PCI 2.1 or 2.2 Gigabit Network Cards

[mattx]

I want to purchase 2 gigabit network cards to stick in two of my servers.
[ To replace the 10/100 cards already in them ]

I don't really want to purchase the IBM Gigabit Ethernet SX Server Adapter as I will most probably be ripped off.
Can anyone suggest an equivalent which will work well on a Server 2003 ?

[Geoff]

I bought some Intel Pro 1000/MT PCI-X cards recently from dabs for £72 each.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=33D6

[powdarrmonkey]

We've had the Intels before for about the same price, also use Netgear gigabit adaptors at about £40.

[mattx]

I bought some Intel Pro 1000/MT PCI-X cards recently from dabs for £72 each.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=33D6

Thanks for that - on checking PCI-X should work in PCI slots - just need to check the voltage settings.....

[Geoff]

Just remember that PCI is limited to 1.1Gbit. So if you have a beefy SCSI controller (for instance) + a Gbit NIC your going to run out of bandwidth on your bus. Slowing the whole server down.

[mattx]

Just remember that PCI is limited to 1.1Gbit. So if you have a beefy SCSI controller (for instance) + a Gbit NIC your going to run out of bandwidth on your bus. Slowing the whole server down.

Good point - I have a Ultra160 PCI SCSI Card in it too - what would happen if I stuck in the card say on the 33 Mhz slot ?


Thinking about it though - the SCSI card is doing bugger all as its just hooked into an old 10 gig dat drive which is not used - so I could lose that...

[Geoff]

As you're not using the dat drive, not much. I'd just rip out the SCSI card and the dat drive for simplicities sake anyway.

But in theory (say you copied a multigigabyte file off the network to your beefy raid5 array) what happens is, the file comes down to the machine, gets buffered in system ram by the CPU, then gets written to disk via the scsi card as and when the PCI bus can cope.

By comparison on a machine that had PCI-X or PCI Express the file gets copied straight from the network interface onto the scsi card using DMA. Bypassing the main memory and the cpu. This is vastly quicker and wastes less system resources, allowing the machine to do more.

[mattx]

As you're not using the dat drive, not much. I'd just rip out the SCSI card and the dat drive for simplicities sake anyway.

But in theory (say you copied a multigigabyte file off the network to your beefy raid5 array) what happens is, the file comes down to the machine, gets buffered in system ram by the CPU, then gets written to disk via the scsi card as and when the PCI bus can cope.

By comparison on a machine that had PCI-X or PCI Express the file gets copied straight from the network interface onto the scsi card using DMA. Bypassing the main memory and the cpu. This is vastly quicker and wastes less system resources, allowing the machine to do more.

I feel some benchmark tests comming on when I get the new network cards now....