Benefits to getting a NIC vs. onboard Gigabit LAN?

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c3k

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Gents,

I've got a Gigabit switch for my wired home network. All my machines are connected to via their onboard LAN ports. (All are also rated at Gigabit speed, fwiw.)

Abit, Asus, and Gigabyte are all represented on the various mobos. The lowest processor is an intel [email protected].

- Would a PCIe NIC (leaning towards Intel) save a significant amout of CPU load?
- Would a PCIe NIC be faster than a similarly rated onboard LAN?
- Is there any other benefit to using a PCIe NIC vs. onboard LAN?

Thanks for sharing your expertise and/or opinions.

Ken
 
1. Yes, somewhat but for desktop usage you most likely wont notice
2. Same as above
3. For a workstation no there isn't
//Danne
 
If the onboard is from Realtek, you have all kinds of benefits to gain from getting a proper dedicated NIC, besides you know, losing a slot space.
 
A thread from last year, with some more detail:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1684768

This would matter if you're a corporation running servers with medium to high loads. At the home... not so much. Your 4GB movie file might transfer in 32 seconds instead of 40 seconds. That is, if your hard drives can actually write 125 MB/sec.
 
evilsofa said:
A thread from last year, with some more detail:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1684768

This would matter if you're a corporation running servers with medium to high loads. At the home... not so much. Your 4GB movie file might transfer in 32 seconds instead of 40 seconds. That is, if your hard drives can actually write 125 MB/sec.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link! I'd done a bunch of searc[H]es, but I was either flooded with links (try "NIC") or got zilch ("onboard LAN vs. NIC").

Ken
 
MrLonghair said:
If the onboard is from Realtek, you have all kinds of benefits to gain from getting a proper dedicated NIC, besides you know, losing a slot space.
Click to expand...

Please explain how a home user or general workstation would benefit please...

Beside riding the "lets hate realtek" bandwagon. i know Intel and broadcom can be better... but this is 2001 anymore.

I have 37 systems at work using integrated realtek NIC's on intel boards that i can get 80 to 90% throughput on across my network, i have only had 3 systems have the NIC stop working which a driver update fixed.
 
Onboard NIC can be just as good as if not better than add-in cards. Alot depends on the actual NIC chipset. Realtek NICs are just all over the place- good aand bad. I personally don't have time to research which is which, so I like to see Intel or Broadcom NICs. I keep Intel NICs in stock because they are bulletproof.
All that being said, unless you are observing a problem, leave it alone, whatever name is attached. No point in inventing problems that aren't there.
 
If you aren't taxing them, it doesn't matter. If you need push the limits, it matters.

No different than Ford vs Ferrari.

Edit: That being said, this is [H]ardforum! We cannot fault somebody for wanting the fastest and best, any more than people overclocking CPU's and running multiple HDD's in RAID 0.
 
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If you have to ask this question, onboard is fine for you.

I've used a few newer Realtek onboard NICs and they didn't have a problem saturating gigabit over samba.
It isn't likely worth the investment for your situation.
 
Intel PCI-E NIC's have much much better support (drivers & OS support) and mostly lifetime warrenty's so you can carry it from system to system and they tend to have better latency and bandwith vs Realtek.

I've had the same Intel Pro 1000PT PCI-E NIC in my system since my Athlon 64 3200+ and DFI NF-SLI-DR days and it still works and is supported by intel.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Beside riding the "lets hate realtek" bandwagon. i know Intel and broadcom can be better... but this is 2001 anymore.
Click to expand...


Except 10 years later there is a ton of inconsistency amongst GigE adapters on not just NIC's, but device ports themselves that shouldn't be happening.
 
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