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which of these NICs are the best?

D

dpopiz

Diamond Member
I have the following 5 NICs and I'm wondering which 3 are the best: all are pci
3com etherlinkIII 3c590c (c)1995
Kingston KNE110TX (c)2000
Netgear FA312-C1 (c)2002
SMC 1211TX rev1 (c)1998
Netgear FA311-B1 (c)2001
 
Unless you have an AMD 760 based motherboard (which rules out the FA311 because of a compatibility problem), you can pretty much flip a coin. I believe the Kingston is a relabeled Linksys. The older 3Com is still a good NIC, but not quite as good as the newer 3C-905B-TX (not that you'd notice the difference anyway).

I'd just go with whatever is cheaper.
 
It's none of those, but I've usually used generic PCI NIC's based on the Realtek 8139B chip. They seem to work just fine. I don't know how they stack up against other NICs; for the price, I can't imagine that they're powerhouses of computing prowess, but they get the job done. The drivers seem good - support for many OS's...no crashes or difficulties with them at all. Stick the card in, install drivers, set up network, done.
 
Netgear generally makes quality equipment, but the FA311 is a pos. I had one die on a client's machine, so I swapped in a D-Link DFE-530TX+ (I love these cards). I'm anti-Realtek for the most part, but if it's all you have, it works. Usually. They're notorious for dying after a year or two though.

I've become a big fan of SMC networking gear, but haven't really heard anything spectacular about their NICs. I've never had a Kingston work properly for me. Out of your list there, I'd probably go with the Netgear FA312-C1. Surely they fixed the FA311 bugs, or maybe I just had a lemon.
 
Originally posted by: SynthesisI
Netgear generally makes quality equipment, but the FA311 is a pos. I had one die on a client's machine, so I swapped in a D-Link DFE-530TX+ (I love these cards). I'm anti-Realtek for the most part, but if it's all you have, it works. Usually. They're notorious for dying after a year or two though.

I've become a big fan of SMC networking gear, but haven't really heard anything spectacular about their NICs. I've never had a Kingston work properly for me. Out of your list there, I'd probably go with the Netgear FA312-C1. Surely they fixed the FA311 bugs, or maybe I just had a lemon.
Click to expand...

Notorious for dying? I've had only one NIC die on me; a Linksys LNE100TX.
 
Of those 5 if I had to take 3, I'd use the 3com, Kingston, and the SMC NICs, not a big fan of netgear Nic's just had alot of compatiblity and reliability issues w/ them over the years, I've had the best luck w/ Intel NIC's and if ya have the cash or acess to them, I'd just get any Intel based NIC over all of the cards ya listed, Then again I'm kinda a snob when it comes to NIC's and I try and only use Intel ones, but thats just me 😀
 
Originally posted by: SynthesisI
Netgear generally makes quality equipment, but the FA311 is a pos. I had one die on a client's machine, so I swapped in a D-Link DFE-530TX+ (I love these cards). I'm anti-Realtek for the most part, but if it's all you have, it works. Usually. They're notorious for dying after a year or two though.

I've become a big fan of SMC networking gear, but haven't really heard anything spectacular about their NICs. I've never had a Kingston work properly for me. Out of your list there, I'd probably go with the Netgear FA312-C1. Surely they fixed the FA311 bugs, or maybe I just had a lemon.
Click to expand...

isnt the d-link a realtek? i have one and thats what it calls itself.
 
Originally posted by: Arcanedeath
Of those 5 if I had to take 3, I'd use the 3com, Kingston, and the SMC NICs, not a big fan of netgear Nic's just had alot of compatiblity and reliability issues w/ them over the years, I've had the best luck w/ Intel NIC's and if ya have the cash or acess to them, I'd just get any Intel based NIC over all of the cards ya listed, Then again I'm kinda a snob when it comes to NIC's and I try and only use Intel ones, but thats just me 😀
Click to expand...

Same here. Netgear was alright in the past, but not anymore.......but the only nic that I've really ever had go bad on me was an Intel integrated nic. I always have my trusty 3com laying about!
 
I don't know how Realtek could be notorious for 'dying' NIC cards after a year. I have two Realtek NICs (not in use because of onboard LAN on both comps..one is Realtek the other is Via's NIC) and they lasted probably 2 or 3 years. Well I shouldn't say lasted, because they could easily work just fine still. I haven't heard of someone with a bad Realtek either. I would also say that either of those will be fine, but I would just go get a Realtek NIC since they're not expensive and will do the job well.
 
I have used about 50 different NIC at home and work (not a lot compared to many AT'ers, I know) and not one of them has ever failed on me. Only problem I ever has was trying to get an old ISA card working on a BX board.

Since using windows 2000/XP, most of the time I don't even bother installing discrete drivers anymore, just use built in windows generic drivers and everything works fine.
 
probably doesn't matter unless you have security or other craziness that gets offloaded to the more expensive cards like intel... feature u'll never use probably. i have intel cards but i'm crazy.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Originally posted by: SynthesisI
Netgear generally makes quality equipment, but the FA311 is a pos. I had one die on a client's machine, so I swapped in a D-Link DFE-530TX+ (I love these cards). I'm anti-Realtek for the most part, but if it's all you have, it works. Usually. They're notorious for dying after a year or two though.

I've become a big fan of SMC networking gear, but haven't really heard anything spectacular about their NICs. I've never had a Kingston work properly for me. Out of your list there, I'd probably go with the Netgear FA312-C1. Surely they fixed the FA311 bugs, or maybe I just had a lemon.
Click to expand...

Notorious for dying? I've had only one NIC die on me; a Linksys LNE100TX.
Click to expand...

Same here.
 
Stay way far away from Kingston KNE 110 our school used them for 2 years and had to replace 75 percent of them. I have 3Com and Realtek cards, anything but Kingston IMO
 
For me the Netgear FA311-B1 (c)2001
came out fastest when compared to my Aopen, D-Link or Realtek, don't know about the others.
Tom did a review on Nics and the Netgear was always near the top performer.
 
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