3com or Intel

[xCarne_Asada]

What should i get a new 3com or a new Intel? Right now I have a 3com but some how it is fried. I was looking at the nics and saw that one 3com had 168 bits, whatever that means. My friends say intel are the way to go. Suggestions.

[dugans]

I have a bunch of 3coms, love 'em, they are great.
I also have one Intel, also great.

I've been using those nics for 3 years or so, no problems.

Recently I needed a couple of nics for Linux, and ended up with some $14 CompUSA ones (RealTek chip); so far, so good!

[Shadow ÒÓ]

I've had em all....Realtec, Intel, Kingston, etc.....you name it.

Don't spend a ton of money on a nic. $15 should be fine. A friend and I ran some benchmarks on el cheapo's and nice ones....best we cold figure, if a nic is accessed by multiple machines, you may want to go with a better card. If you are only using it for a home network and just a few machines on the network, there's no need to spend $40 on a nic.

[thefly]

If it's for a server go 3com. they are great nics.

I've heard also that the ultra cheapos don't like high fsb. So if you plan on running the card out of the 33mhz spec get a better quality one.

If everything is in spec, go with the cheapo like Shadow says. They are all about the same.

Dlink is a decent cheapo 10/100

[dugans]

Originally posted by thefly
I've heard also that the ultra cheapos don't like high fsb. So if you plan on running the card out of the 33mhz spec get a better quality one.

Cheap nics are like cheap memory: its a crapshoot!

I have 2 realtek chipped Compusa nics: one will do 150 fsb fine, the other won't go above 133, ever.