[K12OSN] Recommended Gigabit Network card?

[Jeff Siddall]

On 09/30/2010 12:16 PM, Joseph Bishay wrote:
> Hello Jeff,
> 
> On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 8:38 PM, Jeff Siddall <news at siddall.name> wrote:
>> Have you considered all the costs of using those old PCs?
> <snip>
>> I had access to a bunch of old PCs for my LTSP setup and I chose not to
>> use any of them since they ended up being more expensive than buying new.
>>
>> Jeff
> 
> I have yes -- the issue is that this is a matter of numbers up-front,
> rather than long-term costs.  It's a perception issue basically.
> While you are correct that a new motherboard will cost me $80 and save
> me $X in the future, it will still cost me $80 now.  That $80 I can't
> get approved -- not possible as I've already tried.
> 
> The best option to maintain good performance is to take these new
> computers we just received, and -- while spending as little as
> possible -- maximize their performance.  The server already has the
> maximum amount of RAM loaded into it, and has 2 gigabit network cards.
>  All the switches are gigabit also.  So the best remaining option is
> the NICs inside the clients.  Unless there is something else I've
> missed?

Understood.  Unfortunately some organizations have no long term vision.

Keep in mind though that going from FE to GE may not actually buy you
any performance as there may be processing or graphics subsystem
bottlenecks that are more of a limitation than bandwidth.

Best bet may be to try one with an onboard NIC and see if it works OK.
If not, buy a GE NIC and see if anything improves.

Jeff