Need advice on a PCI NIC for a Dell Optiplex 330 I'm using as a NAS

[Sleepy3103]

Hello all, like the title says I need a PCI Network interface card for my Dell Optiplex 330. It only has a 10/100 Mb/s on board and the transfer rates when doing large files is super slow. The most I can get out her is 11 MB/s witch is pretty much the 100 Mb/s cap of the on board NIC. The reason I am asking is because I have never used a non built in NIC and the mobo in the Dell is upside down/reversed from normal pcs so I'm not sure if all cards will work. If you look a the Dell from the front the Right panel opens instead of the left.

I want to get a decent Gigabit NIC for decently cheap. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[noidea_77]

LogiLink PC0012 or any other cheap on with a Realtek chip, because you get drivers for every OS.

 

[GhislainG]

The Intel PWLA8391GT http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G1XA5134 is excellent, but a Rosewill RC-404 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166005&ignorebbr=1 will also meet your requirements.

 

[Sleepy3103]

Will the roswell rc-404 and the lodi link work with FreeNas and Nas4Free without dealing with a bunch of setup and trying to find drivers?

 

[GhislainG]

There are 2 reviewers on Newegg who used it with freenas and they had no issues. Realtek RTL8169SC drivers are included with Nas4Free, but I haven't found much about that configuration. Personally I'd go with the Intel NIC because it offers great compatibility and performance.

 

[noidea_77]

Will the roswell rc-404 and the lodi link work with FreeNas and Nas4Free without dealing with a bunch of setup and trying to find drivers?

An os that doesn't work with the Realtek chip (on the LogiLink) is useless, because 95% of all onbard LAN controllers are Realtek controllers.

 

[GhislainG]

Will the roswell rc-404 and the lodi link work with FreeNas and Nas4Free without dealing with a bunch of setup and trying to find drivers?

An os that doesn't work with the Realtek chip (on the LogiLink) is useless, because 95% of all onbard LAN controllers are Realtek controllers.

There are no issues when using freenas, but I found several post about performance issues when using Nas4Free (slower than expected transfer rates). It may have been solved or it may not even be true, but I don't know and I can't test it. This thread refers to the Realtek RTL8169SC on a PCI card; not most RealTek PCIe controllers found on motherboards. Also bear in mind that most PCs run Windows, but hardware support by ESXi and some Linux versions is somewhat limited. Not all Intel controllers are fully supported either; only specific models like the one that I suggested seem to work with any OS, including ESXi, FreeNas and Nas4Free. I've never seen a LAN controller that supports all OS, but they all support Windows except for server versions.