Any benefit to upgrading from Intel/PRO 1000 GT to MT-series card?
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My home network pfSense box is currently using an AMD Phenom II x4 920 (quad-core) processor running at 2.8GHz; it has 4GB of 1066MHz RAM. It's overkill, I know, but I already had the processor sitting around so I put it to use. Anyway…I have two Intel/PRO 1000 GT Desktop Adapters for the LAN and WAN, respectively. I have MediaCom's "Max" service which provides (if I'm lucky) up to 20MBits/sec download speeds (Note: I typically "get" only 10MBits/sec but any complaining about MediaCom's crap service will be for another day.) Word has it that MediaCom will be moving over to DOCSIS 3.0 within the next six months and that will up the theoretical ceiling to 50MBit/sec.
With that bit of background, will I see any benefit to swapping out the two Intel/PRO 1000 GT cards for one Intel/PRO 1000 MT Dual-Port Server Adapter? Obviously, the GT series cards utilize PCI while the MTs utilize the faster PCI-e. On a corporate network with massive bandwidth I suspect the difference between the GT and MT would be huge, but what about a home network? Would it be a waste of money to go with one card on the faster PCI-e than two cards on the slower PCI? If there were to be a benefit, can someone attempt to quantify (or qualify) to what extent?
Link to MT-series card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106209
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For the swap to be useful, you should see in excess of 40MB/s throughput…..
The GT's handles fine up to around 250mbit/s on the PCI bus.
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For the swap to be useful, you should see in excess of 40MB/s throughput…..
The GT's handles fine up to around 250mbit/s on the PCI bus.
10-4. Thanks. I'll save the money and stick with what I have.
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My home network pfSense box is currently using an AMD Phenom II x4 920 (quad-core) processor running at 2.8GHz; it has 4GB of 1066MHz RAM. It's overkill, I know, but I already had the processor sitting around so I put it to use. Anyway…I have two Intel/PRO 1000 GT Desktop Adapters for the LAN and WAN, respectively. I have MediaCom's "Max" service which provides (if I'm lucky) up to 20MBits/sec download speeds (Note: I typically "get" only 10MBits/sec but any complaining about MediaCom's crap service will be for another day.) Word has it that MediaCom will be moving over to DOCSIS 3.0 within the next six months and that will up the theoretical ceiling to 50MBit/sec.
With that bit of background, will I see any benefit to swapping out the two Intel/PRO 1000 GT cards for one Intel/PRO 1000 MT Dual-Port Server Adapter? Obviously, the GT series cards utilize PCI while the MTs utilize the faster PCI-e. On a corporate network with massive bandwidth I suspect the difference between the GT and MT would be huge, but what about a home network? Would it be a waste of money to go with one card on the faster PCI-e than two cards on the slower PCI? If there were to be a benefit, can someone attempt to quantify (or qualify) to what extent?
Link to MT-series card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106209
Erm.. Just to point out. The MT adapter is a PCI-X card like the GT series. It is just what Intel classifies as Server level hardware owing to the additional features.
You're looking for a PT series adapter if you want to move to the PCI-E interface. You'll need a PCI-e x4 for the dual-port adapters. 1 lane for the single port PT.
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My home network pfSense box is currently using an AMD Phenom II x4 920 (quad-core) processor running at 2.8GHz; it has 4GB of 1066MHz RAM. It's overkill, I know, but I already had the processor sitting around so I put it to use. Anyway…I have two Intel/PRO 1000 GT Desktop Adapters for the LAN and WAN, respectively. I have MediaCom's "Max" service which provides (if I'm lucky) up to 20MBits/sec download speeds (Note: I typically "get" only 10MBits/sec but any complaining about MediaCom's crap service will be for another day.) Word has it that MediaCom will be moving over to DOCSIS 3.0 within the next six months and that will up the theoretical ceiling to 50MBit/sec.
With that bit of background, will I see any benefit to swapping out the two Intel/PRO 1000 GT cards for one Intel/PRO 1000 MT Dual-Port Server Adapter? Obviously, the GT series cards utilize PCI while the MTs utilize the faster PCI-e. On a corporate network with massive bandwidth I suspect the difference between the GT and MT would be huge, but what about a home network? Would it be a waste of money to go with one card on the faster PCI-e than two cards on the slower PCI? If there were to be a benefit, can someone attempt to quantify (or qualify) to what extent?
Link to MT-series card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106209
Erm.. Just to point out. The MT adapter is a PCI-X card like the GT series. It is just what Intel classifies as Server level hardware owing to the additional features.
You're looking for a PT series adapter if you want to move to the PCI-E interface. You'll need a PCI-e x4 for the dual-port adapters. 1 lane for the single port PT.
You're absolutely correct. My apologies. The MB I'm using is a now-discontinued ASUS M3A78 Pro with one PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot. With this correction (thanks, by the way), there still would be no true benefit to going with an upgraded NIC (e.g., the PT-series card), right?
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Correct.
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That board does have 2 PCIe 1x slots though, so you could easily add a pair of Intel PT NICs if you wanted to…
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You're absolutely correct. My apologies. The MB I'm using is a now-discontinued ASUS M3A78 Pro with one PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot. With this correction (thanks, by the way), there still would be no true benefit to going with an upgraded NIC (e.g., the PT-series card), right?
No sweat..
If you have that kind of dough to spare, why not buy a Phenom II 240/ 245 and save some on your electrical bill. Not to mention, save the environment. I'm sure you can offload the Quad core for more than the price of the Phenom 2 as well. ;) -
You're absolutely correct. My apologies. The MB I'm using is a now-discontinued ASUS M3A78 Pro with one PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot. With this correction (thanks, by the way), there still would be no true benefit to going with an upgraded NIC (e.g., the PT-series card), right?
No sweat..
If you have that kind of dough to spare, why not buy a Phenom II 240/ 245 and save some on your electrical bill. Not to mention, save the environment. I'm sure you can offload the Quad core for more than the price of the Phenom 2 as well. ;)Actually, I'm a cop so money doesn't grow on trees in my household. And do you mean an Athlon II 240? I didn't know there was such an animal as a Phenom II 240.
Oh…and I could always "downcore" it through the BIOS, too.
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Actually, I'm a cop so money doesn't grow on trees in my household. And do you mean an Athlon II 240? I didn't know there was such an animal as a Phenom II 240.
Oh…and I could always "downcore" it through the BIOS, too.
Oh… Right... Athlon II. Severely sleep deprived these days.. :P I was thinking of the 550 Black Edition.
