Intel EXPI9400PT overkill for a home server?

[rosenberg1979]

so anyone use this card? is it overkill for a home server at $87.00? I'm rebuilding my system and I do prefer the intel nic's over the onboard. Generally only serve between 1-3 computers, some time streaming, some time file transfer, all with smb, some remote ftp access (only one at a time, me), some use for mmorpg, some use for bittorrent.

Run linux (suse 11.1) as my primary os. router is a d-link di-655 with a d-link gigabyte switch in the mix (has jumbo frame support too).

Should i wait for the little brother desktop card to come back into stock (Intel EXPI9301 CTBLK), or is this the superoir card and worth the extra $50?

Thanks.

 

[g3force]

so anyone use this card? is it overkill for a home server at $87.00? I'm rebuilding my system and I do prefer the intel nic's over the onboard. Generally only serve between 1-3 computers, some time streaming, some time file transfer, all with smb, some remote ftp access (only one at a time, me), some use for mmorpg, some use for bittorrent.

Run linux (suse 11.1) as my primary os. router is a d-link di-655 with a d-link gigabyte switch in the mix (has jumbo frame support too).

Should i wait for the little brother desktop card to come back into stock (Intel EXPI9301 CTBLK), or is this the superoir card and worth the extra $50?

Thanks.

IMO the LAN ports on your PC are probably sufficient unless your using your PC as a hub for a massive server array. As for latencies, I really doubt you'd see much of a difference between a separate NIC card vs. an onboard NIC.

 

[rosenberg1979]

it may just be me but i always found my intel nic much more stable connection wise than onboards. To bad i gave it away with my last old system. Now however i want one back and i thought i'd go pci-e this time. So go with the cheap one, if i go at all is your advice?

p.s. latencies, schmantencies, what i'm after is consistant high quality throughput primarily lan to lan

 

[Ignatowski]

it may just be me but i always found my intel nic much more stable connection wise than onboards. To bad i gave it away with my last old system. Now however i want one back and i thought i'd go pci-e this time. So go with the cheap one, if i go at all is your advice?

p.s. latencies, schmantencies, what i'm after is consistant high quality throughput primarily lan to lan

the main difference between the server versions and the desktop versions tend to be bootprom's and tcp offload support. tcp offload might make a miniscule difference for bittorrent. but you wont see any difference in smb or ftp access for 3 machines.

if you dont plan on netbooting the machine a bootprom is 3-10 seconds wasted during post.

save the 50 bux.

 

[rosenberg1979]

thanks for the detailed explanation brother, I have no plan to ever netboot my rig, so desktop all the way, thanks.