Drawbacks In Having A Cheap NIC Card?

[Salvador]

I just read some system specs on a computer for sale and the guy said that the box had a Netgear NIC that wasn't a CPU hog like a cheap generic NIC.

Is there a difference between good and cheap NIC's? If I have a generic, could it be slowing my system down any?

TIA,

Sal

 

[MulLa]

Some generic NICs do use more CPU resources than others. I remember someone on this board post a review on NICs before and according to that name brands don't necessarily use less CPU resources. Guess if you have a 1Ghz+ machine that most people here have (except for poor old me) you don't really need to worry too much about it.

 

[Salvador]

Thanks.. I have a 750 Duron. The NIC is whatever Att@home gave me on my install. I lucked out and get it free with installation. I heard that they charge $25 for them now. If I wanted a quality NIC that's reasonable, what should I get?

Do you think it's necessary to swap this generic out for a good one?

Anybody have a link to the NIC card comparison.

TIA,

Sal

 

[aUt0eXebat]

more expensive NICS, have on board coprocessor, bus mastering, and dont untilize the CPU. Id recommend an Intel or 3Com NIC if your looking for a better quality NIC. If you have a server, and it does alot of work, try getting a server nic.....

 

[Elledan]

For small networks and to connect to a cable/DSL modem, a cheap NIC is usually sufficient. I only use RealTek NIC's

 

[JackMDS]

Yeah the other day I was in the store and the Guy told me that the best thing in computers is Search.

http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/nictest.html

 

[fivepesos]

jackmds, good link man.

i only buy non-generic nics. but not cause of quality, but driver support. its pretty simple, if the cheap nic wont work in my linux box, i dont buy it. even though most cheap nics will work too, i am still very cautious. ive spent too much effort trying to get cheap ne2000T (when did they add a T?!?) to work with linux to no success.

anyway, nothing wrong with cheap nics, just make sure there are drivers.

 

[CoolTech]

INTEL NICS FOREVER

 

[MulLa]

Thanks JackMDS for posting that review again. Well there you go, expensive doesn't necessarily mean better and faster. Surprised to see that Intel / 3Com are not the top performers.