Onboard LAN?

[SlipperyToy]

Hi all I have a really quick ?. Which is better? THe onboard LAN of my Motherboard?(see sig). Or Using a PCI NIC card?...Is one gonna be faster then the other or the same?;)

[9mmCensor]

It depends if the PCI card has an APU that does the audio work (decoding and such) or if it merely passes it on to the CPU (as a onboard sound chip does).

The creative cards do the work and here is a neat article from Tom's Hardware (http://www6.tomshardware.com/game/20030405/index.html) concerning this sort of thing. (yeah, yeah, Tom's isn't the best but this article shall suffice)

[SlipperyToy]

Thanks for the fast response. But I am talking about the Onboard LAN(network) chip on the board....not the sound chip. Or did I miss something (Ive been doing that alot lately lol);)

[SlipperyToy]

anybody?

[DDR-PIII]

Isay if you were to buy a PCI NIC that does its own work instead of passing it onto the cpu it would be better :)

[BGPatterson]

how can you tell if a pci nic has that capability?

[SlipperyToy]

Originally posted by BGPatterson
how can you tell if a pci nic has that capability?


Yeah...how do you tell?

[Kendan]

The onboard should be just fine. I think some people are confusing the network adaptor and the soundcard;)

[bdf24]

I've used onboard NIC vs PCI NIC's and cannot tell a difference in performance.

[BGPatterson]

Originally posted by DDR-PIII
Isay if you were to buy a PCI NIC that does its own work instead of passing it onto the cpu it would be better :)

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[su root]

I don't really like onboard nics.. If you have them, use them, but just beware that they can use your CPU and Memory. (the onboard video and onboard sound are the nasty ones for resource hogging).

Check out this thread aswell:
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=235065

[fiji]

i use the onboard NIC, it works for me
saves a pci slot too

etiehr way its not going to bee to much of a diff, i jsut saw some NIC's on newegg for like $3

[TechnoNRGKid]

Originally posted by su root
just beware that they can use your CPU and Memory.


Dont most components?

I have a Linksys Fast Ethernet PCI NIC, and a Integrated VIA Rhine Fast Ethernet NIC both of course 10/100.

I switch between them at times.
I dont notice a difference in either of them.

[su root]

Originally posted by TechnoNRGKid
Dont most components?

I have a Linksys Fast Ethernet PCI NIC, and a Integrated VIA Rhine Fast Ethernet NIC both of course 10/100.

I switch between them at times.
I dont notice a difference in either of them.
When onboard was first created, it was so that companies could get away with not putting all the components on. Cheap onboard video cards, instead of having their own RAM, they will use the system RAM. Cheap onboard sound cards will use the system processor and RAM. This allowed companies like Compaq or Dell to make very cheap motherboards, that had functionality, but not performance.

Nowadays onboard components are getting better and better, so this is only occasionally the case. You would really have to look at the motherboard and see what chips are on the board, and which ones it just uses the system for.

NICs don't take that much CPU and RAM to run regardless. However, a nice server NIC, which has plenty of processing power and memory onboard will be able to transfer using no CPU or memory (besides the DMA channel). If you were transferring to a SCSI harddrive your system would have 0% load, even transferring at full speed.

[BGPatterson]

So what you are saying is that it is a matter of preference?

[su root]

Originally posted by BGPatterson
So what you are saying is that it is a matter of preference?
Kind of.

With offboard, you know exactly what you are getting... it's written directly on the product specs.

With onboard, it can be hard to figure out exactly what you are getting.. is there a boot ROM? is there WOL? what WOL modes are supported? Where is it's memory? Does it use system resources instead of it's own dedicated resources? Most motherboards don't give enough info on this stuff.

Once you've heard the horror stories (http://www.ocforums.com/vb/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2162434#post2162434), and realize that there is no modular design to it (you cannot move it to use it in another machine, and should the motherboard die, any onboard components are useless), you lean towards a PCI NICs as the better NIC. Even building a cheap system, you can find $5 NICs for.

Same arguments go for any onboard components: Not a modular design, probably uses system resources, and if one part dies, it could take all of them with it.

(Arguments FOR onboard would be the use of different busses (most onboard use a proprietary bus, leaving the PCI bus free), and price.)

It's still your choice, but it depends what's more important. If you are building an office box, the cheapest, dirtiest way is to get an onboard-everything mobo for $50 more than a normal board. While building it offboard, a collection of Video card, Network card, and Sound card (and Modem?) could land you easily over $100, even for the cheapest ones.