Would buying Intel Gig ethernet card separately include the CAS?

[Jincuteguy]

Im planning to buy Asus P4C800 Deluxe-E board, but I saw the Deluxe model (easier to buy at local store).
And I read some posts about the Deluxe only have 3Comm Gig ethernet compare to the Deluxe-E model which has Intel CAS gig ethernet. And my question is:

If I bought the P4C800 Deluxe (not the Deluxe-E) , and then buy a separate Intel Gig ethernet, would that have CAS included????

 

[AndyHui]

The CSA bus is a direct connection from the MCH (North Bridge), to the Integrated Intel Kenai GigE NIC.

The regular P4C800 Deluxe does not implement the Intel CSA GigE NIC.

The P4C800-E Deluxe does include it.

You cannot purchase a separate Intel GigE NIC for CSA.

 

[Jincuteguy]

Oh i see, thx for the infos.

One more question for those of you who have the Deluxe and Deluxe-E models.
Do you see any differences between the two boards in term of the CSA gig NIC thing??

 

[AndyHui]

If you have a PCI bus hog card like an SB Audigy, then it would be beneficial to get the CSA capable board, as the NIC does not have to fight with the soundcard for PCI bandwidth.

 

[Jincuteguy]

Yes, I have a Sound Blaster Audigy card.
So if the board has CSA, how much bandwidth will it help?

 

[Peter]

CSA is just a fancy name for a dedicated connection for the GE chip to the northbridge. It has its bandwidth all for itself, not disturbing south bridge and PCI traffic at all.
This is a neat stopgap for commodity chipsets that don't have fast PCI busses for proper attachment of any random GE chip. It'll disappear again once GE channels get integrated into the chipset itself and/or faster PCI, PCI-X or PCI-Express slots find themselves on commodity chipsets and boards.

So no, if you buy a GE card, it'll be PCI for sure - usually they're 64-bit and at least 66-MHz capable, if not even PCI-X. Plugged into a commodity 32-bit 33 MHz PCI slot, performance will be crippled.

Remember folks, CSA is not an "acceleration" technology, it's merely un-crippling.

 

[Jincuteguy]

so CSA is almost perfect? is taht waht u saying?

 

[AndyHui]

No. CSA simply provides a dedicated connection for the network card. Network card traffic doesn't need to fight with anything else. That's all.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Jincuteguy
so CSA is almost perfect? is taht waht u saying?

No it's not. The one fact that's left when all the marketing bubbles have been pushed aside is:

>> Standard PCI as found on commodity chipsets is too slow for Gigabit Ethernet. <<

Whether you use a more serious mainboard with faster PCI busses, integrate GE into the chipset, or do something proprietary like CSA to put a non-integrated GE chip onto a fast enough connection, that all doesn't make much of a difference.

CSA brings full performance GE onto commodity chipsets. That's the deal. There's no "acceleration" in it.