Intel NIC vs other NICS?

killmasta93

Hi,
I was wondering if different kind of NICS makes a huge difference in a work environment?

For ex: I would need something to handle an environment of 100 computers and around 50 ios,android devices

Right now im going to build it with an asrock motherboard H81M-VG4 R2.0 which is Realtek Gigabit LAN, intel celeron 5th gen and then i would prob get a Tp-link 10/100/1000 prob another Realtek or should i get a intel pro dual NIC EXPI9402PT?

Does MBUF Usage and State table size would make a big difference on different NICS?

Thank you

Derelict

The NIC has nothing to do with states.

I've read that multi-port Intel NICs can need more MBUFs I think.

Your needs are not that high. Get an Intel NIC anyway. I've also had satisfactory experiences with broadcom (bge). Older IBM and Dell servers are bge.

killmasta93

Thanks for the reply Derelict,

I will do. Any experience on realtek?

Also been reading on MBUFs dont really understand the concept? The higher it gets means more traffic? I have also read theres a way to expand it by adding somewhere in the boot config file.

Thank you

Guest

There are two main differences between the NICs from Intel and from other vendors.

The drivers from Intel will allow more to do with them and yes also under pfSense or
FreeBSD pfSense is based on the quality of driver support is a huge point to think about
with which NICs to go today. But this is only one point, the other thing is relative easy to
clear up;
The cheaper or consumer grade Intel NICs are coming with a soldered "on board (network card)"
chip that is for handling the parity and there fore also offloading this process from the CPU and also
from the entire OS.
The greater or server grade Intel NICs are coming with a soldered "on board" (network card) DSP
(Digital Signal Processor) and this is really hard offloading the entire network tasks from the CPU
and let the entire OS running more liquid and smooth.

But both, the consumer and server grade Intel NICs often then sold for more then only 6 € - 10 €
other vendors selling their equipment because this chips must also be paid! But there are more
sufficient and compatible on top of this likes the other vendors especially Realtek does.

killmasta93

Thanks BlueKobold for clearing that up for me I will give it a try with re0 and then get me em0 and post back

Thanks you

Aluminum

If you are on a budget, dual port intel 82571 cards pulled from servers are around $20-30 on fleabay, proven chipset with good drivers. The server-oriented chipsets often have other nice features the desktop/PCH versions lack, for example ECC buffers.

Quads can be almost as cheap per port too, I also used to suggest the i350 clone/knockoff cards but they are not within spec and not lasting as long as they should.

The 82571 duals are sold as various part numbers but the most common versions I see are dell X3959 and hp NC360T. NC364T seem to be among the cheaper quad models.

Derelict

Any experience on realtek?

Disregarding the problems people have hard-setting speed/duplex and other anomalies, my re would occasionally just go "deaf." It would issue DHCPDISCOVER, get a reply from the cable modem, and do nothing. Reboot would fix it.

Switched that realtek jetway daughtercard for an intel version and haven't seen it since (well over a year).

A couple versions ago, VMware pulled the realtek driver from the default ESXi install. That ought to tell you all you need to know.

killmasta93

thanks for the reply i guess Intel it is

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-1000-Dual-Server-Adapter/dp/B000BMZHX2

also its cheep too :)

Downloadski

I will never buy a MB with realtek again. With freebsd v9 it did not work for Netwerkcontroller Realtek RTL8111E on mainbord MSI C847-E33.
Also under wIndows 7 the drivers for other realtek nic were not very good stabel on a asus mainbord.

killmasta93

I will post back how it goes with the intel and the realtek

Thanks again