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Since it took me a while to figure this out, I figured I'd share this here.
So I wanted to get my feet wet with SFP+ (10Gb/s either over copper for short distances or optical for larger distances) and connect it to a switch with 8 ports, 2.5GB/s each.
The usually listed cards (by QNAP or in their compatibility list) are just too expensive.
However, I did find this single SFP+ PCIe car on AliExpress for $34:
Mellanox MCX311A-XCAT Cx311a ConnectX-3 En 10G Ethernet 10GBe SFP+ PCIe NIC
Comes with a regular bracket and a low profile bracket.
My QNAP recognized it right away (TVS873 running QTS 5.x).
From what I found online: the keywords here are Mellanix ConnectX-3 MCX311A-XCAT (single port, the dual port may not work).
Next I got a cheap $55 switch to match (sold by a TP-Link outlet store):
Lianguo 8 Poort 2.5gbe Ethernet Switch 2.5Gbps Netwerk Switcher 1 Poort 10gbe SFP+ (unmanaged)
It has a one 10Gb SFP+ port, and 8x 2.5 GB ports.
To connect the two, I did get a 1 meter SPF+ passive copper cable for only $9.
And a 10 meter CAT 6 cable for $5, and a USB-c 2.5Gbps ethernet adaptor for $6 ... yes for $6, you're reading that right ...
All this combined boosted copying speed from around 100 MB/s to 280 MB/s.
All in all, cables, switch and everything included not even $100 (at the time of this writing of course).
