# Onboard Giga nic or Dedicated nic?



## FreedomEclipse (Oct 14, 2013)

Ive been googling around regarding this subject, and while the general consensus says not to bother going with a dedicated LAN card (unless its made by realtek because their just junk) Theres not actually any outstanding reasons why not to get a dedicated card apart from it maybe being a waste of money & space.

Quite a lot of the mid-high end motherboards these days come with a decent built in Intel nic but do you think getting a dedicated nic is worthwhile?

Im running a gigabit LAN, i regularly transfer files over between my PC and NAS, but im also a gamer and getting lower latency is always an added bonus.

the built in nic is a Intel 82579V which I have had no problems with so far, its fast enough for gaming, fast enough for data transfers and pretty much anything require but im still trying to find ways where i can squeeze out every last ounce of advantage wherever I can and dedicated nic's are something I haven't touched in a LOOOOOOONG time.


If i were to get a dedicated nic it would be a Intel EXPI9301CTBLK PRO1000

So I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

And yes - I know that having a dedicated nic can make very little performance if nothing at all when it comes to gaming as I have observed over the years with Bigfoot's Killer Nic.

Worth it? Yes or no?


::EDIT::

Also reading through quite a few user feedback/reviews on newegg about the same dedicated Intel Nic and reviews are quite positive. with most people stating that their internet browsing feels more responsive, pages load up faster, faster downloads & Uploads etc etc and one of the reviewers even has a Asus Sabertooth AMD board. Lots of mishmash of platforms Z77, X79 etc etc - reviews are quite positive


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## Frick (Oct 14, 2013)

There is no need. Latency is important sure, but one or two ms here and there is not.

And about the edit thing, I really don't believe that. It's like people saying AMD setups just feel faster, that is a load of hogwash. It depends on what they are comparing it too though. If you run crappy wireless NIC's over a crappy router and then switch to a good Intel nic and you have a fast internet connection you might notice the change.


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## repman244 (Oct 14, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> with most people stating that their internet browsing feels more responsive, pages load up faster, faster downloads & Uploads etc etc and one of the reviewers even has a Asus Sabertooth AMD board.



These people also claim that HDD's are faster on SATA3. 
If someone took out the NIC without them knowing they wouldn't notice...

I would say that for general use it's not worth it.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 14, 2013)

Well, newegg reviews/feedback aside. Reviews on other sites are also quite positive.


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## Seany1212 (Oct 15, 2013)

repman244 said:


> These people also claim that HDD's are faster on SATA3.
> If someone took out the NIC without them knowing they wouldn't notice...
> 
> I would say that for general use it's not worth it.



I also agree it's not worth it, the performance difference between on-board and dedicated (if there is one) isn't going to be enough to be quantifiable no matter how much you say your browser 'responds quicker'.

As long as you're on a gigabit ethernet, with a gigabit ethernet router (at which point you'll be optimized for your NAS transfers) you're always going to be limited by the latency and bandwidth provided from your internet connection (unless you happen to have one of those miracle gigabit fiber networks!).

It seems however your still quite set on it though because of your comment about the reviews.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Oct 15, 2013)

If it has onboard intel nic, no need for seperate imo.


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## remixedcat (Oct 15, 2013)

I would get a dedicated Intel one if you plan on doing anything with hypervisors due to compatibility and ease of management. Most hypervisors have drivers for Intel NIC (but are scarce on other brands) and work great, as they are the most used in servers.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Oct 15, 2013)

My on board Intel nic has more settings than i know what they are for.


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## Aquinus (Oct 15, 2013)

It's really not worth it unless you need an extra network connection or you're planning on using 10Gbps, which is still very expensive. Most internal ethernet adapters use PCI-E and will respond fairly quickly and can saturate 1Gbps.


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## ne6togadno (Oct 15, 2013)

not worht
what you realy need for gaming is router/switch that has high WAN to LAN and LAN to WAN throughtput. you can use this to find what router can utilize those cat6 cables you have invested in. charts are mostly for wearless routers but there are few wired entries. you can use filters to sort em.


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## Ja.KooLit (Oct 15, 2013)

For home use, nah dont even bother...... it will just populate your PCI slots wherein much better if you have soundcard instead or other necessary accessories instead.....

if you however use it on server, might be good. But like other people claimed, thats also depending on your connection / router. Even if you have the fastest and best router but you have a crappy connection, no point. It wouldnt even matter even if you have dedicated NIC card....

I have been using my onboard NIC, not so good router (DIR-655) but got a good connection (100mbps) at home, no problem...... guess soon i will find a very good router cause they are always upgrading here on their connections


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 15, 2013)

I was tempted to buy the Intel nic but i decided not to. Would be nice to test one out though but i don't have a spare intel nic for that. Maybe at a later date I might grab one just for the lols


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 30, 2013)

Small update, I did quite a lot of lurking and re-search. and i purchased a EXPI9400PT and EXPI9301CT.

I purchased both because I was a complete tard and didnt find out that the CT is newer and the successor of the PT which was released in '05, by then it was already too late to cancel the order of the PT.

Both cards should arrive tomorrow so i'll be able to have a close look at them and find out how different the cards really are before i send the PT back for a refund.

Depending what time they arrive I might not have time to test them as im doing the 12-9pm shift. Should be home in time for BF4 to be launched here in the UK so BF4 will become my testing ground.

Should be fun to see what difference it makes though I already know the 'improvements' wont exactly be a huge leap forward. 

Might just make for slightly lower ping/latency, smoother gameplay as the network performance is more consistent.

should make a difference in file transfer tests though and i juggle files between my pc and NAS quite a lot


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## brandonwh64 (Oct 30, 2013)

If you are building a router then I would say yea a add in dual NIC would be worth it but for gaming and file transfers I would say no unless your motherboard only has 10/100


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## Frick (Oct 30, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Might just make for slightly lower ping/latency, smoother gameplay as the network performance is more consistent.



It shouldn't be noticable. More consistent maybe, but as I said before, a few microseconds here and there has little impact on anything.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 30, 2013)

nope. not building a router, though I might do when i eventually get my own place  I will build a super server that would put most super servers to shame.

Ive only got space on my setup for 1 nic so its gonna be which ever one performs better. but I kinda want the PT because it has a heatsink on it 

the CT should offer better if not the same performance so its a bit of a moot point keeping the PT when the PT is the more expensive card out of the two and i dont need it


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## brandonwh64 (Oct 30, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> nope. not building a router, though I might do when i eventually get my own place  I will build a super server that would put most super servers to shame.
> 
> Ive only got space on my setup for 1 nic so its gonna be which ever one performs better. but I kinda want the PT because it has a heatsink on it
> 
> the CT should offer better if not the same performance so its a bit of a moot point keeping the PT when i can get quite a bit of money back



You could do speed tests with both the card plus your onboard and I would venture to say there wont be much of a difference.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 30, 2013)

Well, part of curiosity was drawn from this guys video










If you jump to 1:40 he uses speedtest.net to test out internet transfere speeds and the intel was ahead by a fair margin, and when it comes to web surfing most people who did run with didicated nics say web surfing became more responsive/smoother.

but overall you're probably right. I dont think there will be a huge amount of difference but I wont know that till I get one of these plugged in and see for myself.

Think of it as an experiment if you will. 

For a long time motherboards have come with built in nics and people have got used to plugging straight into that instead of going with a dedicated nic. Also theres very few threads about the whole built-in vs dedicated nic on the internets and those threads are answered by people who have never even tried running with a decent dedicated nic let alone thought about it and just advise to stick to built in unless their having trouble with it because its the easiest answer/solution. But then again the Intel Pro CT network cards don't exactly cost a lot and its worth a punt.

If there is negligible difference with both cards at the end of the day then i can even send both of them back


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## EarthDog (Oct 30, 2013)

Intel NIC is the best out of most others, including the Killer NIC. That said, I sure as hell wouldn't worry about it unless you are getting paid to play games.

This has been tested a bit on the net as well... perhaps try some google to see some results.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 31, 2013)

Well, I missed the morning delivery. but i swear the delivery guy didnt give me enough time to get out of bed to open the door. by the time i managed to open the door I didnt even get to see him walking away so at least id know which direction to chase him.

What an asshole. I bet it was because it was raining that he didnt want to stand out there for another 5 seconds.

Tried to get out of work the next day just so i can be home cuz my dad was home but hes sleeping like a fucking bear after coming home from night shift so i know i cant rely on him.

Boss said no but hes pushed my shift back abit so i start at 12pm instead of 10pm. *sigh* guy was begging me to go into work because they didnt have anyone else to cover the shift. I so wanted to get drunk and play BF4 all night


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## Aquinus (Oct 31, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I so wanted to get drunk and play BF4 all night



You can still get drunk.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 31, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> You can still get drunk.



No fun when i cant play BF4 all night


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## v12dock (Oct 31, 2013)

Benching a NIC with speedtest is terrible, if you want lower latency and faster speeds complain to your ISP and they will most likely do nothing about it. If you want a good look at your ISP and level 1 providers they peer with look into the atlas.ripe.net(free)project. If you are looking for improvements locally then a second NIC might help.


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## Aquinus (Oct 31, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> No fun when i cant play BF4 all night



I don't have BF4 and somehow wine plus other games seem to work just as well. Try to not let it ruin your evening.


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 1, 2013)

Well im home and currently got the Intel Pro PT card installed. Web browsing is definitely a little more snappy even when im downloading flat out  

Lurked around some of the pro settings which my insignificant mind cant even begin to comprehend and hey this thing offloads UDP checksums, which should make a small amount of difference in gaming. I havent been able to test yet as im just chillaxing and having a cuppa tea. I might load up a few games in a moment and see if the game play is any different.

Im also getting faster transfer rates between my pc & NAS so things are looking better already though not exactly progressing forward in leaps and bounds


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## Aquinus (Nov 2, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Im also getting faster transfer rates between my pc & NAS so things are looking better already though not exactly progressing forward in leaps and bounds



If your switch supports it, you could try giving jumbo frames a try. You may be able to squeeze a little more bandwidth out of it.


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 2, 2013)

Its already set to running 9k jumbo frames. I think the limiting factor here is the NAS itself, Its not exactly the most expensive one or powerful one of the market for that matter. 

Another great feature of these intel nics is the built in diagnostics. I ran the cable test to tell how good my cable is and the tests vary from being good to utter shit in whatever tests it did so I have no idea whats going on there. Im in the middle of downloads right now so i will run the diagnostics again later and talk about it in more detail.

the cable works fine though... Its not some cheap Cat5e cable, Its cat6. cost me a pretty penny it did. Compared to the cat5e's i got off ebay the Cat6 is a lot thicker and heavy duty. 

I need to find out who the big IT infrastructuring guys get their cables from.


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## remixedcat (Nov 2, 2013)

Do a LST comparison comparing the two NICs.


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## Nordic (Nov 2, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Well im home and currently got the Intel Pro PT card installed. Web browsing is definitely a little more snappy even when im downloading flat out
> 
> Lurked around some of the pro settings which my insignificant mind cant even begin to comprehend and hey this thing offloads UDP checksums, which should make a small amount of difference in gaming. I havent been able to test yet as im just chillaxing and having a cuppa tea. I might load up a few games in a moment and see if the game play is any different.
> 
> Im also getting faster transfer rates between my pc & NAS so things are looking better already though not exactly progressing forward in leaps and bounds





FreedomEclipse said:


> Its already set to running 9k jumbo frames. I think the limiting factor here is the NAS itself, Its not exactly the most expensive one or powerful one of the market for that matter.
> 
> Another great feature of these intel nics is the built in diagnostics. I ran the cable test to tell how good my cable is and the tests vary from being good to utter shit in whatever tests it did so I have no idea whats going on there. Im in the middle of downloads right now so i will run the diagnostics again later and talk about it in more detail.
> 
> ...



Interesting. I am very eager to hear more.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Nov 2, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Well im home and currently got the Intel Pro PT card installed. Web browsing is definitely a little more snappy even when im downloading flat out
> 
> Lurked around some of the pro settings which my insignificant mind cant even begin to comprehend and hey this thing offloads UDP checksums, which should make a small amount of difference in gaming. I havent been able to test yet as im just chillaxing and having a cuppa tea. I might load up a few games in a moment and see if the game play is any different.
> 
> Im also getting faster transfer rates between my pc & NAS so things are looking better already though not exactly progressing forward in leaps and bounds



Like this, mine are on by default.


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## remixedcat (Nov 2, 2013)

Have a showdown!!! Intel NIC vs THE KILLER NIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Deleted member 24505 (Nov 2, 2013)

remixedcat said:


> Have a showdown!!! Intel NIC vs THE KILLER NIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I don't even understand most of the advanced settings :S


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## remixedcat (Nov 2, 2013)

VLANs>Creates a virtual network that partitions segments of the network regardless of thier physical location. (Ex:R&D,Sales,MGMT,Guest,etc)

Packet priority/VLAN> Quality of Service: This ties into VLANs so you can have some of those segments of the network with higher priority then others. (this takes QoS on a per client level and makes it for whole network segments)

Teaming>Load balancing/failover for NICs. If one Nic isn't so quick then the other takes over. 

And... I'd have to see the rest of the options to explain more...


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## Nordic (Nov 2, 2013)

remixedcat said:


> And... I'd have to see the rest of the options to explain more...



Please do!


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## remixedcat (Nov 2, 2013)

Master-Slave>used for hypervisors

Flow Control>prevents overloads (corresponds to teaming as well)

Local Administered Address>Virtual MAC address (used for hypervisors as well)

Rest are self explaining...


But seriously someone needs to do a showdown of both of these in gaming and streaming and file ops performance. I'd love to but I'm broke


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## Nordic (Nov 2, 2013)

What could I gain by bumping up by transmit and receive buffers a bit?


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## remixedcat (Nov 2, 2013)

It MIGHT help... however keep those values the same as eachother if you change it.


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## Nordic (Nov 2, 2013)

They default to different. 256 and 512 respectively. If I were to changed them I would probably go to 512 and 1024. My question was what could I gain? A few more kbps of bandwidth? A few milliseconds better latency?


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## remixedcat (Nov 2, 2013)

A little less lag... that feature was put in to offload more stuff to the NIC rather then the CPU, however I don't think it's that needed for regular use, however on servers it sees more benefits. 

I'd just give it a try and see if it works out for you. It's basically packet stacking optimization.


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## Steevo (Nov 2, 2013)

james888 said:


> Please do!
> http://i.imgur.com/G1dZNww.png
> http://i.imgur.com/Z0VAZ0g.png
> http://i.imgur.com/g724MIY.png



Most of that would only be used/useful when running a hub instead of a switch. Which would put you in 1980 something.

Checksum offload only means the NIC hardware performs the checksum on data its hardware is capable of, and at more expense in network throughput, at best you may save half of 1% of one core workload. Back when a CPU ran at 200Mhz the 1-3% would be worth it.


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 2, 2013)

Well i was too tired to get any testing done last night but i got 2 days off to really play about with the set up when i get home at 7 tonight. Apart from transfer speed and gaming tests, im not sure what other tests to run


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## remixedcat (Nov 2, 2013)

Play some media with  MEDIA PLAYERS!!!! he he


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 2, 2013)

For streaming you mean?


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## Steevo (Nov 2, 2013)

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infoc...ftungd/doc/prftungd/tcp_checksum_offload.htm1


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## remixedcat (Nov 2, 2013)

Yes.


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## de.das.dude (Nov 2, 2013)

one reason to get a dedicated nic the ISP h/w trustworthyness.

for eg, here we might get thunderstorms and its not uncommon for a stray bit of lightning to get into the line.
if your onboard fries, you will lose the warranty on your mobo.
but if you use a NIC, its unlikely that the surge will be able to skip a burnt chip. and onto your system.

so better to burn a cheaper nic than risk voiding the whole warranty.



i have seen 3 occasions of this happening and none of the  times did the surge jump into anything more than the motherboard NIC.


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## Frick (Nov 2, 2013)

de.das.dude said:


> one reason to get a dedicated nic the ISP h/w trustworthyness.
> 
> for eg, here we might get thunderstorms and its not uncommon for a stray bit of lightning to get into the line.
> if your onboard fries, you will lose the warranty on your mobo.
> ...



Here in the Civilization we unplug our electronics when thunderstorms goes by.


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## remixedcat (Nov 2, 2013)

I also use a UPS


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## Aquinus (Nov 2, 2013)

remixedcat said:


> I also use a UPS



Exactly. I don't want to just protect myself from thunderstorms, but I want to flip them off at the same time too. Who cares when the lights flicker and your UPS instantly takes over.


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## Steevo (Nov 2, 2013)

I run outside and hold a metal pole in the air while wearing an aluminum foil suit to protect my electronics, the rest of you have no dedication. 


Pass me the vodka.


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 3, 2013)

its just coming to 10.25pm, Not really had much time to test today, but playing some BF4 definitely felt a bit better (before client crashed towards the end of the game)

I cant really seem to explain but my experience just felt smoother. even when i was in game with Reayth on a 100ms+ ping server (Im a Euro dont forget)


I wish i had an entire week just to enjoy and test the nic out a little more but i start work again on tuesday :/


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 17, 2013)

Well, Ive had quite a while to test the Pro PT nic.


Generally speaking im quite happy with the performance, However I dont know if its the nic thats making my BF4 crash (its most likely BF4 itself) but I have had the game completely crash my PC twice now for no good reason, And it cant be an unstable CPU OC because most days when I can play for a few hours - I can go the entire day without a complete system crash in BF4 and I can play other games just perfectly. Either BF4 is causing the PC to crash or the PT Pro is... Anyhoo Im gonna swap the PT out for the CT in about 45mins then have a go on that nic for a while and see if theres any real difference


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## remixedcat (Nov 17, 2013)

Could it a be an Origin issue? sometimes it gets finicky when you mess with your network config. 

It freaks out a bit when I change my NIC settings for VMs.


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 17, 2013)

I dunno what it could be, Ive switched to the CT now anyway.

the only settings ive changed are for jumbo packets and send/recieve buffers


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## Aquinus (Nov 17, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> the only settings ive changed are for jumbo packets and send/recieve buffers



I would disable jumbo frames. It won't help unless every hop supports jumbo frames and most ISPs have an MTU of 1500. It could cause issues.


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## digibucc (Nov 17, 2013)

on gigabit ethernet unless you're transferring between 2 ssds on sata 6, your hdd's will always limit your speed before your nic. after hdds will be your isp. a nic will make no real difference.


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 17, 2013)

digibucc said:


> on gigabit ethernet unless you're transferring between 2 ssds on sata 6, your hdd's will always limit your speed before your nic. after hdds will be your isp. a nic will make no real difference.



well Its a bit late as i already have both intel nic's but I beg to differ, Im getting better transfer speeds between my PC & NAS, gaming seems to be smoother too and general browsing feels a little snappier. Even though the improvements were small and probably not worth the price of a Intel PT Pro, the Intel CT is definitely more affordable and has most of the features of the Pro PT

If people have a little money to splash, transfer a fair amount of data across networks then a Intel CT is definitely worth investing in for the price.

Even though the Pro PT worked fine for me, I probably wasnt able put the kind of pressure on it that it would normally see if it was installed into an active server. I dont run servers or VMs which this nic works really well with as it has great driver support behind it. In a sense its a waste of money and also a nic which is capable of doing so much but 'demoted' to doing mundane tasks such as offloading TCP/UDP checksum and processing off the CPU when all cores are in use (i.e for gaming) 

I am currently testing the Intel CT. But for the record I am going to keep the PT Pro because somewhere in the future I hope to build my own Server or NAS and Pro PT will definitely be put to good use.


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## digibucc (Nov 17, 2013)

so my assumption is we just have a different idea of what a real difference is. i didn't mean there was no technical difference whatsoever, i just meant for 99% of people that just use a regular pc, it's absolutely a waste.

that being said, just because it's unnecessary doesn't mean you shouldn't have it. i've got a 2011 system, pretty much completely unnecessary, but i appreciate the room for growth so i understand that.


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 17, 2013)

well here at TPU we dont just cater towards 'regular pc' users  Obviously they probably wouldnt care eitherway and tbvh nor did I as I have been using the built-in nics since the dawn of time with since my first ever build back in 2000-2001

But for the most part I agree, 99% of people dont really have a need for dedicated nic's or nic's made by Intel for that matter - a $8-10 TP-Link gigabit nic will work fine for that 99% providing they need one at all - maybe their board only supports 10/100mb ethernet LAN or the built-in nic is either made by monkeys like Realtek thats prone to malfunction & poor performance or their built-in has packed up altogether and they need to install a dedicated nic.

Like i said - the CT provides excellent value for money even though they're not as dirt cheap as TP-Link, star tech, tenda, Dynamode or belkin but for the extra money paid you get better drivers, a quality made nic, more/better features and lifetime warranty from Intel.

Obviously for the hardcore farmville generation - it wont make fuckall difference


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## ShiBDiB (Nov 17, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> reasons why not to get a dedicated card apart from it maybe being a waste of money & space.



If you need more of a reason than that you honestly might have issues... 

Dedicated lan cards/nic's are about as useful as the $100 platinum plated hdmi cables. Theirs a market for them because people believe everything they read on the box.


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 17, 2013)

ShiBDiB said:


> If you need more of a reason than that you honestly might have issues...
> 
> Dedicated lan cards/nic's are about as useful as the $100 platinum plated hdmi cables. Theirs a market for them because people believe everything they read on the box.



With the killernic yes - that was a total bunch of crap but honestly. Theres never going to be a night and day difference, I never said there was going to be but I have experienced faster LAN transfer speeds and smoother gaming so who am I to argue? Unless you want to straight out tell me Im wrong?

Even competitive gamers who go to LAN tourneys run dedicated nic's - Whatever it takes to offload the processing from the CPU that will give them an advantage even if its only just a few frames more is still an advantage. Are you going to tell them that their wrong too??

How about if I made myself a super server with 24TBs of Raid 5/6 which i used as a public file server? how about data centers that need to constantly transfer terabytes of data across the globe? or those guys that boot up linux and manage loads of VM systems?

are they all wrong too because 'they believe everything on the box' ?


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## Frick (Nov 17, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> general browsing feels a little snappier.



Confirmation bias.


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 17, 2013)

Frick said:


> Confirmation bias.




This was certainly a constructive post and add much needed missing info to the thread.

If you havent got anything more to say, please move along


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## ShiBDiB (Nov 17, 2013)

Everyone will tell you that you wasted money if you bought one for a home pc.. Keep using your corporate level server comparisons if it makes you feel better about the money you wasted.


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## Aquinus (Nov 17, 2013)

Frick said:


> Confirmation bias.



I agree. I think some myths need to be debunked.



FreedomEclipse said:


> This was certainly a constructive post and add much needed missing info to the thread.



Oh, please. Let me take over for Frick.



FreedomEclipse said:


> Even competitive gamers who go to LAN tourneys run dedicated nic's - Whatever it takes to offload the processing from the CPU that will give them an advantage even if its only just a few frames more is still an advantage. Are you going to tell them that their wrong too??



As a system admin, I will say straight up, that it doesn't matter unless your rocking the slowest CPU you could find. More often than not games can't even fully utilize the capabilities of a multi-core processor so that "improvement" you speak of doesn't exist because you're already using free CPU time to process network traffic which really isn't a whole lot. At work I would be lucky to see 2% CPU usage on a dual-core 2Ghz Xeon during the day on our gateway server.

So yes, from my own experience, they are wrong and it's simply placebo effect which you confirmed yourself by saying "general browsing *feels* a little snappier." Is it actually any faster or is it not?

Additionally, in a LAN environment where latency is already <2ms, any benefit will be useless because by the time you get that extra millisecond, you're brain is still waiting for neurons to fire off.



FreedomEclipse said:


> How about if I made myself a super server with 24TBs of Raid 5/6 which i used as a public file server? how about data centers that need to constantly transfer terabytes of data across the globe? or those guys that boot up linux and manage loads of VM systems?
> 
> are they all wrong too because 'they believe everything on the box' ?



No, people doing this stuff are probably in a data center where they could easily be using 10Gbps, in which case, you're not even using the same kind of hardware and for those who are still rocking 1Gbps, it makes little difference. I've even done testing and the only benefit would be bandwidth when using jumbo frames on a network where both endpoints and everything in between runs jumbo frames and you're only looking at maybe 8-10MB/s more. Addionally, there is a very slight overhead hit you take on latency when you run jumbo frames. Don't try to talk about something you don't have experience with and don't make claims without some backup.

All in all, if you really feel that you need to justify your "upgrade" to us, give us something we can sink our teeth into, like numbers. Instead of saying "it feels snappy," which is unhelpful in itself.


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## remixedcat (Nov 18, 2013)

I can completely see the need to have that NIC if you do anything with enterprise stuff like hypervisors and server stuff like I indicated earlier. 

Hypervisors like Vmware and Hyper-v Interface better with Intel NICs, as they have the drivers built in and are plug-n-play rather then you needing to build the other NIC vendor's drivers into the image. 

This is why datacenters use Intel NICs for this reason.


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## Flash (Nov 18, 2013)

I'm actually thinking of buying a dedicated nic, maybe intel as I see most of you guys recommend it. My msi mobo came with the junk killer onboard nic. That thing is just crap. 

If I enable application management, it actually randomly spiking up my ping to 999 while playing games. Not to mention if I download anything while gaming. I was under the impression that application management was to give priority to your applications. Well I set my game to priority 1, firefox to 4 or whatever the lowest is, and my ping goes haywire in-game if I do any kind of download. I ended up disabling this application management. 

But even so, downloading or streaming still messes up my ping in-game. Also, the ping is not any better than my old Realtek onboard I had on my old Gigabyte board.

Unless someone can point me to some drivers that maybe fixes this, I would say stay far away from this killer gimick


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## remixedcat (Nov 18, 2013)

I want one for my hypervisors


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## EarthDog (Nov 18, 2013)

The killer NIC is not crap. It is not as good as the Intel, but it isn't crap. Last time I used it, she worked like a champ.


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## remixedcat (Nov 18, 2013)

Do you still have it? If so please do a review on it and compare it to the Intel one!


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## digibucc (Nov 18, 2013)

I have an integrated killernic and all i can say is the software is ridiculous, i hate it. clumsy, and removing it removes the drivers for the nic.


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