WTB: 3com or Intel PRO/100 NIC

[LehighBri]

Hello there,

I am going to be building a new system soon and would like some advice as to which network card to get. I am looking into either a 3com series NIC or an Intel PRO/100 series. Any ideas as to which I should get and why one is better than the other?

I have a 3com 3c905b right now and have no gripes with it. Just wondering if anything would be better. Thanks for the help!

 

[nightowl]

If you want the absolute best I would go with the Intel NIC. For a home system though, you are not going to notice the difference between a generic NIC and a Intel/3Com NIC as long as the drivers are solid.

 

[mobogasm]

I'd go with the intel if its not much more expensive or the same. I've installed hundreds of them at work and never have any problems in years.

 

[Hanpan]

If you really want to spend the extra cash (probably will not make much difference in a home environment) then I would go for the intel pro 1000mt as you can get it straight from intel with free shipping for only $33. Now you may not need gigabit but at $33 shipped it's hard to go wrong as this is what you are likely to pay for a pro 100 anywhere else.

Pro 1000MT $33 shipped. Limit of one per order.

BTW at newegg the intel pro 100 s oem is $31.00 plus shipping. Just to clarify this is the 10/100 card. The intel pro 1000 mt mentioned above is $55 plus shipping at newegg.

As for 3com vs Intel both are great and offer excellent support but unfortunatly 3com does not offer such great deals

(in 3com's defense they did give away some gigabit cards as samples but I was not picked )

 

[LehighBri]

Wow that's a great price. Thanks!

My last question. What is the difference between the Intel Pro/1000MT and the Pro/1000T? I'll probably stick with that 1000mt but i'm just curious. Thanks again!

 

[JackMDS]

A lot of energy is spending the search of the non-existing "Holy NIC Grail".

Most of the activities done by Home user, i.e. Internet, gaming, etc. use small amount of the capacity of any 100/10 NIC. (Actually 10 Mb/sec NIC will suffice a lot of times).

The differences between cards kick in when the Network consists of many computers, doing heavy network exchange. In other words it does not matter which card you are using for small home Network.

Tom's hardware compared three NICs. (Aug. 2001)
I used Pricewatch.com to find the best price for these NICs.

1. 3Com 3CR990-TX-97 - $80
2. 3Com 3C905C-TX - $30
3. SMC 1211TX - $13

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

"Well, there is some difference between Network cards. The difference was not that great. Some cards did have better performance than others, but over all most of the cards performed within acceptable ranges. "


If you read the rest, you can infer that if there is a difference it will impact high volume cooperate Network, not three computers sharing the Internet at home.

However, from what I seen on the Internet, buying Intel, is a very good way to feel happy about once NIC.

 

[Hanpan]

Originally posted by: LehighBri
Wow that's a great price. Thanks!

My last question. What is the difference between the Intel Pro/1000MT and the Pro/1000T? I'll probably stick with that 1000mt but i'm just curious. Thanks again!

Actually that is a good question. It took me quite some searching to find the answer.

The difference is the pro 1000t is an older card that required multiple chips to operate. ON the pro 1000mt intel combined those into one chip on a smaller manufacturing process leading to a cheaper chip which runs cooler. Other than being cheaper to produce running cooler and haveing linux support (only the mt no the t supports linux) there are no differences. I was assured by the intel rep that there is absoloutly no logical reason to buy the 1000t excpet that in some cases it is the only card currenlty available. But if you have a choice the MT is equal or superior in every way.

 

[LehighBri]

Wow this is all great help! Thanks for the last post hanpan. One last thing, that Intel evaluation program site that you directed me to buy the 1000 MT, does that site sell all "real" retail Intel NIC's? I am just curious as to why it's called the Intel evaluation program. Does this mean I have to return it after a certain amount of time?

Many thanks again!

 

[Cooky]

I have to agree w/ JackMDS - it all depends on what kind of environment you're in.
For my 10-pc home network my $5 Netgear FA311 has been working flawlessly, and so are my Intel Etherexpress 100's so if you really want to choose between the 2 I recommand Intel over 3Com since I had some serious problem w/ my 3C905 NIC.

 

[Hanpan]

Originally posted by: LehighBri
Wow this is all great help! Thanks for the last post hanpan. One last thing, that Intel evaluation program site that you directed me to buy the 1000 MT, does that site sell all "real" retail Intel NIC's? I am just curious as to why it's called the Intel evaluation program. Does this mean I have to return it after a certain amount of time?

Many thanks again!

It is evaluation because you can only buy one per order. They may also stop you from placing multiple orders once per year. For exact details I recommend contacting intel's customer service for the evaluation program. The phone number should be easy to find on the site. Just click on the above link and then customer service. The idea of the evaluation program is to get people (preferably from businesses though end users can buy as well) to try their products, become satified and purchase more at a regular price. Sort of similar to buying a cost reduced sample.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ryu]

here's another vote for the intel nic. It may be true that there is no noticeable difference in speed among most nics, the real difference is in compatability.

After using just about ever name brand nic here is what i found. Dlink 530 didn't work with my tyan trinity 400, netgear 311 didn't work with my 8k7a, linksys i have no problems with yet... never had a 3com nic and every intel card pro 100/s workd in all the above mobo. Another benefit with the intel is the level of driver support that Hanpan mention, they update them regularly and i've never had a problem with them.

 

[spidey07]

I'd say intel for sure.

The biggest reason why I like intel cards is they have YET to have any kind of autonegotation issues so prone to 3com cards (nway crap). It ALWAYS seems to get the speed/duplex right.