In the past I have noticed that NIC cards seem to come in 3 varieties:
Workstation, Management Adapters, and Server Adapters. Does anyone have a
link to some explanation about these 3 styles?
I have some of all 3 in the 10/100 class; all Intel. I have not noticed
much difference between Workstation and Management Adapters. But, I do not
do much serious tweaking on my very simple home LAN. I am getting ready to
update to GOC cards (from Intel, again). I now notice that the "Management
Adapter" is no more. No problem. I only now need workstation and server
adapters. The cost is not an issue at all. My nics are Intel only when
needed; I do use the nVidia on-board nics of my Asus m/b's. Yes, I can
also use the Asus on-board Marvel nics, but I do not know anything about
this offering. Still doing research on this.............. :)
Most confusing is that Intel seems to have fabricated all/most of their
Server NICS in PCI-X. I really need one for just plain old PCI, 33 or
66? My server's m/b has 5 open very long PCI slots available. From my
reading yesterday, I believe that the Intel PWLA8490MT Server NIC may work
(even though it says it is PCI 2.3?). If this is a bad conclusion, bad
Intel! I will just put a PWLA8391GT in the server and move on; it would be
$100 cheaper!
Your thoughts?
Best,
Duncan
