Re: Network card recommendation
On 01:27, Tue 16 Aug 05, Anders Breindahl wrote:
> On Monday 15 August 2005 23:48, Roberto C. Sanchez wrote:
> > On Mon, Aug 15, 2005 at 10:54:40PM +0200, Jan Schledermann wrote:
> > > A safe bet is a card with a realtek chip. It works well and is not
> > > expensive.
> >
> > Yeah. It's safe in the same way that a Pinto was safe in a rear end
> > collision. Seriously, Realtek are the *cheapest* and *worst* possible
> > chips. If you want anything approaching reliable, then don't get them.
> > If you want something that will not hog your CPU under heavy load, then
> > don't get a realtek. Really, 3COM is the way to go. Failing that,
> > maybe Intel, though I am not as familiar with their newer hardware.
> >
> > -Roberto
>
> Please educate me: What exactly determines a NIC's reliability? What defines
> its effectiveness?
>
> Regards, Anders Breindahl.
This was a test done a few years ago but I still think it's
a good source for information.
http://www.cs.uni.edu/~gray/gig-over-copper/gig-over-copper.html
Cpu nic usage is a little moot, with dual core chips, the
real question now becomes of what drivers are the best under
*nix. You get into all this free vs nofree drivers, such as
the broadcom kernel drivers.
Someone should write a current status report of current
drivers and their freeness, that way a person can determine
which one is the best.
If someone does concern them self with cpu usage with
certain network cards then, you can always do what was done
in the past and restrict high cpu processes. I think this
problem is more pronounced under Windows then *nix, as its
much easier to control processes under *nix then in Windows.
If you have a new motherboad with PCI-E then you probably
already have a built in nic, if your looking for a nic price
is not really a concern I would consider the Syskonnect
line. They also make a PCI-E model that people like.
You can find more information about sysKonnect at their
site, and they have drivers available for most *nix, as well
as the bsd's.
But in my range I would consider these in order.
SysKonnect
Intel
3com
Via
Others
Choose wisely;
Gnu_Raiz
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