Gigabit NICs

[leaded]

I've had way too many problems with network drivers these days. Whether it be the the Intel drivers on our new Dells, or the Broadcoms on the HPs, I can't get anything to work at gigabit speeds. We're getting ready to make a purchase order and I'd like to hear from other users: What Gigabit NIC would you reccommend? I searched on this board and found a handful of people that said they liked Realtek... which specific model? I'd like to keep it PCI, no PCI-E (and is will a PCI-X card work in 32-bit mode in a PCI slot? If so, that's crazy).

Thanks!

[pparks1]

What types of problems have you been having? We have gig nics in our HP servers (which are Broadcom based) and gig nics in our Dells (broadcoms as well) and I haven't experienced any problems with any of them. We plug into Cisco Catalyst 6509's and Cisco Catalyst 4006's.

[leaded]

With the Intels, I can't get the NICs to work with the e1000 driver, only with the e100. With the Broadcom, they're not detected on boot and I haven't gone any further than that. I'd rather say "hey, this NIC will definately work." We've got money to spend on this task order and I'd rather do minimal effort :)

[sej7278]

Depends what you're expecting from gigabit.

Best I've ever seen is about 700Mbps, and that's from Sun servers using fibre, I've seen 600Mbps from a 4000usd PCI-X card on a dual Xeon with some kernel optimisations and about 200Mbps from a 7usd Realtek 8169 card ;)

Don't forget there's the TCP/IP overheads, plus the speed of your disks is a limiting factor, and if they support jumbo frames, your switch could be crap, are you using CAT 5e/6....

Personally I hate Intel gig NICs, that e1000 driver is seriously whack.

[leaded]

I'm expecting more than ~9.5 MB/s when transferring files between two computers that are right next to each other :D

We have Gigabit switches from Netgear and a bunch of Cat6 cable. I know about the TCP/IP overhead and the disks and what not, but I simple have not been able to get the drivers to work.

Which Realtek's are people using?

[huw-l]

I've had way too many problems with network drivers these days. Whether it be the the Intel drivers on our new Dells, or the Broadcoms on the HPs, I can't get anything to work at gigabit speeds. We're getting ready to make a purchase order and I'd like to hear from other users: What Gigabit NIC would you reccommend? I searched on this board and found a handful of people that said they liked Realtek... which specific model? I'd like to keep it PCI, no PCI-E (and is will a PCI-X card work in 32-bit mode in a PCI slot? If so, that's crazy).

Thanks!

Most of the gigabit cards we have at work are intel using the e1000 driver. We also have some sk98lin (marvell/braodcom) cards all running fine under fedora1 and centos4. The only problems we have had so far are that sometimes we get a dodgy batch of cable stopping the cards from negotiating up to gigabit.

When you say "not working" what do you mean?

Did the installer pick the cards up?
Do you get network when you boot the machine?
Or are the cards reporting that they are fine but only negotiating to 100base rather than gigabit?

[leaded]

On my P4 HPs, the spec sheet I found online said it has an integrated Intel Pro/100 NIC. The installer didn't pick it up. Those were the last batch of computers I was working with, and I didn't feel like the hassle of adding another NIC later so I put in a 10/100 from an old P3 and re-ran the installer.

Before that I had tried the AMD64 HPs with Broadcom Gigabit Nics. The drivers worked fine in the install and afterwards, but I only get 100Mb speed.

The first one, and most frustrating for me, were our P4 Dells (5100C). They come with an integrated Intel Pro/1000. The installer didn't pick it up. The e1000 driver compiled but would not recognize the NIC. I ended up compiling and using the e100, since the e100 driver found it, but, once again, I'm running a 100Mb-ish connection.

I know there's more ways to troubleshoot these problems, but I'm not interested in that, but I really do appreciate the help. We're going to give these systems to the Windows developers and buy some new hardware. I was looking for some people could tell me "Buy this PCI card" with the exact model number or something so I can place an order and expect installation of the device and the driver to go smoothly. We have the $$$ to buy whatever (well, within REASON) so I'm up for anything.

What Realtek model should I pick up? Which Intel Gigabit PCI NIC would people recommend? I would not prefer Intel, just because of my previous driver issues, unless someone can say "It'll work."

I think these will ultimately wind up on CentOS 4.2 (4.3, whatever) systems, so anything used on FC4 that isn't bleeding edge should work for me.

Thanks :)

[leaded]

Anyone? Which Realtek model works? What about Intel?

[bitrain]

I have a: Realtek RTL-8169 gigabit adapter
and I get 26 MB/s (my HD can't go any faster).

[leaded]

Thanks!!!!