why are some network cards so expensive and some so cheap?

[igowerf]

In my home network, I have two D-Link 530TX+ network cards. I've looked online and at computer shows and they've always sold at about $11-$15. My cousin's now want me to put together a network for them, and I saw some Ark 10/100 pci network cards that are $8 online. The 3Com cards are around $40. Why are there these huge price differences? Are the Ark network cards ok for gaming? Thanks.

 

[A2KLAU]

Well... from what I beleive there are two factors which determin the price of these cards.

1. The name, or brand name of the company will determine the price.

2. The build quality and their compatability.

The Ark cards sound abit unreliable but give them a go since they are so cheap! If they fail on you then you could always go back to the good quality one!

Good Luck in finding, and building that network!

SKY.

 

[RossGr]

I have been running 3 generic $10 LAN cards for over a year. I do ICS, file share, and gaming with no troubles at all. I would not consider paying more then $10 for a LAN card. I am not sure how the name brands, 3Com, Linksys, Netgear etc. get away with the prices they ask.

 

[Lord Evermore]

They get away with it due to their names being well known, and having histories of high quality. How many people have ever heard of 3Com having quality problems? Not too many, and they make a LOT of stuff, much of it high-volume, critical data type stuff, so the rationale is that they must have better quality products in all realms, therefore it's worth the higher cost. Lesser companies like Linksys and Netgear can't charge quite as much as 3Com, but they still have a known brand name to work with, and the lower cost allows them to get a somewhat higher volume than if they tried to price higher. The totally non-brandname cards HAVE to be cheap or nobody would buy them instead of a brand name card, but they're usually just as good. However with the no-name cards, you have to consider lack of technical support and driver support. I got some cheap 10 dollar cards, and the drivers are just the ones made by SiS for the chipset, the cards themselves don't even have a company name on them or anywhere on the box or mini-manual, but they work okay.