Good gigabit nics?

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scoob8000

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Can anyone recommend a decent gigabit nic that won't break the bank?

Considering how cheap the Realtek 8169 based cards are, I'm afraid to try them.

I tried a SMC SMC9452TX with dismal results. I can barely get transfer rates better then a 100meg connection.

Testing with another PC on the same cable/port I get screaming fast transfers with the onboard Nforce NIC.
 
Intel makes great network cards for both desktop and server markets.
If your PC is newer with at least one 1x PCI-Express slot free, look at the 1000PT.
If your PC is older or only has a standard PCI slot free, look for the 1000GT.

Newegg has the 1000GT right here however they -still- do not offer the 1000PT. You should also be able to find both models on eBay and other online stores or you can snag them from CDW if all else fails. :)
 
The onboard gigabit on my nforce board is great. I need cards for my other two boxes though.

I'd like to go with the PCI route, but my video card coolers block the 1x slot.

Found, bid, and won an Intel Pro 1000/MT on fleabay. Looks like it's an older model, but found some good reviews for it.
 
Yu can't do a lot better than the Intel Pro/1000 MT's. Around $55 at a grocier near you...

scoob8000 said:
Can anyone recommend a decent gigabit nic that won't break the bank?

Considering how cheap the Realtek 8169 based cards are, I'm afraid to try them.

I tried a SMC SMC9452TX with dismal results. I can barely get transfer rates better then a 100meg connection.

Testing with another PC on the same cable/port I get screaming fast transfers with the onboard Nforce NIC.
Click to expand...
 
TechLarry said:
Yu can't do a lot better than the Intel Pro/1000 MT's. Around $55 at a grocier near you...
Click to expand...
1000MT's are nicer - they're just the slightly "older" generation. Still great cards though, both the desktop and server line.
 
Although this is basically a repeat of what others have already stated multiple times, the Intel line of NICs is about as good as it gets for reasonable pricing. There are some dell and compaq branded NICs using some intel chips, Im not sure if they are exactly the same as true intels... but just be aware of that, if you are buying from ebay.

mjz_5 said:
what's wrong with your onboard gigabit lan?
Click to expand...
The short answer, would be that its an onboard NIC which is fairly self-explanitory, athough It does help to read the first post:
scoob8000 said:
Can anyone recommend a decent gigabit nic
Click to expand...
Which is defined as : "Meeting accepted standards"

Now, assuming he has the same or similar onboard Nforce networking as me... Then it probably hogs the CPU so much that it cant be considered as a decent gigabit NIC. Nforce 4 onboard, Crossover cable to an athlon 64 with Nforce onboard... I can push about 700Mbs @ 80%+ cpu usage.
 
scoob8000 said:
I tried a SMC SMC9452TX with dismal results. I can barely get transfer rates better then a 100meg connection.
Click to expand...

The SMC should be able to go much faster. I'd guess that it's not to blame, but reality is complicated, and there is a chance that whatever's the problem, it'll go away with an Intel NIC and default configuration.

However, it's true that the Marvell PCI chipset on which the SMC's apparently based is one of the slower ones around. The part about "barely faster than 100 Mb/s" is still surprising though -- I've probably hit 700 Mb/s synthetic sustained using a Marvell PCI-based NIC.
 
bob said:
Now, assuming he has the same or similar onboard Nforce networking as me... Then it probably hogs the CPU so much that it cant be considered as a decent gigabit NIC. Nforce 4 onboard, Crossover cable to an athlon 64 with Nforce onboard... I can push about 700Mbs @ 80%+ cpu usage.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised by this performance, because I haven't seen an nVIDIA NIC perform this poorly -- they've all been able to hit in the neighborhood of 950 Mb/s synthetic sustained in my experience.

For CPU utilization, did you try turning on interrupt moderation aka "Optimize For: CPU"?

However, this is really off-topic, as the OP's question has nothing to do with how good nForce NICs are. He's clearly stated that his nForce NICs are working well for his needs, and he wants something for other computers which don't have them on-board.
 
I have yet to meet a onboard gigabit chipset that wasn't capable of hitting at least 500-600mbit. I have met a lot of disks which can't dish out full gigabit speeds.

My quad (2x dual port Intel 1000/PT's) gigabit setup peaked at ~3.3 gigabit sustained with tuned TCP settings on a crappier amd64. I swore there was a post about it somewhere but I couldn't find it a while back, it may have just been eaten by the DB. The onboard chipsets managed about 600/900mbit untuned, and something like 700/960 or so with TCP tuning.

Point being, any gigabit chipset should have no problem surpassing standard 100mbit speeds, so long as all the gear is properly configured.
 
I only bought one, if it works out good, I'll order another.

As for my onboard, it's the Epox board in my sig. NF3 Ultra I believe offhand.

I have not done any real testing. Just a quick crude FTP download from my NAS.
With the onboard I can hit 22-23 MB/s, with the SMC I can't even sustain 10 MB/s.

(Note 22-23 MB/s is about where the NAS maxes out)

Once I get this Intel NIC I'll do some testing with Netperf.
 
Intel NICs are awesome; my first FS/FT transaction on this forum was for 3 PRO1000MTs (for $55!) in fact, back in 2005. Two of them are running my ipcop, and the third is in one of my desktops whose onboard NIC could not handle torrenting with massive connections. (When you're tunnelling through a 30mbit pipe, connection number is...rather large).
 
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