Allen Zadr's Journal: [Computer] Seeking NIC Advise

So, I'm looking at NIC cards. This is for a server (second NIC to join external IP space directly)... However, there's a lot of options.

I've already decided that I want to use the Intel EPro/1000 (er, well, at least the chipset). However, what I don't get is that there are "Server cards" for four times the money as "Desktop cards", and frankly, I don't see a difference. Does anybody know (besides money) the difference between "server class" and "desktop class" when it comes to NICs?

Finally - Linux compatability is important (but rarely a problem with NICs), so if somebody has a "this works really well for me, and it makes coffee, too" type suggestion... let me have it.

Server vs PC

[TechnoLust]

Most of the time the cards are identical, but they disable some features for the desktop version. Or they give you different software. Some of them don't support more advanced functions (assigning a single IP address to multiple cards, etc.). If you don't need that stuff, go for the desktop version. If you are going to be doing advanced shit and can afford the extra cost, go for it.

I've used that chipset in several servers and the server cards can do a lot of cool shit the desktop versions don't. OH! I

Re:Server vs PC

[Allen Zadr]

Thanks for that, it makes a lot of sense... I also just noticed that the highest priced ones are actually PCI-X (64bit) instead of just PCI, so I feel a little better about the higher price. I'd hate to waste a precious PCI-X slot on a NIC card.

NIC hardware

[andy314159pi]

This is the one area that I've had success with cheap devices. But my experience is limited to either extreme... we have very expensive NICS on our AIX boxes and they sometimes fail. I use cheap NIC's on our linux boxes and have never had a problem.