Is there any reason to use a nic card if your mb has onboard lan?

[TSx]

I got a new msi board which has onboard lan, and my old board didn't. I've got a kingston 10/100 generic network card that I was using. I connect to my linksys router then to my dsl modem, and have 4 comps networked, nothing fancy really...I'm just curious if onboard lan is better/worse or the same as using a standalone pci network card?

 

[MontyAC]

I always use the onboard nic. I don't see any advantage in having a stand alone nic card.

 

[Kek]

If you're not doing online gaming, then I am sure the answer is "no". If you are, then I am not sure how well they fare as far as CPU usage. I think the nVidia controller on nforce chipsets is supposed to be good.

One thing I do wonder though, is whether I could benefit from a separate USB controller. When I play Unreal Tournament online, quite often my mouse feels "sloppy", when compared with offline, even though my fps are pretty much pinned at 120. Had the idea that it may be my USB controller, but on second thought, only UT does this, all other games are fine.

 

[djnes]

Onboard is fine for normal usage. You'd only need a second NIC if your computer was participating in 2 networks at once.

 

[MemoryInAGarden]

One of the only other reasons I could think of using a PCI NIC is if your onboard NIC is 10/100, and you need gigabit ethernet for whatever reason.

 

[Mad_Pyro]

Onboard is fine, don't worry.

 

[Carnival Forces]

you'd need an NIC if you were going wireless.

 

[mustang_steve]

I use my onboard NIC, but I do have an NForce baord, however I use the realtek onboard, an not the NVidia LAN.

Reason for this is I have some issues on my network with the NVidia lan. It tends to stop responding after about 3 hours or so of any kind of constant load.

Really, as long as the device isn't causing problems, use hte onboard.

 

[BillLeeLee]

I don't see any real reason to using a separate NIC for normal use if you already have onboard LAN. I game just fine, nothing is really noticeable if the onboard is taking any extra CPU cycles. Of course, it's Intel CSA gigabit LAN, and I'm not going out and buying a gigabit LAN card.

 

[defcom_1]

I use a pci lan card, 'cause my onboard one kills my system when I transfer files! (crappy on-board nic)