Any difference between expensive and cheap NICs?

[jrichrds]

Are all ethernet cards pretty much the same these days? Or is a Linksys still better than a Netgear, or vice versa?

4 years ago, 3COM NICs were going for 3x more than other brands such as Linksys, D-Link, etc. I wonder if there was actually a difference between them.

 

[NewSc2]

yeah, i'd like to know too... 3Com's and Intel's are still going for about $30-40 while others are going for ~$10

 

[Klosters]

Perhaps the new 1 Gb/s form factor adds complexity to this Q. There doesn't seem to be much difference in performance between expensive and cheap 10/100 NIC's. One caveat, ECS K7S5A's do not like the Netgear FA 313 at all. Pricewatch reveals that at least one model of 3com NIC is down to $20.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Yes.

Not all NICs are created equal even they're using the same chip.
Same rule holds for video card, sound card, etc.
You can what you pay for.

 

[NewSc2]

is there any noticeable difference between cheap and expensive NIC's?

sound card, video card you can obviously tell the difference (i.e. ATI Rage vs. GeForce 4 ti4600)

 

[Confused]

Originally posted by: Klosters
Perhaps the new 1 Gb/s form factor adds complexity to this Q. There doesn't seem to be much difference in performance between expensive and cheap 10/100 NIC's. One caveat, ECS K7S5A's do not like the Netgear FA 313 at all. Pricewatch reveals that at least one model of 3com NIC is down to $20.

They also don't like the FA311 either

 

[Peter]

First of all, not all ethernet chips are created equal. There are simple ones with the bare minimum of buffers, and more sophisticated ones that have large buffers and pull a handful of tricks to make better use of the PCI bus.

If you're not piling up LAN channels to build a server, that hardly matters. With at most two 10/100 channels in a typical computer, you won't notice the difference.

Building a "generic" 10/100TX card isn't hard anymore. Buy the chip from one of the usual suspects (Realtek, SiS, whoever), take their reference design schematics, make a PCI card, and you're set. Chip maker's reference drivers will apply, and from said two companies, they're OK.

Now what does the more expensive 10/100TX card give you? Maybe more feature packed software, remote management stuff, longer warranties. Nothing of those matters for the normal user.

regards, Peter

 

[Tallgeese]

Unless it's going in a server with a significant workload (more than 2 clients)...not really.

But there are always certain "intangibles" that can make the difference for some folks, such as:

*Drivers
* Support
* Mobo compatibility

 

[DongTran]

also keep in mind your regular joe realtek 8139 or your sis 9000 series rely heavily on your cpu. 3com parallel tasking ones are heezy expensive for a reason....

 

[Peter]

No they don't. Even these two are PCI bus masters, CPU load not visible when pushing them. I know, I have BOTH. In the same system.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

sound card, video card you can obviously tell the difference (i.e. ATI Rage vs. GeForce 4 ti4600)

I didn't mean Rage vs Ti4600, what I wanted to imply is xyz brand Ti4600 vs Visiontek Ti4600 for example, using different quality and speed ram, different quality and performance heatsink and fan, reference design or improved design, quality of ramdac, quality of connector component, etc).

 

[LanEvoVI]

For everyday use, I can't tell the difference b/w the 3com in my one computer and my 5 dollar D-Link NIC in the other. Hope this helps...

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Try to compare a $5 D-link to a $4 no brand/generic using same realtek chip.