NIC - Onboard or Seperate?

Just a quick question. . . I am getting the A7N8X Deluxe board soon and I know it has Dual Lan. Is it better to use the onboard LAN or to buy a seperate card for it? I was just curious if that would increase the speed and flowthrough in any way? If so, what cards do you guys recommend? I was thinking 3Com Etherlink XL.

Windows Hardware 9627 This topic was started by jdulmage, 2003-03-16 22:53

Discussion 10

jdulmage

1209 Posts
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Joined 2000-10-27

#106002

2003-03-16 23:53

Just a quick question...

I am getting the A7N8X Deluxe board soon and I know it has Dual Lan. Is it better to use the onboard LAN or to buy a seperate card for it?

I was just curious if that would increase the speed and flowthrough in any way?

If so, what cards do you guys recommend? I was thinking 3Com Etherlink XL.

But if it won't make a difference, I won't spend the extra $$$

Thanks guys.

Dungeon Keeper 2

Networking XP and 2k Probs

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Responses to this topic

Xiven

690 Posts
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Joined 2000-05-21

#106003

2003-03-17 00:47

The network itself is usually the bottleneck, not the interface between the PCI bus and the NIC, so even if there is a difference I doubt it would actually have any effect.

Bursar

671 Posts
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Joined 2000-05-04

#106004

2003-03-17 00:54

This PC I'm using has an oboard LAN which I use for connecting the machine to a LAN. It also has an XL card in it for my cable modem. The only reason I'm doing it this way is that I can move the LAN card to different machines, and the modem won't have to learn another MAC address.

My network connections are fairly rubbish though as I'm still using a 10MB hub. Been too much of a cheapskate to upgrade it though. It's mostly used for ICS, so 10MB is plenty for that.

Functionality wise, I don't think you'll notice any difference.

adamvjackson

2172 Posts
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Joined 2002-08-26

#106005

2003-03-17 01:04

I would stick with the intergrated unless you need a feature such as PXE support, etc. that the onboard NIC does not have.

DosFreak

3867 Posts
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Joined 2000-02-04

#106006

2003-03-17 04:14

The integrated NICS in the A7N8X are fine. I only use the 3Com because it's 3com. Dunno how well the Nvidia one performs....

akiss

136 Posts
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Joined 2001-12-19

#106007

2003-03-17 14:10

i just dont like onboard devices....

BladeRunner

1207 Posts
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Joined 2000-03-27

#106008

2003-03-17 16:10

If it all possible I'll use the onboard NIC personally.
There is no difference in performance and neither will take up more resources or CPU time than the other.
I've got a Broadcom Gigabit NIC on my current board and it does everything I ask of it without complaint.

jimf43

397 Posts
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Joined 2001-10-13

#106009

2003-03-17 16:52

Asus has really good onboard lan support for this model, and, I can't even understand why you'd want to buy 'another' lan board ;(

Do you have a special requirement here, or do you just have extra cash burning a hole in your pocket ;(

DosFreak

3867 Posts
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Joined 2000-02-04

#106010

2003-03-17 18:44

Err...the onboard NICS in the Nforce are 100. His GIGABIT NIC is of course much faster which is why he's using it. I'd be using my Gig NIC but I don't have my second computer up.

ThC 129

1623 Posts
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#106011

2003-03-18 05:10

I have an A7N8X Deluxe. It comes with nVidia 10/100 and 3COM Gigabit LAN. I have seen no performance hits what so ever. You can disable one or both in the BIOS aswell.

Copernicus

139 Posts
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Joined 2002-11-04

#106012

2003-03-18 20:21

I really wished that they would use the Broadcom 5702 Giagbit LAN Adaptor on the A7N8X like they do with the A7V8X. I like Broadcom 4401 that I have for the onboard NIC.