Intel Pro/1000 PT Desktop Adapter murders old onboard Marvell GB LAN

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thebeephaha

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As the title says, I got a dedicated Intel Pro/1000 GB card and it is soooo much faster than the old Marvell on my Striker Extreme.

Network transfers to my WHS are much more stable, less up and down, and my internet is more responsive.

Normally I wouldn't think a $40-50 network card is worth it but I do see a difference, something I didn't expect, especially the internet being better. I highly recommend this card.

LINK TO CARD

Note: I have read about issues with the onboard LAN on my motherboard so maybe the results with the new Intel one aren't so out of the ordinary.
 
I find it sad that my laptop has a better NIC than my desktop. It can actually transfer stuff to my server at over 100mb/s too.
 
I could have told you this would happen. Onboard network adapters suck. I've said this in dozens of threads. I too have one of those Intel server NICs and it kicks ass. Fortunately all my motherboards use onboard Intel LAN which sucks MUCH less than the other onboard NICs.
 
Intels are top notch stuff!

With home grade motherboards, the onboard NICs are commonly lesser/cheaper models, but you can get integrated NICs that are good, with better workstation grade and server mobos. Not all onboard NICs suck.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Intels are top notch stuff!

With home grade motherboards, the onboard NICs are commonly lesser/cheaper models, but you can get integrated NICs that are good, with better workstation grade and server mobos. Not all onboard NICs suck.
Click to expand...

Yes they do. Broadcom doesn't count as "good." They are better than the ones built into the average consumer boards, but they still fall short of real dedicated add-in server NICs. Unless someone is building higher end Intel NICs into server boards I don't see it.

Anyway we really aren't talking about server class hardware in this case. We are talking about consumer level cards. In which case any Intel add-in card should be vastly superior to all the Marvell, Realtek, nForce, and other onboard networking controllers.
 
If you get an Intel board, with actual Intel on-board NIC, they seem to be pretty good. I imagine they don't compete with a server adapter, but they have always done OK by me. The budget end Intel boards often use someone else's chipset, but just look at the specs before you buy.
 
iroc409 said:
If you get an Intel board, with actual Intel on-board NIC, they seem to be pretty good. I imagine they don't compete with a server adapter, but they have always done OK by me. The budget end Intel boards often use someone else's chipset, but just look at the specs before you buy.
Click to expand...

They are pretty good. This wasn't planned but all my motherboards in all my machines at home are Intel boards with Intel NICs. As you can imagine my network screams. :)
 
I always though that gigabit NICs were mostly the same, but then I just upgraded all my comps to Intel Gigabit CT cards and my throughput just about doubled! Granted, I'm judging this based on the networking tab in Windows Task Manager, but file transfers are noticeably speedier nonetheless.

I'm also surprised that these desktop CT cards support NIC teaming; a feature that I've never seen outside of servers. It doesn't do me any good with my network infrastructure, but it's a nice bullet point on the feature list and something I might play with in the future.
 
Knowing how flaky my onboard NICs are from experience. I decided to try the cards the OP reccomended. The results are outstanding.

With the onboard, I was getting spotty gigabit speeds. They varied between 10MB/s and ~50MB/s with both computers directly connected together. Speeds through the switch were constantly at 10MB/s despite it being gigabit.

Now, with an intel card in each computer I'm getting sustained 100MB/s both directly connected and through the switch.

Edit: The cards that the op links to are sold out.
 
Think just a PCI version of this card would still be good?

I have a server with no PCI-x slots that could surely use some help with getting off of the onboard LAN.
 
pci would still beat onboard. I'm glad I have some extra intel GB pci-x adapters i got for free :D

Also got 4-5 dual port 10/100 cards. and 1 dual port gb card.
 
Dan_D said:
Yes they do. Broadcom doesn't count as "good." They are better than the ones built into the average consumer boards, but they still fall short of real dedicated add-in server NICs. Unless someone is building higher end Intel NICs into server boards I don't see it..
Click to expand...

Yuck..where did I say "Broadcom was good"? I hate their NICs....they're OK with *nix..but I dread them on Windows..due to driver problems.

But yeah with "motherboard of the month club fans"....those boards won't have good on boards.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Yuck..where did I say "Broadcom was good"? I hate their NICs....they're OK with *nix..but I dread them on Windows..due to driver problems.

But yeah with "motherboard of the month club fans"....those boards won't have good on boards.
Click to expand...

I have a broadcom server NIC that actually works really well. I also had an IBM that a broadcom server nic built into its board (workstation). Both work just as well as my intel.
I have a friend who likes intel the best, but has one broadcom server NIC he really likes also.

Also all the GB nics I got, i got for free :p Yay for server grade GB nics that are free!
 
These Intel cards are also >= to KillerNICs at gaming, for $200 less :p
And also, since they're PCI-E, they actually provide more bandwidth than the KillerNIC, which is stuck with a PCI 32-bit interface, which is slower than a gigabit port...

Old 3Com cards are quite nice as well, though they're not gigabit. Marvell took on the 3Com technology, but they don't seem to put it in their low-end chipsets, like those found on mainboards. :(

I'm also wondering, what kind of routers are you using? They pretty much all come with cheap Broadcom or Atheros chipsets that can't even handle a 100mbps connection at half-speed.
 
DragonMaster said:
These Intel cards are also >= to KillerNICs at gaming, for $200 less :p
And also, since they're PCI-E, they actually provide more bandwidth than the KillerNIC, which is stuck with a PCI 32-bit interface, which is slower than a gigabit port...

Old 3Com cards are quite nice as well, though they're not gigabit. Marvell took on the 3Com technology, but they don't seem to put it in their low-end chipsets, like those found on mainboards. :(

I'm also wondering, what kind of routers are you using? They pretty much all come with cheap Broadcom or Atheros chipsets that can't even handle a 100mbps connection at half-speed.
Click to expand...

there are some 3com GB nics out there. We horde 3com nics and Intel nics (10/100 pci) because nearly all of them are able to initialize a PXE boot right off their own built-in ROM.

The killer NIC is more than just a NIC, its really a linux computer all by itself. It has USB port which can function as both a host (for things like Bit torrenting to an external HDD) and a device for configuring it and starting programs on it.

That said I agree that you'll get like 99% of what you'd get from a killer nic by simply installing a good intel PCI-E NIC.
 
there are some 3com GB nics out there
Click to expand...
Marvell chip. <-- as I said, what 3Com used to build is now made by Marvell.

3Com then placed Marvell chips in their own hardware, but all that is discontinued. Try to find a gigabit cooper NIC on 3Com's website, there are one or two, but they've been discontinued for a while.

The killer NIC is more than just a NIC, its really a linux computer all by itself. It has USB port which can function as both a host (for things like Bit torrenting to an external HDD) and a device for configuring it and starting programs on it.
Click to expand...
Maybe, but placing DD-WRT on an el-cheapo Asus WL-520GU router or a Linksys NSLU2 has the same result. (Or course, don't use that as your main router)

I doubt the KillerNIC performs so well for gaming, file transfers, etc. when you run a torrent app on it's small 400MHz CPU at the same time. Separate hardware is cheaper and would have less impact on performance. Also, is the KillerNIC working when the computer is turned off?

Basically, if you don't count the linux computer on the KillerNIC, the Intel was shown in reviews to pretty much always perform better or equal to it.
 
LoStMaTt said:
Think just a PCI version of this card would still be good?

I have a server with no PCI-x slots that could surely use some help with getting off of the onboard LAN.
Click to expand...

I got the retail version of this card last year (oem link provided as it is a great deal right now):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106121

I've been very happy with it. The wake-on-lan feature works well and even though it is on an older motherboard, it often out performs the two motherboards I have with onboard PCI-E lan (one marvel, the other realtek I think).
 
DragonMaster said:
Marvell chip. <-- as I said, what 3Com used to build is now made by Marvell.

3Com then placed Marvell chips in their own hardware, but all that is discontinued. Try to find a gigabit cooper NIC on 3Com's website, there are one or two, but they've been discontinued for a while.

Maybe, but placing DD-WRT on an el-cheapo Asus WL-520GU router or a Linksys NSLU2 has the same result. (Or course, don't use that as your main router)

I doubt the KillerNIC performs so well for gaming, file transfers, etc. when you run a torrent app on it's small 400MHz CPU at the same time. Separate hardware is cheaper and would have less impact on performance. Also, is the KillerNIC working when the computer is turned off?

Basically, if you don't count the linux computer on the KillerNIC, the Intel was shown in reviews to pretty much always perform better or equal to it.
Click to expand...

Oh I agree its totally not worth the extra cost. The killer NIC may actually work when the PC is off, many PCs run power to the PCI cards, even when off. NICs in particular need this, else WOL would not work. Ever wonder why your PC is "off" you NIC's lights are on?

JRS said:
I got the retail version of this card last year (oem link provided as it is a great deal right now):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106121

I've been very happy with it. The wake-on-lan feature works well and even though it is on an older motherboard, it often out performs the two motherboards I have with onboard PCI-E lan (one marvel, the other realtek I think).
Click to expand...

Onboard PCI-E is no better than onboard PCI, its perhaps a little faster, but in reality they went with it because PCI-E is a much simpler bus to use for most onboard devices, Especially since an onboard NIC is x1.
 
Intel NIC's have been the best for a long time. I've found their UDP streaming much more reliable than any other brand. It's very noticeable on a device like the HDHomeRun where you stream HDTV over UDP. My integrated NVidia Gigabit controller on my last AMD based motherboard sucked. It couldn't even do it reliably.

I've used a lot of desktop & integrated NIC's over the years, and in terms of reliability, specifically with UDP streaming, I put them in this order.

Intel
Marvell
Realtek
Broadcom
NVidia's nForce gigabit
.
 
Valnar said:
Intel NIC's have been the best for a long time. I've found their UDP streaming much more reliable than any other brand. It's very noticeable on a device like the HDHomeRun where you stream HDTV over UDP. My integrated NVidia Gigabit controller on my last AMD based motherboard sucked. It couldn't even do it reliably.

I've used a lot of desktop & integrated NIC's over the years, and in terms of reliability, specifically with UDP streaming, I put them in this order.

Intel
Marvell
Realtek
Broadcom
NVidia's nForce gigabit
.
Click to expand...

I think that order is about accurate.
 
3COM used to be in the top two of that list for me...

I can't comment on todays current nVidia nForce NICs..but when they first came out..wow they were awesome. I found some benchmark at some site where they were up top, and myself....identicle rigs at home...testing online ping with several different FPS games such as Quake 3 and Unreal Tourney back then...the nVidia gave me the lowest ping. Same other physical specs of the gaming rig, same internet connection, same public server.

Valnar said:
I've used a lot of desktop & integrated NIC's over the years, and in terms of reliability, specifically with UDP streaming, I put them in this order.

Intel
Marvell
Realtek
Broadcom
NVidia's nForce gigabit
.
Click to expand...
 
They are commonly cursed at various Microsoft Server, and Small Business Server forums.

I've dealt with the many issues myself quite a few times. Yuck. A few specific models, I doubt it's all their models (as I'm sure I have dozens out there in production without problems). I want to say some "X-Treme" model...if I recall...as I've dealt with a 1/2 dozen or so servers with the issue.

OmegaAvenger said:
I have a broadcom server NIC that actually works really well. I also had an IBM that a broadcom server nic built into its board (workstation). Both work just as well as my intel.
I have a friend who likes intel the best, but has one broadcom server NIC he really likes also.

Also all the GB nics I got, i got for free :p Yay for server grade GB nics that are free!
Click to expand...
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
3COM used to be in the top two of that list for me...
Click to expand...
Yep, 3C905 ftw!


I can't comment on todays current nVidia nForce NICs..but when they first came out..wow they were awesome. I found some benchmark at some site where they were up top, and myself....identicle rigs at home...testing online ping with several different FPS games such as Quake 3 and Unreal Tourney back then...the nVidia gave me the lowest ping.
Click to expand...
Mine was from an nForce3 250GB mobo. 'twas not new. It did have good speed, but it was totally unreliable with UDP. TCP was fine. For lack of a better term, it was..... jittery. I replaced it with an Intel Pro/100 PCI NIC and it was much more reliable. Slower on my LAN, sure, but faster on the Internet (since my broadband is slower still). Maybe there weren't as many retransmissions or dropped packets. I never cared enough to sniff it.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
They are commonly cursed at various Microsoft Server, and Small Business Server forums.

I've dealt with the many issues myself quite a few times. Yuck. A few specific models, I doubt it's all their models (as I'm sure I have dozens out there in production without problems). I want to say some "X-Treme" model...if I recall...as I've dealt with a 1/2 dozen or so servers with the issue.
Click to expand...

Thats waht I have some sort of "extreme" model. One that I have now is a netgear (was free) and it has a heatsink and is detected by server 2k3 automatically w/o a driver D/L. I *think* that is a broadcom. I also have a real broadcom (was pulled from a dell server) somewhere also.

Valnar said:
Yep, 3C905 ftw!
Click to expand...

I have a handful at work and at home. I have a nice stash of network cards at home just in case I ever need them.
 
Heck yeah...they rocked. Lifetime warranty...I had such a box full of 'em. Probably barely got a dozen left...hardly use PCI NICs anymore.

Oh man, and years ago..their big 509 ISA boards. 10Base and coax combo FTW! :D

Valnar said:
Yep, 3C905 ftw!



Mine was from an nForce3 250GB mobo. 'twas not new. It did have good speed, but it was totally unreliable with UDP. TCP was fine. For lack of a better term, it was..... jittery. I replaced it with an Intel Pro/100 PCI NIC and it was much more reliable. Slower on my LAN, sure, but faster on the Internet (since my broadband is slower still). Maybe there weren't as many retransmissions or dropped packets. I never cared enough to sniff it.
Click to expand...
 
...hardly use PCI NICs anymore.
Click to expand...
Just a question here, the 1000PT sounds like a good card to have, but unfortunately, only one of my systems has a free PCI-E slot (and is currently using a Realtek)

If my router only has 10/100mbps support, is there anything better than the 3C905 to have? Are they worth getting over some DF-530/538TX cards?
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
3COM used to be in the top two of that list for me...

I can't comment on todays current nVidia nForce NICs..but when they first came out..wow they were awesome. I found some benchmark at some site where they were up top, and myself....identicle rigs at home...testing online ping with several different FPS games such as Quake 3 and Unreal Tourney back then...the nVidia gave me the lowest ping. Same other physical specs of the gaming rig, same internet connection, same public server.
Click to expand...

I remember those days. The nForce NICs have never held a candle to dedicated NIC cards. This remains true today.

Valnar said:
Intel NIC's have been the best for a long time. I've found their UDP streaming much more reliable than any other brand. It's very noticeable on a device like the HDHomeRun where you stream HDTV over UDP. My integrated NVidia Gigabit controller on my last AMD based motherboard sucked. It couldn't even do it reliably.

I've used a lot of desktop & integrated NIC's over the years, and in terms of reliability, specifically with UDP streaming, I put them in this order.

Intel
Marvell
Realtek
Broadcom
NVidia's nForce gigabit
.
Click to expand...

Very accurate. Though the Broadcom is actually the fastest integrated NIC on the list after Intel's. The problem is that they have a ton of issues when it comes to negotiation, PXE support, UDP streaming etc.

OmegaAvenger said:
there are some 3com GB nics out there. We horde 3com nics and Intel nics (10/100 pci) because nearly all of them are able to initialize a PXE boot right off their own built-in ROM.

The killer NIC is more than just a NIC, its really a linux computer all by itself. It has USB port which can function as both a host (for things like Bit torrenting to an external HDD) and a device for configuring it and starting programs on it.

That said I agree that you'll get like 99% of what you'd get from a killer nic by simply installing a good intel PCI-E NIC.
Click to expand...

You can use PXE with any of the modern cards. You do not need a PCI NIC for that. If you are having problems then you are doing something wrong. (I speak from a lot of experience on this.)

DragonMaster said:
These Intel cards are also >= to KillerNICs at gaming, for $200 less :p
And also, since they're PCI-E, they actually provide more bandwidth than the KillerNIC, which is stuck with a PCI 32-bit interface, which is slower than a gigabit port...

Old 3Com cards are quite nice as well, though they're not gigabit. Marvell took on the 3Com technology, but they don't seem to put it in their low-end chipsets, like those found on mainboards. :(

I'm also wondering, what kind of routers are you using? They pretty much all come with cheap Broadcom or Atheros chipsets that can't even handle a 100mbps connection at half-speed.
Click to expand...

They aren't as capable feature wise as the Killer NIC is but yes, the performance is there for far less money.

OmegaAvenger said:
I have a broadcom server NIC that actually works really well. I also had an IBM that a broadcom server nic built into its board (workstation). Both work just as well as my intel.
I have a friend who likes intel the best, but has one broadcom server NIC he really likes also.

Also all the GB nics I got, i got for free :p Yay for server grade GB nics that are free!
Click to expand...

I'd really be surprised if they actually worked as well as the Intel. Do speed tests on them and better yet try pushing heavy UDP traffic over them. You'll see the difference.

YeOldeStonecat said:
Yuck..where did I say "Broadcom was good"? I hate their NICs....they're OK with *nix..but I dread them on Windows..due to driver problems.

But yeah with "motherboard of the month club fans"....those boards won't have good on boards.
Click to expand...

Most motherboards, even server and workstation boards usually have pretty crappy onboard hardware. Sure it is fine for many usage scenarios but I can point out dedicated hardware better than all the crap built into any motherboard all day. Such is the way it has always been and will likely always be.
 
Dan_D said:
You can use PXE with any of the modern cards. You do not need a PCI NIC for that. If you are having problems then you are doing something wrong. (I speak from a lot of experience on this.)

I'd really be surprised if they actually worked as well as the Intel. Do speed tests on them and better yet try pushing heavy UDP traffic over them. You'll see the difference.
Click to expand...

I never said they were as good as intel, I just said they were better than most of whats out there.

As far a the PXE, yes most modern cards out there do support PXE, but to reduce the amount work it would take to get all the drivers on our PXE server for every single NIC out there (its a linux based PXE server for windows, not a windows server), and the fact that certian nics support PXE but don't like our configuration (alot of linksys and low end nics), we stick with what works.

But what I was actually reffering to was the ability for the card to act as a bootable add-in card. I.E. This intel NIC i placed in some dells would show up in the f12 boot menu. THATS what I am reffering to. They support PNP PXE boot support. I've only seen 3com and Intel do this.
 
OmegaAvenger said:
I never said they were as good as intel, I just said they were better than most of whats out there.

As far a the PXE, yes most modern cards out there do support PXE, but to reduce the amount work it would take to get all the drivers on our PXE server for every single NIC out there (its a linux based PXE server for windows, not a windows server), and the fact that certian nics support PXE but don't like our configuration (alot of linksys and low end nics), we stick with what works.

But what I was actually reffering to was the ability for the card to act as a bootable add-in card. I.E. This intel NIC i placed in some dells would show up in the f12 boot menu. THATS what I am reffering to. They support PNP PXE boot support. I've only seen 3com and Intel do this.
Click to expand...

You should be using a generic driver for all your NICs. That is what worked for me when I was running PXE at my old job. It saved me a ton of headaches too.
 
Dan_D said:
Very accurate. Though the Broadcom is actually the fastest integrated NIC on the list after Intel's. The problem is that they have a ton of issues when it comes to negotiation, PXE support, UDP streaming etc.
Click to expand...

Yep, I took into account all those problems when I placed Broadcom second to last. I've seen all those issues too.

In my environment, we had gigabit Broadcoms not negotiate correctly with older Cisco 4006 switches (10/100 modules). I've also had PXE issues. We had to buy a cheap Linksys switch just to put between the PXE server and our IBM Server builds to make them boot PXE correctly. Most of that doesn't affect the "average" user, but at our work, they were a real problem.
 
Valnar said:
Yep, I took into account all those problems when I placed Broadcom second to last. I've seen all those issues too.

In my environment, we had gigabit Broadcoms not negotiate correctly with older Cisco 4006 switches (10/100 modules). I've also had PXE issues. We had to buy a cheap Linksys switch just to put between the PXE server and our IBM Server builds to make them boot PXE correctly. Most of that doesn't affect the "average" user, but at our work, they were a real problem.
Click to expand...

All the problems I had with Broadcom NICs would not ever be a concern for the average user but in the IT enviroment the issues were a nightmare.
 
Now I know why one of my AMD boards with an nVidia chipset still has an Intel NIC...
 
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