Best Low Profile Nic for Optiplex 150?

kapara

I bought several optiplex 150's which will require small form factor Nic's. I have not had very much success in finding a NIC which is low profile that I can buy new which might be compatible. I would prefer something that is still in production so that I do not have to worry about trying to buy them since I will be buying 10+ in QTY.

I found an Intel card which is:

PWLA8391GTLBLK
Intel PWLA8391GTL 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI Low Profile Desktop Network Adapter - OEM
$29.99

Fairly expensive and I do not know if it is compatible. Anyone know of a rock solid NIC which would be inexpensive, reliable and a good performer?

Thanks

Mark

dotdash

I've used that NIC before in production systems (Newegg, right?), works great, no problems.

Kris.J

These are definitely a great choice for building out pfSense on Optiplex G150 Small Form Factor boxes:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106122

I'm putting two in each chassis - disabling the onboard NIC in the BIOS. They are awesome NICs.

Kris.J

My plans have been FOILED!

While it appears there are TWO slots when looking at the back of a Dell Optiplex GX150 SFF chassis, when you open it up it's a different story…

One backplane slot for an optional AGP card, one backplane slot for a PCI card. I am sad and feel dumb to boot. :(

It goes like this:

ASCII Art:


        ___
|      |   |
|    | |   |
|  | | |   |
   | | |   |
------------
^  ^ ^   ^ 
A  P L   P
G  C o   S
P  I n   U
     g   P
     P
     C
     I

The AGP slot has a cut-out in the backplane, the PCI slot has a cutout in the backplane, but the LongPCI slot does not - a regular NIC won't go in that slot because it's very close to the Power Supply. :(

The regular PCI slot and the longer (looks like a) PCI slot share a cutout looks like.

dotdash

The long pci slot is used for a two PCI riser card in the desktop chassis. The riser blocks the normal PCI slot in that chassis. Dell uses the same motherboard in all the chassis. Never used the sff, but we had a few mini-desktops before the caps blew in them…

jahonix

Hoba came up with a PCI low profile nic with three ports just the other day. Or was it PCIe?
If you can go with two ports then there is at least one dual PCI LP card from Intel.

hoba

http://pyramid.de/en/products/3nic.php

…or consider using vlans with a small switch like the hp procurve 1800-8g.

Kris.J

I'll look for a dual port low profile Intel card.

Right now I'm running the two Intel cards in a SD (Small Desktop) GX150. It's a bit bigger than the SFF GX150, but otherwise identical hardware.

Kris.J

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106108

Found it… a bit expensive though. ;)

jahonix

$60 new:
http://cgi.ebay.de/INTEL-PILA8472C3-DUAL-PORTS-SERVER-NIC-NEW-BULK_W0QQitemZ350048168658QQihZ022QQcategoryZ51196QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

Kris.J

@jahonix:

$60 new:
http://cgi.ebay.de/INTEL-PILA8472C3-DUAL-PORTS-SERVER-NIC-NEW-BULK_W0QQitemZ350048168658QQihZ022QQcategoryZ51196QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

Vielen Dank! ;D

Kris.J

Woot!

I just snagged 3 of them for $18.95 USD each. ;)

He's got more:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSAA:US:11&Item=180235874462

Liam

@Kris.J:

Woot!

I just snagged 3 of them for $18.95 USD each. ;)

He's got more:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSAA:US:11&Item=180235874462

Thank you for the pointer. I snagged a Dell Dimension 4600C off Craigslist, and bought one of these dual cards off eBay for my replacement to a Linksys RV082.

Cheers, Liam