[wellylug] Multi port NIC

[Brent Wood]

--- William Hamilton <william.hamilton at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all.  I am looking for recommendations for multi port NICs with good 
> Linux (Debian) support.
> 


The Dlink 570TX (4 port Digital/Intel Tulip chipset) is my preferred one, but
is no longer made AFAIK.

The 580TX is available at around $350. As Ewen mentioned, the chipset is not as
well supported under Linux, but should be OK with recent kernels.

A few installations of such things seem to be using Gb copper cards into a Gb
switch to achieve similar functionality (depending on just what you want to
achieve).

eg: 
The DLink 530T  GB NIC is about $80, (kernel 2.4.18 & greater)
The 5/8 port 10/100/1000 CuGb DLink 1005D/1008D switches are $200/$300 odd
respectively.

Note that these are lower end components, server level components are
significantly more than this, how much you'll gain from the extra $$ is moot.  

Also note the 32 bit PCI bus speed limits, some such NIC's are 64bit to achieve
the rated bandwidth.


Brent Wood