StarTech.com Announces Low-Profile Dual Port PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Card

[btarunr]

StarTech.com, a leading manufacturer of hard-to-find connectivity parts has announced the release of the (SKU: ST1000SPEXD2) Low Profile Dual Port PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Network Card - a PCI Express Network Adapter Card that supports high performance, dual-channel networking and maximum data transfer speeds of 1000 Mbps in each direction (2000 Mbps total) - up to 10 times faster than 10/100 Ethernet.

The network card is ideal for adding two separate Gigabit network ports to any PCI Express-enabled client, server or workstation, which enables the host system to connect to two networks simultaneously. The network card features a low profile design that makes it suitable for small form factor computers (servers, desktops), and includes an optional full profile bracket for installation in full-sized computer systems and larger servers.



The Dual Port PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Card (SKU: ST1000SPEXD2) offers the following features:

• Supports features such as Jumbo Frames, VLAN tagging and Wake on LAN (WOL)
• Fully compatible with IEEE 802.3/u/ab standards
• Includes full and low profile installation brackets
• Crossover Detection & Auto-Correction (Auto MDIX)

The Dual Port PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Card is available for purchase from leading technology resellers including Insight, Amazon.co.uk and Dabs and will also be distributed by Enta, Ingram Micro and Micro-P. MSRP for this product is £133.99 in the United Kingdom.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

Those are hardly $20 worth components. It's not even like it has some fancy Broadcom stuff. Just cheap Realtek PHYs, and a TI-made PCIe bridge.

 

[Maban]

What changed from the ST1000SPEXDP?

 

[Deleted member 3]

What sets this apart from existing dual port NICs? It's not cheap and I see no non-standard features. It's not really a "hard-to-find connectivity part". Seems more of an ad than it is news this way.

 

[Yukikaze]

This is a weird release. Nothing new, nor anything cheap for what it packs.

 

[bear jesus]

When i first looked at the price i thought it was a typo, can anyone explain to me why this seams to be so expensive compared to other options with similar, the same or better specs?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

pitty you cant dual link like some Asus boards allow you and have even more bandwidth. that would be a pretty kick ass feature.

 

[Deleted member 3]

pitty you can dual link some Asus boards allow you and have even more bandwidth. that would be a pretty kick ass feature.

How is Asus involved in this article? Also, you can combine ports using link aggregation, though I see no support listed in this article. Most basic chips do support it nowadays though.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Jackcon caps... ooohh... this is pure piece of shit...

Who want some Intel NIC?

[edit]No free ads for random eBay sellers. Though the point that you can get a dual port Intel NIC for $60 is fair.[/edit]

 

[FreedomEclipse]

How is Asus involved in this article? Also, you can combine ports using link aggregation, though I see no support listed in this article. Most basic chips do support it nowadays though.

Sorry, I was supposed to say 'pitty you **CANT** dual link them like some Asus boards' -- give a guy that just got out of bed after a night of drinking till 4am time to catch up.

 

[Deleted member 3]

Sorry, I was supposed to say 'pitty you **CANT** dual link them like some Asus boards' -- give a guy that just got out of bed after a night of drinking till 4am time to catch up.

Doesn't change the fact that I don't get the involvement of Asus motherboards. Plus, it doesn't say you can't aggregate, no clue what chips these cards use.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Doesn't change the fact that I don't get the involvement of Asus motherboards. Plus, it doesn't say you can't aggregate, no clue what chips these cards use.

there is **NO** involvement with Asus boards. - you are misunderstanding my original post.

I said PITTY they couldnt support dual link Like some Asus boards. - Some Asus boards have dual Giga network ports and you can plug a cable into each of them and with some asus software have them 'dual linked' so they function as 1 cable but have the throughput of 2 as the software probably dedicates one cable to all outgoing data and the other one to all incoming data - Dont ask me how it works as I dont know since I have never used the software or feature before on ANY of my asus boards, but the feature is still there if you need it.

- not trying to be rude (last thing i want to do is piss off a mod/admin ) but if you still dont understand what ive written after this - maybe you should take a break from TPU for a bit.

 

[Deleted member 3]

there is **NO** involvement with Asus boards. - you are misunderstanding my original post.

I said PITTY they couldnt support dual link Like some Asus boards. - Some Asus boards have dual Giga network ports and you can plug a cable into each of them and with some asus software have them 'dual linked' so they function as 1 cable but have the throughput of 2 as the software probably dedicates one cable to all outgoing data and the other one to all incoming data - Dont ask me how it works as I dont know since I have never used the software or feature before on ANY of my asus boards, but the feature is still there if you need it.

- not trying to be rude (last thing i want to do is piss off a mod/admin ) but if you still dont understand what ive written after this - maybe you should take a break from TPU for a bit.

That's not a feature of the Asus board but rather of the network chip (ie Intel, Broadcom), it's called link aggregation. IEEE 802.3ad. And it definitely does not get you twice the bandwidth, it's quite inefficient in my experience. It has nothing to do with dedicating cables to a direction as that's called duplex, full duplex meaning you have 1GB both ways, which technically is 2GB bandwidth. See it as RAID 0 for LAN. Instead of 2 disks you have 2 cables.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

That's not a feature of the Asus board but rather of the network chip (ie Intel, Broadcom)

well....Ive only seen it being advertised as a feature on Asus boards. excuse me.

it's called link aggregation. IEEE 802.3ad. And it definitely does not get you twice the bandwidth, it's quite inefficient in my experience. It has nothing to do with dedicating cables to a direction as that's called duplex, full duplex meaning you have 1GB both ways, which technically is 2GB bandwidth. See it as RAID 0 for LAN. Instead of 2 disks you have 2 cables.

I never once admitted or claimed to know how it works, as I have never seen it being used or used it myself - ive only heard of one random person on the forum using it and that was so long ago i cant even remember who it was that posted it.

It was just a random guess on my behalf just like when i say that i think the Hadron collider could be powered by pixies, ranbows and unicorns.

Still interesting to know that the feature is indeed a gimmick anyway, I always thought of it of being something pretty cool, but ive never needed it. I have 3-4 systems hooked up in my room through an unmanned gigaswitch that gives me transfer rates anywhere upto 50-80mb/s - but that depends which system im transfering from as i do have some older hardware in some which is potentially bottlenecking the transfer speeds.

 

[Deleted member 3]

That's why I'm explaining.

It's not a gimmick per se. It's mostly used as backup though, similar to RAID 1. One cable fails, other takes over.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

The only potential issue i see with this product is the fact that peoples PCI-E (16x, 8x, 4x & 1x) slots are usually already taken up by a soundcard, graphics card, either/or something similar to OCZ's revo drive.

even if the intended market is mainly for OEMs, most motherboards already come with decent gigabit ports so i fail to see what this adds aside from being able do daisy chain computers but that will probably cause a lot of latency issues and interference if your connection has to go through about 5 or 10 computers before reaching an internet hub.

People on a budget are probably pretty satisfied with their built in network card to spend money on a new one unless that one stops working for random reasons

 

[jsfitz54]

no clue what chips these cards use

Picture shows a Texas Instruments logo on the large chip.

Two smaller chips show Realtek logo.

 

[Deleted member 3]

Picture shows a Texas Instruments logo on the large chip.

Two smaller chips show Realtek logo.

Can't read that on this monitor... though if the ports are controlled by Realtek chips it's even worse.

 

[Mussels]

startech reminds me of star trek.


SOMEONE SUE THEM.

 

[ypsylon]

If anyone is really interested in additional NICs then most certainly he will pick Intel based add-on card(s). Not some cheap and crappy Realtek antiques with Startech "brand" on top. It doesn't make any sense to buy this. No matter how desperate you are.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

If anyone is really interested in additional NICs then most certainly he will pick Intel based add-on card(s). Not some cheap and crappy Realtek antiques with Startech "brand" on top. It doesn't make any sense to buy this. No matter how desperate you are.

Most of the average Joe's don't know the difference between an Intel NIC or a realtek one and would rather buy the cheapest available on newegg or amazon

 

[Yukikaze]

Most of the average Joe's don't know the difference between an Intel NIC or a realtek one and would rather buy the cheapest available on newegg or amazon

Which, thankfully, isn't this