on-board LAN or separate PCI NIC?

[jrichrds]

Is on-board LAN on many of the motherboards these days (e.g. ECS K7S5A) kind of like SoftModems in that they rely on the CPU to carry out its functions?

Not sure whether to continue using my 3COM PCI NIC, or just use the built-in NIC...

 

[Peter]

No. Onboard LAN is either a discrete PCI chip anyway, or it's a PCI chip function that has been pulled into the core chipset. The latter solution gets the NIC traffic off the PCI bus, actually improving performance over having the same chip on a PCI NIC.

For K7S5A, the latter is true. You get an "SiS 900" functional unit, which is integrated into the SiS 735 single chip, accompanied by a Realtek 8201 physical interface chiplet.

 

[jrichrds]

Wow, thanks for the really informative reply Peter.
I didn't ever think I'd be getting better performance from using the onboard LAN of the K7S5A.

 

[Regalk]

I beg to differ - Anything SiS except the Chipset suck period. Of the 6 machines I have on home LAN the one with a 3Com NIC simply is the fastest. I also have 2 Intel 100+ Pro-management and a coupla DLinks. Actually the only SiS chipset I like is the 645 the 735/745 is not for me. But we are talking LAN so I say disable that SiS whatever.

 

[Buz2b]

Anything SiS except the Chipset suck period

Then.....

Of the 6 machines I have

Would that be 6 K7S5A's?? If so, one would wonder why you keep on buying them if they "suck" so bad. If not, then you are comparing performance of completely different systems. There can be setup differences and other factors that would effect this "comparison". As Peter said, "gets the NIC traffic off the PCI bus, actually improving performance over having the same chip on a PCI NIC." That's sort of hard to argue "hardware logic", isn't it? Or maybe your "anything SIS suck" attitude is diminishing your objectivity a bit.

 

[The Wildcard]

Hmm I have the Abit BG7 which I believe uses a Realtek chip for its on-board LAN. Any opnions?

 

[Mark0999]

For the average user... there is really little difference between all the chips. I have used both onboard and PCI ethernet cards and find it very hard to tell the difference.

 

[Peter]

oh well, regalk. Jumps on every ECS and SiS thread to piss on it. Ignore.

Realtek makes basic MAC+PHY integrated NIC chips (8100, 8139/A/B/C/D), an enhanced one with larger buffers (8139+), and a PHY-only companion 8201 companion chip to go with chipset integrated MAC, as needed on SiS 730, 735 and VIA 8233 south bridge (not 8233A).

The 8139+ is a little more efficient on the PCI bus, the chipset integrated solutions produce zero PCI load. Yet on actual net throughput, you won't see any relevant difference between the most expensive and the cheapest. Unless you got a screwed up driver set on one of them - sh*t happens, at 3Com just as well as at SiS or Realtek.

regards, Peter