HAT, and Waveshare’s own CM5-DUAL-ETH-MINI-BOX, but 4-port solutions are harder to find, and so far, we only covered Mcuzone’s CM5 5G Router expansion board with 4+1 Gigabit Ethernet ports.
The PCIE TO 4-CH Gigabit/2.5G ETH Board (B) is available on Aliexpress for $42.29/$53.09 and on Amazon for $55.99/$66.99. You can also check out the Waveshare store for additional purchase options starting at $39.99, but Waveshare’s pricing does not include shipping. The board will ship with PCB standoffs, screws, and a 16-pin 40 mm PCIe cable.
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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