Integrated NIC vs 3COM PCI NIC

M

MiXdNuTs

Gawd
Joined
Aug 9, 2002
Messages
832
My trusty 6 year old 3COM NIC finally died due to a lightning strike. Oddly my router and modem survived but that is besides the point. I am now using my onboard LAN provided from my NNIDIA NForce 2 chipset and I don't like the idea of using any more onboard components than I have to. Would there be any difference with replacing my onboard NIC with another new 3COM NIC for the comming decade? My NIC has always traveled with me to my new system builds. I do not plan on using GB networking anytime soon. My main concern is for in-game CPU usage during multiplayer games and intense file transfers. On another note I am kinda sad to see this 3Com 3C905B-TX NIC finally die because it was the first NIC that I ever owned besides that coax crap I had for a week.
 
If you are into heavy file transfers and gaming then I would suggest going for a new 3COM, even some of the newer NF4 chipset onboard NICS are having problems under load. The main gain for separate NICS is that it can offload some of the processing requirements - although usualy this is mainly to do with server operations, you will usually find that they also support more remote management functions (neither of which I guess you would see a gain from).
If though you have not seen any drop off in gameplay (and I stress here noticed any - yes the benchmarks may suggest 2% difference - but does this effect gameplay!) then I suggest spending the money on something else.
 
I got a good 3com 3C905C-TX-M nic just to be sure. It is really small and uses a BGA packaged chipset which I like. It should serve me well until I get gigabit broadband and need a better nic. Heh.
 
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