Network Cards

[Py7h0n]

Just wondering if brand name cards such as : Intel and 3COM make any real world differance in comparason to the cheapies?

[whetu]

yes.. very much so.. watch out for realtek chipset based nics... think of them as winnics (like winmodems) they have a high cpu utilisation...

if you want best bang for the buck, Inhouse computers in palmy sell Netgear 10/100 nics for 39 bucks (i got mine for 35) which isnt too much more than a dse jobbie which performs far worse...

[Py7h0n]

ewwww winmodems ......

ok cool ..... Time to spend more dosh ...

[Doogie]

If you ever find them also, Macronix use a derivite of the best chipset ever designed, called a DEC Tulip.

Very very good cards for the price. I bought a cheap network card once only to find it was this chipset, and I was chuffed :)

[Solid Snake]

Yup, a higher brand name network card is more expensive ... but in terms of needing that extra fps? It can be well worth it. At the moment I have an onboard network card ... not the best solution since that can be potentially worse than having a PCI solution [still a RealTek]. But at this point, I don't have the dosh to spend it on a network card that may only give me a 0.5 fps boost or something.

SO if you just want to do the occasional lanning, a cheapo Realtek card will suffice. If you want to do a lot of competition lan gaming then buying that expensive Intel network card can make do ... [some US competitions are like 50 grand prize money. I've heard of people making a living playing Quake 3!!]

[whetu]

Originally posted by Doogie
If you ever find them also, Macronix use a derivite of the best chipset ever designed, called a DEC Tulip.

Very very good cards for the price. I bought a cheap network card once only to find it was this chipset, and I was chuffed :)

hehe i dug up a cnet pro100 from the quay computers bargain bins for 20 bucks... i was surprised to find it uses a macronix chipset :D

[Viper_NZ]

How much are you willing to pay for an NIC at the moment??

For about $200 you can get a 3Com GIGABIT 64bit/66MHz PCI card.... It'll run fine on 32bit/33MHz PCI, looks 1337 as hell... Future proof gigabit... and is just farkin' cool

I'm really tempted.. I don't need one. But I want it all the same...

[Py7h0n]

would be really cool for a server at a lan(my switch has 1 1000mbit port) but I can't think of any other use because how many 16 Port Gigabit switches do you see around???

[Viper_NZ]

Not many.. But it's still cool...

And it's 3Com.. Hot swappable too might I add.. Provided your board supports it :D

[Geek4Life]

Wouldn't the main reason for getting a better NIC be for leeching faster as opposed to get 0.2fps. :o

[SilverPriest]

Nah mate, more cycles for UD :D
i get 8 and a half megs a second over my network continuous.
both with realtek 8139's and maxtor 7200rpm hd's though...

[Doogie]

With a good switch and cards, and funnily enough also cables you can get really really good performance out of your network..

here's mine between my machine and my file server.

[Agent 86]

Whats a good nic to handle high fsb coz my 3com 3c905b sure can't.

[Wibber]

uh isn't that a old as the hill isa chipset stuck on a pci card?

[Doogie]

Unfortunately a network card is probably one of the most reliant pieces of hardware in a computer when it comes to FSB and clock timings.

Everything is co-related to the system bus on a network card, and since they're designed with specifically a FSB in mind (PCI 2.1) then raising the multiplier causes issues.

Any DEC Tulip based card seems to work well, and some of the Intel 82559 bases chipset cards, but they're all I know of that can handle slightly higher FSB.

3C920 based chipsets are also pretty good I hear, but I haven't tried overclocking a computer with one in so far.

[[H]arls]

I used to use a Dlink DGE550T Gigabit card, but didnt really have a use for it seeing as how I dont often go to LANs where ppl have gig cards, and the horrific cost of gigabit switches, so i swapped it for a switch. :)

Im now using a Dlink 530tx in my machine and a Realtek in the G/F's machine. I'll change them both to Intel NICs at some point, I've read nothing but good reviews of them.

Im interested to know if anyone has some good programs for testing network performance (besides Sandra), its something that I would quite like to learn about and test.

[Binky Stunt Cat]

3COM is all good
but i guess i'm only saying it coz my uncle is head of 3COM NZ, and gave me my 17" monitor :D
but yeah, i think i'll definatly get a new network card at some point, just to reduce the CPU load of transfers...

[Gh0s7 L3mUr]

Originally posted by Binky Stunt Cat
3COM is all good
but i guess i'm only saying it coz my uncle is head of 3COM NZ, and gave me my 17" monitor :D
but yeah, i think i'll definatly get a new network card at some point, just to reduce the CPU load of transfers...

I want your uncle :eek: pleaase :D

[Binky Stunt Cat]

no, he's mine, all mine
mwuhuhahahahahaha
*ahem*
:P

[Gh0s7 L3mUr]

I've heard Belkin and NetGear cards are really good. :p

*realizes he's going to need one if he's going to L3 #5*

[AcurA]

well i got a cNET Pro200 and that really doesn't like O/c! By D-Link 500TX (DEC/intel chipset???) used to run @133 no rpobs on my old BX board... I've never tried going pass that % wise on my XP board as my ram won't go anywhwre near that.

BTW didn't THG have a lil write up on this - includidng O/c test?

[Gh0s7 L3mUr]

*runs off to THG* :D

[Sydog]

What do you think of the Dlink Cards, Tastech doesn't say the chipset, would these be better/worse than a planet nic w/ intel chipset

[thabass]

For everyday use a realtek based chips are fine.. they work.. or not..

Most manufactures have a buget line which use these chipsets which NASA developed for there beowolf linux clusters.

As for the claims of winnics, we did some testing of this at uni, most common nics takes a amount of cpu Util, under 1-2% but this figure has +- error of 3% so there was too many errors to draw any conclutions. Some of the Server nics we tested had a NPU which is basicy the same as GPU/CPU and they hogged similar processor utils as well.

Most of the card costs is the chipset which has royalties that need to be payed to the developer, so they cost a bit more. Unlike realteks which do not.

You can fork out over $2000nz for server nics, which have all sorts of cool features.

But for home use make sure the cards supports 10/100 and auto detection of duplex.

[CmdrChris]

I rate the Intel Pro 10/100's they are great (that is why I have two of them )

Not sure what they are worth. But they are worth it.

No problems with overclocking so far (125mhz FSB).

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by CmdrFoo
I rate the Intel Pro 10/100's they are great (that is why I have two of them )

Not sure what they are worth. But they are worth it.

No problems with overclocking so far (125mhz FSB).

Generic cards ( even reasonable ones ):
$20 - $30

Intel cards ( Pros, not their server cards ):
$100 ish :eek:

Intel cards ( their server cards ):
$250++ :eek: :eek: :eek:

....wanna know why we DON'T bother with Intels? :rolleyes: LOL - yeah, they're good, but even for LANing you normally hit switch backplanes before NIC limits :(.

[Viper_NZ]

Would you believe me if I told you nVidia's Streamthru network controller gave you better perfomance than those Netgear/Intel/3Com NIC's........ (If only Asus gave my mobo integrated lan using the chipsets controller... :()

[swiftynz]

Originally posted by Viper_NZ
Would you believe me if I told you nVidia's Streamthru network controller gave you better perfomance than those Netgear/Intel/3Com NIC's........
no. :p

i also dont see the point of spending big on NIC's, and my one is probably one of the most utilised here (i'm on the uni lan 24/7). sure the intel ones are good with less cpu utilisation etc, but it really isn't worth the extra cost when you're comparing $100 to $20 for a realtek. if you really must run your pci bus over 40mhz then maybe you should go for one of those netgear nics. otherwise stick with the realteks.

admittedly my connection is limited at 10megabits but i still reach speeds of over 1000k/sec (close to my theoretical limit) so i'm not really worried! :)

[Py7h0n]

(10 mbits .... darn)

oh well I think I'll go for a dlink ... good and cheap :D

[whetu]

swifty.. i'm not quite following your logic:

*dse realtek nic: without WOL $27 with WOL $37
*netgear nic from inhouse: list price $39, i paid $35
*JB has my dlink model listed at $60 - i paid 54ish at dse waaaay back in the day, that dlink was based on realtek, it may not be in recent revisions

yes i own all three cards. the netgear is blue... how cool is that? the only thing realtek based cards have going for them are their commodity... this means they are widely supported and drivers arent an issue to find. not saying that this isnt the case with my netgear however... far from it... so i still stand by my opinion that the netgear is best bang for the buck

[S.T.U.]

My realtek is sitting on 43 mhz PCI at the moment... and has been connect to a 100mb lan constaly for the last 2 days.

and it works at 44.34 mhz

needless to say i'm pretty happy with is stablitly :D

[Gh0s7 L3mUr]

Wasn't able to find that run down on thg. Anyone got a link?

[swiftynz]

in that case whetu, yea the netgear probably was a better buy. maybe.

i got mine (realtek) from JB for $20. i was already getting some other stuff from him so i asked him to chuck it in aswell. he doesn't have the netgear nic's otherwise i probably would have considered one.

$20 is dam cheap and is it worth paying twice the price for a few extra cpu cycles and insignificantly higher speed? maybe....

[Binky Stunt Cat]

yeah, i think it would be....
i'm gonna talk to my uncle when i get a new network card....:D

[AcurA]

Originally posted by Gh0s7 L3mUr
Wasn't able to find that run down on thg. Anyone got a link?

not much there actually... http://www4.tomshardware.com/network/01q3/010820/index.html

[Ragnor]

The other problem with realtek cards is that they seem to have their PCI latency set too high, they hog the PCI bus to long, which will stop everything else getting their fair share.

This makes the Realtek nic's look good when transferring files but try transfer something really big while doing anything else.. ie using a modem and a soundcard at the same time.. and your system will start to crawl along...

[S.T.U.]

To be honest i haven't noticed this problem..... quite offen when i' be at a mates place my rig will be playing a dvds ( hardware card on pci) while play being the server for games....

personally i don't think the extra money for less cpu cycles is worth the $$.... who can honestly notice the difference between 60 ans 70 fps not that the network card would ever have this larger effect on the frame rate anyway...

O course if your after a higher FSB then you need the quality hardware.

[RageX]

If anyone is interested I can supply 3com 3c905B Network cards for around $40 each.

These are second hand, but I will give an RTB warranty of 3months on them.

If you are interested, please email ahthrift@xtra.co.nz

You might even be able to haggle with me =)

[Ragnor]

Originally posted by RageX
If anyone is interested I can supply 3com 3c905B Network cards for around $40 each.
...... etc ...

Ya should really have posted that in the Buy and Sell thread rather then here..

[Agent 86]

Originally posted by Wibber
uh isn't that a old as the hill isa chipset stuck on a pci card?

I didn't realise until you mentioned that I've had this 3C905B since 1997 and thats real weird coz I usually upgrade my other components every 3-6 months.

I just read that NIC review on toms hardware and the 3C905C came out well and I've had one sitting in my draw for ages.

I wasn't to fussed about NICs until last weekend where I was at a lan causing problems on the network with me 3C905B. It turns out there are issues with this card and XP.

[Ragnor]

Yeah I've had 3com 905's in the past... got sick of the problems.. hell even realtek drivers aren't as bad as 3com's in Win2k and WinXP...

[mird-OC]

i'm just about to replace all my realtek NICs and needed some reassurance... i found this article:

http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/nictest.html

very interesting reading. netgear rocks, realtek SUCKS A BIG FATTY :)

[Ragnor]

interesting read

[SilverPriest]

Well, my old Dlink DFE 530TX+ was near its retirement anyway ;)

[Gh0s7 L3mUr]

Originally posted by mird-OC
i'm just about to replace all my realtek NICs and needed some reassurance... i found this article:

http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/nictest.html

very interesting reading. netgear rocks, realtek SUCKS A BIG FATTY :)

Yay Netgear. Just sent an email off to DragonPC to see if he can still get them and what models.

[mird-OC]

here's another roundup, another good read if anyone's interested...

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Roundups/NIC_card/

it focuses a little more on CPU utilisation.

[asanthadenz]

ok iv busted my Cnet Pro200 NIC, so ill be getting my self a new NIC pretty soon, as ill be going to a lot more LAN's in the future.

im after a cheap nic, nothing fancy, Budget $25 inc Postage :D

I dont care about CPU Utilization or whtever because ill be only installing the card on LANS.

iv narrow down to these two NIC's

so which card should i get

RealTEk 10/100
GENIUS PCI 10/100Mbps, UTP

heard a lot of bad things about the Realtek, so wht do u guys think, which card should i get.

[Ragnor]

That's just too n00b a question to answer but heck...

Okay Realtek makes network chip's and chipsets and sells them to loads of different manufacturers who make the nic's. Just like Nvidia does with graphics chips.

I'm pretty sure the Genius uses a Realtek chipset.

Realtek doesn't usually make nic's itself.. but people call the nic a realtek because that's the chip powering the damn thing.. and the actual nic manufacturer doesn't really matter.

[whetu]

genius is more or less KTX so yeah I would suspect that its using a realtek chip... mr JB has some on special last i looked...

[mird-OC]

yeah i've got two geniuses.. both a realtek.. they're ok. cheap.

[Gh0s7 L3mUr]

Well my Netgear FA311 arrived today.

Can't say what it's like as I don't have a network to conect to. :(
But the install was simple.
Oh well suppose I'll find out at L3

Ragnor: LOL :D I was waiting for someone else to answer that one... hehehe