What's the diff between $10 and $30 NIC?

[NeoPTLD]

A generic costs $5 or so.
Linksys cost $15-20
Intel about $30-40.

I decided on Linksys, but is there any difference in different NICs assuming I'll just use it to connect to university's 10Base-T?

.. why did I say Intel... oops

 

[OulOat]

No

Edit.

The generic one will work fine for an university student.

 

[Freejack2]

Only ones I know of that are really any different are the 3com cards with parallel tasking. Otherwise it's just reliability. You probably could have saved $20 and bought a Linksys.

 

[GhettoFob]

Yeah I would have went for the Linksys.

 

[xcript]

Originally posted by: NeoPTLD
What's the diff between $10 and $30 NIC?

The price.

 

[theNEOone]

Originally posted by: NeoPTLD
What's the diff between $10 and $30 NIC?

$20


=|

 

[Imdmn04]

dont they all got an intel chipset in them anyways?

 

[Zee]

You should have gone for the generic one. NIC's are cheap to make and generally reliable. They are a dime a dozen. Go to your schools library or computer science building and you'll find them lying around or being thrown away or given away.

the only NICS worth spending money on are the wireless ones.

 

[DaWhim]

other than the price, my computer can't see the generic nic now....
I have 2 nics in this machine, only showing 1 in the window

 

[TheCorm]

Originally posted by: OulOat
No

Edit.

The generic one will work fine for an university student.

Yeah...especially since it's on 10 Base-T anyway.

 

[Zebo]

Hardware vs. Software? I know thats the case with modems.. but now, with GHz speed processors, who cares...

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: theNEOone

Originally posted by: NeoPTLD
What's the diff between $10 and $30 NIC?

=|

Exactly.

for $45 you can get a Gigabit NIC however.

 

[jonmullen]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
dont they all got an intel chipset in them anyways?

No, the intel's do, but the real cheap ones probally use a Realtec chipset.

 

[EyeMWing]

Realtek RTL8139 series chips (Common generic) are basically standard. They're perfect for a 10mbit network - you'll only be utilizing them to about 10%. Intel chips (Intel NICs) are better with extremely high throughput (100mbps sustained), and thus should be used for workstations or servers. Linksys likes taking your money.

 

[n0cmonkey]

The chipset on the linksys cards is a clone of one of Intel's chipsets (purchased from DEC IIRC). The Realtek chipsets suck, in my opinion, so I don't use them. I prefer Intel over the others, but have my share of Linksys cards.
Intel > Linksys > Realtek

Of course, none of this matters to 99% of the population

 

[vtqanh]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
The chipset on the linksys cards is a clone of one of Intel's chipsets (purchased from DEC IIRC). The Realtek chipsets suck, in my opinion, so I don't use them. I prefer Intel over the others, but have my share of Linksys cards.
Intel > Linksys > Realtek

Of course, none of this matters to 99% of the population

The truth is, at home-connection speed (<3Mbps), none of this matters

 

[rh71]

Difference = drivers/compatibility/support

Linksys all the way.

 

[Analog]

Originally posted by: theNEOone

Originally posted by: NeoPTLD
What's the diff between $10 and $30 NIC?

$20


=|

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: vtqanh

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
The chipset on the linksys cards is a clone of one of Intel's chipsets (purchased from DEC IIRC). The Realtek chipsets suck, in my opinion, so I don't use them. I prefer Intel over the others, but have my share of Linksys cards.
Intel > Linksys > Realtek

Of course, none of this matters to 99% of the population

The truth is, at home-connection speed (<3Mbps), none of this matters

Assuming no local network (10/100) and the drivers are equal.

 

[0roo0roo]

hardware abilities. hardware vpn/encryption support.. orsomething. i'm sure someone knows more.