Who makes the best NICs?

[steimm]

Ok, so Intel or 3Com is very good - at least that's what I read from you - are they also very good for overclocked systems? I mean can they handle high PCI-bus?


What card is best for overclocked systems (high PCI-speed)?

/steimm

 

[mcveigh]

Wow I din't know that. sucks ass

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: mcveigh

Originally posted by: Sunner
Intel or 3Com IMO.

I tend to stay away from Intel though, for two reasons.
For one, I've used so many 3Com NIC's, both at work and at home, so they've become kinda my home territory
And the second, more objective reason, is Intel's apparent unwillingness to help open source groups develop drivers for their NIC's, even thogh it would require next to no effort on Intel's part.
Stupid and for no good reason IMO.

then why are their drivers in the kernel? my intel pro100's work fine in linux

I was referring to stuff like this:
From OpenBSD's site.

# Intel IPsec card
Much like Intel does for all their networking division components, and completely unlike most other vendors, Intel steadfastly refuses to provide us with documentation. We have talked to about five technical people who are involved in the development of those products. They all want us to have documentation. They commend us on what we have done. But their hands are tied by management who does not perceive a benefit to themselves for providing documentation. Forget about Intel. (If you want to buy gigabit ethernet hardware, we recommend anything else... for the same reason: most drivers we have for Intel networking hardware were written without documentation).

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Intel still make the best NICs (For Windows Environments) closely followed by 3Com.
This said, you're unlikely to notice the difference between a Pro/100 and a generic Realtek for many uses. I've had a lot of success with cheapo cards as far as reliabilty goes.

 

[NasdaqTrader889]

Using a Linksys right now and doesn't seem to be slow at all. I have an SMC too and cannot figure out if one brand over another really makes a difference. How can you tell?

 

[LS20]

i dunno about you but NIC are simply that: NIC -- a cheap peripheral. as long as it works it works... i dont see how one can have a drastic performance difference over another... ive never had one crapped out on me or otherwise give any othe rproblems.

 

[andrey]

Originally posted by: LS20
i dunno about you but NIC are simply that: NIC -- a cheap peripheral. as long as it works it works... i dont see how one can have a drastic performance difference over another... ive never had one crapped out on me or otherwise give any othe rproblems.

I tend to agree with that, and especially with performance part. I've tried no-name NEC-2000-compatible card and Intel Pro 100/+ Management both in the same computer and they both performed identically. The tricky part is that it took me to go through 3 of those NEC-free_after_rebate cards which were dying on me after 1-3 months of use. Since than I purchased Intel Pro 100/+ Management NIC and so far it has been running flawlessly for over 2 years now.

 

[Rogue]

Nvidia nForce

 

[aircooled]

3com..
But I've also bought some cheap linksys and netgear carfds that work just fine.

 

[Whitedog]

The only network chip I'll use is 3COM. Period.

Originally posted by: andrey

Originally posted by: LS20
i dunno about you but NIC are simply that: NIC -- a cheap peripheral. as long as it works it works... i dont see how one can have a drastic performance difference over another... ive never had one crapped out on me or otherwise give any othe rproblems.

I tend to agree with that, and especially with performance part. I've tried no-name NEC-2000-compatible card and Intel Pro 100/+ Management both in the same computer and they both performed identically. The tricky part is that it took me to go through 3 of those NEC-free_after_rebate cards which were dying on me after 1-3 months of use. Since than I purchased Intel Pro 100/+ Management NIC and so far it has been running flawlessly for over 2 years now.

Well, for home use, or a small network... you're probably ok with generic type NIC's.... However, you wouldn't want to use anything less than quality network gear ie. 3COM in a LARGE Corporate Network.

I could just see a 5000 node network using cheap Network chips... Oh my god! The calls the help desk would get! :|

You'll notice that's why company's that build computers for corporate use (such as Dell) ONLY use 3COM network chips on their mobo's.

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: mcveigh

Originally posted by: Sunner
Intel or 3Com IMO.

I tend to stay away from Intel though, for two reasons.
For one, I've used so many 3Com NIC's, both at work and at home, so they've become kinda my home territory
And the second, more objective reason, is Intel's apparent unwillingness to help open source groups develop drivers for their NIC's, even thogh it would require next to no effort on Intel's part.
Stupid and for no good reason IMO.

then why are their drivers in the kernel? my intel pro100's work fine in linux

I was referring to stuff like this:
From OpenBSD's site.

# Intel IPsec card
Much like Intel does for all their networking division components, and completely unlike most other vendors, Intel steadfastly refuses to provide us with documentation. We have talked to about five technical people who are involved in the development of those products. They all want us to have documentation. They commend us on what we have done. But their hands are tied by management who does not perceive a benefit to themselves for providing documentation. Forget about Intel. (If you want to buy gigabit ethernet hardware, we recommend anything else... for the same reason: most drivers we have for Intel networking hardware were written without documentation).

I can answer that rather easily. Intel can give away documentation for "low level" hardware like the Pro 100s and even gigabits, but once you get into higher level tech, including IP-SEC and all, it would be *bad* for them to just give away documentation. Lets take IP-SEC as an example. The R&D and efforts to make the drivers and working hardware for IP-SEC were tremendous. Other companies were having a hard time with IP-SEC (3com for example), but Intel prevailed. If you were to give away detailed documentation for IP-SEC NICs, you would be giving their competitors your knowledge of the field. It is only your knowledge in the first place that puts you on top.

As for talking to give technical people who were involved in the development of the products, it depends on time frame. Back 2 years when the economy was at its boom [the development cycle for the IP-SEC NICs), I wouldnt give a d@mn. Now that Intel is giving the axe to ANY unproductive/uncompetitive product groups, I would really care if my product was as competitive as possible.

 

[Paulson]

I've got linksys in my servers, but use a d-link on my main machine (a little slower but oh well)

 

[Sunner]

I can answer that rather easily. Intel can give away documentation for "low level" hardware like the Pro 100s and even gigabits, but once you get into higher level tech, including IP-SEC and all, it would be *bad* for them to just give away documentation. Lets take IP-SEC as an example. The R&D and efforts to make the drivers and working hardware for IP-SEC were tremendous. Other companies were having a hard time with IP-SEC (3com for example), but Intel prevailed. If you were to give away detailed documentation for IP-SEC NICs, you would be giving their competitors your knowledge of the field. It is only your knowledge in the first place that puts you on top.

As for talking to give technical people who were involved in the development of the products, it depends on time frame. Back 2 years when the economy was at its boom [the development cycle for the IP-SEC NICs), I wouldnt give a d@mn. Now that Intel is giving the axe to ANY unproductive/uncompetitive product groups, I would really care if my product was as competitive as possible.

I might just remember wrong, but didn't 3Com have an IPSEC card out before Intel?

Anyways, it's not like Intel is the only company in the world that makes IPSEC cards, and it doesn't seem like the others, 3Com for example, have a problem with this.
And it's not like OpenBSD is an unknown little hobby project, I can understand that they wouldn't wanna hand over the documentation to me just cause I came along and said "Hey I have this relly cool OS, called Sunnix, and I'd love to get some docs on your IPSEC cards".

And lastly, if you look at the little bit from OpenBSD's site that I posted, it's not only IPSEC cards:

Much like Intel does for all their networking division components, and completely unlike most other vendors

Sounds to me like it includes everything from their regular Pro100 NIC's all the way up to GigE NIC's and IPSEC cards.

 

[RanDum72]

Intel makes the best NIC's, followed by 3com. Both have lower CPU utilization and slightly higher sustained speeds than bargain NIC's. I've noticed this when doing file transfers among PC's with different brand NIC's. But the difference is in seconds and it's hardly noticeable.

 

[Curley]

Are you guys talking about the actual card or the chip. The Realtek 8139a chip can be on some of the cards named in this thread. With the exception of Intel, I've seen this chip on a number of name brand NIC cards. But since you are talking about card manufacturers only, I figure it is what the manufacturer does with the chip once it is integrated onto the card.

What's my point? I have to say my favorite NIC is one with the Realtek 8139a chip. It is easily identified with quite a few operating systems. And, they are cheap. They can be had for $5 to $20.00.