NICs: 3Com, Intel, Realtek, SIS - is there any PRATICAL difference beside price?

[Bengt4]

I have a lot of NICs, from 3Com (3C905B, 3C905C), Intel (Pro Management 10/100), Realtek (10/100 8129 and 8139). I am a system integrator too, and I have built a lot of systems and done other services including setting up LAN parties, LAN houses and other stuff involving network (PC / Windows envirement).

And in my experience, there is almost no difference between 3Com, Intel, Realtek and SIS 900 (very commun onboard LAN) performance AND compatibility/reability. They all work OK, but none achieve the maximum teorical bandwidth. The only real difference I noticed is that 2 PCs with 2 identical 3Com 3C905B NICs achieve a little more performance (5% difference) then between 2 PCs with Realteks 8139 chipsets.

Modern CPUs ignore the difference between 3Com's "hardware Parallel Tasking 2" bullshit and Realtek 8139 value NICs.

I also noticed that 3Com and Intel NICs have a hard time working on some mobos, especially with my brother's VIA ASUS P3V4X mobo for Pentium III - in almost all compatibility cases I have faced, the workaround was installing a Realtek NIC, that worked (and still works) flawlessly!

So, I ask for you guys, why pay a lot more for a 3Com or Intel NIC, if a US$8 Realtek NIC have the same pratical performance and even less setup problems?

PS.: I know that Intel and 3Com have more features, but they are almost only useful for big network management.

Thanks for any relevant info on this subject! Oh, and don't forget to write any horror or salvation history you may have about any NIC/network chipset brand!

 

[spidey07]

drivers, OS support, tagging support, autonegotiation works flawlessly, multiple teaming methods supported including cisco specific and RFC compliant - fault tolerant or load balancing or a combination of both.

Those are the marks of a good nic.

Intel has those marks. For a home network it doesn't matter much, for a server or network where the last place you want to look is the NIC and need the ultimate in flexibility it matters alot.

 

[JackMDS]

Here is a story:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/network/01q3/010820/nic-11.html#conclusion

 

[spidey07]

LOL.

tom needs to learn how to use a network. our PC team ghosts a 530 MB image in under one minute.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

tom needs to learn how to use a network. our PC team ghosts a 530 MB image in under one minute.

Quite...
The difference is really in driver quality, reliability and fault tolerance. I'd never put anything except an Intel Pro/100 Management Adaptor in a server system. They've always been thoroughly reliable and very fast to boot as well as supporting features such as WOL. I tend to use Realtek 8139c cards in workstations because they're cheap and do the job nicely.

 

[Bengt4]

As I had stated, those features are not important for most users! I have an Intel and a 3Com NIC on my system, but today I know from experience that, if I had got 2 Realteks, I would never tell the difference.

But anyway, since the price difference is not THAT ruge in dollars (instead of percentage) - I think that it is not a bad long term investment.
At least for me that loves quality above all!

More info please!!! Anyone have a horror (or salvation) history about any paticular NIC brand?

 

[spidey07]

I've seen way too many 3com and realtek nics fail. Also autonegotiation is picky - you can't have nics picking the wrong duplex.

In all honestly I don't have too many more horror stories because I stay away from 'em. But keep in mind this is for a large enterprise where performance is only one of many factors.

Home use with a few PCs - can't see any reason not to use the cheapest.

 

[JackMDS]

I think that at this point the 10/100 totally matured. When it comes to brand name, you don?t hear anymore horror stories about NICs. Here and there are no name generics that can still be a problem, and some old NICs that set long time on the shelves can lack adequate Win XP Drivers.

Here in the US a lot of consumer buying is done by price, almost every week you can find a Brand name card (not Intel, or 3Com) on sale for $5.

The Intel Pro Line became an Anti-Anxiety agent among hobbyist who wants the ?best?. Well reduction of anxiety increases life span (of people). So my policy in such occasions is, ?why not? Get Intel.

 

[Bengt4]

Any more opinions? The Tom's Hardware review in my opinion SHOULD include other NIC brands like Realtek and DLink at least!

Bye!

 

[zephyrprime]

Any more opinions? The Tom's Hardware review in my opinion SHOULD include other NIC brands like Realtek and DLink at least!

Yeah really. And they should include Netgear and Linksys since these brands are always present in large quantities at the stores. Plus there's something strange with Tom's results since if you look at the ghosting test, Tom only managed a puny 13Mbps. My own TCP throughput test on my homenetwork using Intel nics and the same Qcheck that Tom used resulted in 90Mbps versus Tom's 69.6Mbps.

Anyway, I've noticed a big difference between the different brands of nics that I've had. (But I've never had a 3com or realtek like Bengt4). On my old setup with a linksys+smc nic, I got about 35Mbps. With a netgear+smc, I got about 50Mbps. With a NSM gigabit nic+smc 100mbps nic, I got about 70Mbps. With the two old intel nics, I got about 85Mbps. (all numbers are approximate and were attained on XP using the performance monitor during a file copy.)

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Bengt4
Any more opinions? The Tom's Hardware review in my opinion SHOULD include other NIC brands like Realtek and DLink at least!

Bye!

I've had my 3com 3c905b since 1997. I've had no problems at all with it. If I ever need to get a new NIC, I'll get another 3c905b or and Intel.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Although this is old, still worth a read:
http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/nictest.html

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Although this is old, still worth a read: http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/nictest.html

Though I hate to say it, that is a shockingly poor article. He gives no details about the physical makeups of the card. (apart from erroneously saying that the DFE-530Tx+ uses the RTL8139 chipset) He uses only WS_FTP to transfer files. He transfers between Win2K and Win98 - In any situation where NIC speed/CPU usage really matters it'll be solely 2K (or linux/unix) which, incidentally, is far superior for networking anyway.

When he talks about CPU util, he basically says "I don't know how to measure this, have some random numbers." He should have used a performance trace at both ends (running 2K, of course) which would have given him an accurate idea. He then theorises: "...that the network card that is downloading files has to process packet information which is slower than simply sending files when uploading." Put simply, WTF? That makes no sense and bears no resemblance to the actual process of sending files via TCP/IP

The Bottom line is that this article is written by someone who, quite frankly, hasnt got a clue. Do not base any buying decisions on this article.