My new upgrade will probably have onboard Gigabit LAN.
My question is, I have three other computers on my network all tied together by a router. I know I can get PCI add Gigabit LAN cards but what about a Gigabit LAN router?
It depends...
Currently, nobody makes a home/SOHO
Internet Router with an intergrated Gigabit Ethernet
switch. So, you will need to purchase a separate 1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet
switch and hook it up to a "trusted/home" port on your existing Fast Ethernet
Internet Router.
Netgear makes an eight port model (GS108) for about $135 and a five port (GS105) for about $80. Remember that you will need one port to connect to your old
Internet Router, so you will fill up the five port model as soon as you bring it home.
You will
not need to upgrade your current
Internet Router since residential DSL and cable modems aren't fast enough to overpower them, usually maxing out at around 4Mbps.
PS,
That link JackMDS posted is a big discussion over how much of a gain you'll get with Gigabit Ethernet with older systems. Its fairly lengthy, so I'll just summarize it a bit:
In summary:
[*]Mainboards with 64-bit PCI/PCI-X slots using GigE NICs could approach gigabit speeds
[*]Mainboards with intergrated northbridge/southbridge GigE could approach gigabit speeds
[*]Mainboards with legacy 32-bit PCI slots using GigE NICs will top out at around 300-350Mbit
[*]Mainboards with intergrated PCI GigE chipsets will top out at around 300-350Mbit
Be wary of item 4... just because a mainboard has Gigabit Ethernet onboard doesn't mean that you'll bypass the legacy PCI speed bottlenecks. I have another post
here that rambles a bit about which chipsets have what intergrated.
Also be wary of items 1 and 2... you need a very fast CPU to handle that much data. You also need blazingly fast storage arrays for writing (or even reading) that much data.
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