Intel X520-SR2 dual-port 10Gbps network expansion card

Dual-port 10Gbps server adapter

The Intel X520-SR2 is a dual-port 10Gbps network adapter built for enterprise and data-centre environments. It uses 10GBase-SR optical transceivers with LC connectors for short-range fibre links. The PCIe interface delivers the bandwidth needed for virtualization, cloud workloads and large-scale data processing. Two ports enable link redundancy and load balancing for higher availability.

Sustained throughput on both ports

The X520 architecture maintains low latency and high throughput under continuous multi-gigabit loads rather than only in short bursts. Dual 10GBase-SR ports share the PCIe bus without throttling during prolonged VM migration or storage replication. Optical SR transceivers keep signal integrity stable across the rack distances found in typical data-centre rows. This makes the card reliable for always-on production traffic.

Upgrade from single-port or 1GbE links

This adapter replaces single-port 10GbE cards or dual-port 1GbE NICs when aggregate bandwidth and failover become requirements. The jump is worth it when workloads saturate a single 10Gbps lane or when a second physical path is needed for redundancy. It is not for deployments that need longer-reach optics or higher port counts than two.