Independent/Dedicated VS Integrated Gigabit Network Adapters

[topaimz]

Question is, does Independent/Dedicated Gigabit Network adapters
perform better than integrated ones on your motherboard?

I have a Marvell integrated Gigabit adapter on my motherboard, and
some how I feel that it isn't performing as it should be.

If it does help, I was thinking of getting a PCI or PCI-e 1x
Intel Pro Gigabit network adapter card.


An offshoot to the above question is, will having a seperate network
adapter help if I'm already running RAID 1 off the integrated storage
chipset? or vice versa.

My basic logic behind this question is that, may it be the integrated
storage/RAID chipset (most likely southbridge) or the integrated network
chip; they are both running off the motherboard, thus increasing the
processing load of the motherboard by adding both RAID and networking
processes, might result in lowered performance of the system, entirely.

If I'm mistaken please correct me.


I'm just wondering since this scenario applies for both my PC and my
home server.

 

[PingPongPay]

I used my Marvell integrated network adapter and it worked fine for a year. Then I decided to try some Live CDs and after that, the adapter would cause my PC to lock up after 5 minutes of booting up. I tried reinstalling the drivers and when that didn't work I just got a Linksys PCI network adapter (I was too lazy to troubleshoot the Marvell adapter).

Anyway, comparing the Marvell adapter (when it was working) to the Linksys PCI adapter, I have to say that I don't notice a difference.