Which network adaptor should I get?

Tim Deegan · 06-10-2011, 10:23

I was just upgraded to 100mb by VM about half an hour ago. On the speed test it would only reach 76mb, but the engineer said that the problem is most likely my nework card Intel 82562V 10/100 (which is on board), and he suggested I get a new one.

My PC is an old Dell Dimension E520, Pentium D 3.40GHz, 3.39GHz, 3.00GB of Ram, running windows xp at the moment.

I'm going to pop out and buy a new card. Which cards do you all recommend?

DaiNasty · 06-10-2011, 10:24

Is that a typo Tim, upgraded to 50 but would only reach 76Mb?

I use Netgear GA311 gigabit cards. They've always worked well for me.

Tim Deegan · 06-10-2011, 10:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaiNasty

Is that a typo Tim, upgraded to 50 but would only reach 76Mb?

Oops, yes I upgraded to 100MB

DaiNasty · 06-10-2011, 10:27

In that case you need a new gigabit card as the 10/100 will never actually handle that speed. See recommendation above.

Tim Deegan · 06-10-2011, 10:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaiNasty

In that case you need a new gigabit card as the 10/100 will never actually handle that speed. See recommendation above.

Many thanks.

---------- Post added at 10:55 ---------- Previous post was at 10:33 ----------

Is this any good:

Dynamode PCIXGI PCI-Express Network Card

Interface: Ethernet
Network: Interface Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps
Network standards: IEEE 802.3, 802.3x, 802.3u and 802.1Q compliant
Ethernet norms: Gigabit (1000BaseT), 100BaseT & 10BaseT adaptive
Other Compatibility:
Windows™ 98/ME/2000/XP, Vista, 2003 Server, WinCE
MAC™ OS 9.x, MAC™ OS X, Linux®, Solaris®, Unix®
Novel® Netware™ 6+, FreeBSD® and DOS

Welshchris · 06-10-2011, 11:10

my mate put one of these in his missus computer the other day to run 100mb and works fine...

http://www.ebuyer.com/132471-tenda-g...price-tel9901g

Tim Deegan · 06-10-2011, 11:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Welshchris

my mate put one of these in his missus computer the other day to run 100mb and works fine...

http://www.ebuyer.com/132471-tenda-g...price-tel9901g

Wow, that's good for under £3.50

Welshchris · 06-10-2011, 20:31

will do the job for u to.

qasdfdsaq · 07-10-2011, 00:45

I'd suggest getting a new graphics card to be honest. Well, short of a new PC. Even crappy 100mbps ethernet cards have no problems doing 95mbps+

Speedtest.net is very CPU and graphics intensive and I'm guessing it's nothing to do with the network card, your machine just can't process the animations and data fast enough. Short of getting a new CPU (which requires a new motherboard, RAM, and power supply) some graphics acceleration would probably help. But only for running silly animated speedtest flash apps.

Matth · 07-10-2011, 23:52

What slots has it got spare, that Tenda card is traditional PCI, and is a decent "crab card", with the Realtek chipset, so you can go direct to Realtek for updates.

If you haven't upgraded the integrated network drivers, I'd try
http://downloadcenter.intel.com//Det...&DwnldID=18717
And then in the advanced settings there's a slider I'd suggest pulling a click or two away from max network performance, in order to lower the rate of interrupt generation. At max, it interrupts on every packet, and may compromise overall performance due to interrupt saturation.

The latest Realtek drivers also tend to have a "max performace" option, which I suspect makes them fiercer in CPU demand, so if you go the Realtek route, I'd suggest trying with that option on and off.