Need advice on pci network card 6

[garebo]

Hope its ok to ask this here.
I was wondering if I could get some info on pci network cards. I have heard some complaints about, for instance, the realtek chip-based card not being the best, things like that.
So, could i get your opinions on which are:

1 The better low-priced, standard pci nic cards, and possibly those to avoid?
2 The better pci nic cards, and, again, possibly those to avoid?

Is that enough info to get a good reply?
thanks



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[paparazi]

Seems that all the low priced PCI cards we sell and have sold in the last 18 months are or have been, based on the realtek chip.
In that time I can honestly say (to my knowledge) we havn't had one card returned, so they can't be all that bad.
The demand for network cards has dropped (because most motherboard have them integrated) but we must have sold at least 50 over that period.
Martin

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[garebo]

Thanks.
I could have stated that I personally have installed quite a few realtek based nic cards and never had a prob, but i
wanted to hear that from others as well. I like to double check on things i hear, sometimes its hard to verify the validity of a statement you read on the net.
And, of course, see what others have to say about other nic cards as well.




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[felixc]

I have never heard any user complaining about a NIC adapter being too slow. The higher-performance NIC chips, like those from AMD or Intel, will push the transfer speeds closer to the theoretical limits of the link, but besides telecom applications like routers or VPN processors where the combined data of many users is treated, nobody really pushes the ethernet links to their limits.

 

[kmcferrin]

If you want a high-end NIC, go with Intel or 3com (usually run $50 or more). But in 99.9% of all circumstances, a $15 NIC off the shelf of your local store will do the trick just fine. I've not had any problems with NICs using Broadcom chips, but just about any should be OK. I would tend to stick with one of the major brands, either Netgear (owned by Nortel) or Linksys (owned by Cisco) if you're going for a cheapy.

 

[garebo]

Thanks for the info.
I cant remember the details of what i had read about realtek chips, but i think it could have been about realtek chips slowing down either/or boot up or turn off times, dont remember if that referred to win98 or xp though.
I just thought i would ask.
At this point I guess one could say there are plenty of cheaper ones on the market and most are likely fine, but netgear and linksys have a good name, and realtek chips are fine too.
For better cards, go with intel or 3com.

May not be the right time but why not. What is the meaning of 10\100 and 10\100\1000. Is the 1000 referring to gigabit? And what is that.
thanks

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[jurgen36]

Yes the 1000 is gigabit, my net actually is connected at 1000 but had to get a special hub for it. very hard to find. but the transfer speed is like reading from a hard drive.
regards

Jurgen

 

[garebo]

If you have cable are you limited to the amount of throughput speed or can you get better equipment to get the better speed?
I suppose it depends who you are getting your cable from?


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[pcdude1]

Yes, you are limited with cable to under 10 mbps. Most cable companies advertise their cable internet speeds are 100 times faster than dial-up internet, based on 5 mbps speeds. But realistically, you only achieve around 1 mbps speeds. But the 100 mbps or 1000 mbps NIC's and hubs can increase the transfer speeds between pc's on your home network.

 

[starzwell]

Ok I had two thoughts on this...for the basic user a NIC is a NIC. I run across a lot of crap brand NICs and they work just fine.

However I am most happy when I find a major brand card in a system (3com, Kingston, ect) because I know without a doubt I can find a driver for that card when Windows dosn't load them.

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[garebo]

So putting a 1000 gigabit nic would likely increase my download speed? I realize that if it did, it wouldnt be a whole lot.


I imagine there are only so many chip-makers for nic cards and win xp prolly has most of them on board, long as the nic is only a standard type without too many bells and whistles. Still, the idea of using a brand name so that windows will recognize the card and install the drivers is very helpful for sure.


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[pcdude1]

Your download speed from the Internet won't see a difference between a gigabit NIC versus a 100 mbps NIC. But if you have multiple pc's and a home network, a gigabit NIC and hub will definitely increase the transfer speeds from pc to pc when copying files, etc. I haven't read if you have more than one pc or not. So, if you only have one pc and no home network, then it wouldn't make sense spending the extra cost on a gigabit NIC. For just one pc, a good name brand 10/100 NIC would probably be in your best interest. But a gigabit NIC and hub is very nice if you share files a lot between multiple pc's on a home network.

 

[kmcferrin]

Most cable companies proide internet connections of 10 Mbps or less. Because the cable network is shared in neighborhood nodes, the transfer rates can vary significantly. I have clocked my connection at everything from 1 Mbps to 6 Mbps, all within the span of 15 minutes.

Now this part may vary according to the cable modem being used, but on all of the ones that I have seen the ethernet port is a 10 Mbit only. You can still use a 10/100 or even 1000 Mbit card, but it will connect to the cable modem at 10 Mbit, and your connection to the Internet will likely be significantly less than that.

Now I personally have a small network of PCs at home, and everything runs at 100 Mbit. While it is true that gigabit ethernet will allow much faster connections between your local PCs, you probably will not notice a dramatic difference unless you are frequently moving large amounts of data around. Also, keep in mind that most desktop PCs are unable to deliver data from the hard disk at gigabit speeds, nor are they able to transfer data at that rate across standard PCI interfaces. Gigabit was originally created for server environments where the cards interfaced through high-speed bus interfaces (133mhz PCI-x) and the data was coming from high speed SCSI or FC RAID storage systems. So while you may see improvement using a gigabit network, the average PC will still fall short of the network's potential.

 

[garebo]

thanks for all the info!

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