where to buy legit intel NICs?

[gayle30]

just wanted some advice on where to buy a legit intel NIC. I've been looking for ages and still can find a decently priced intel NIC for my server, nothing really fancy.. just need a quad port intel NIC thats a reasonable priced.

any advice would be great!

 

[m0nkey_]

ebay?

 

[Jailer]

I got my dual port from Amazon for $24. Just choose your seller wisely and you should be GTG.

 

[Stux]

I hate that in today's world this is even a question :(

 

[gayle30]

I hate that in today's world this is even a question :(

its just really confusing.. from what i can see everything that is listed as legit on the etailers is like $200 on newegg etc. or everything on ebay is like a $30 knock off shipped from china.

But, I think ive found a quad port Intel Pro/1000 PT that's been pulled from a server for about $50, it has the yottamark sticker in the picture so it seems legit... just $50 for a used NIC that was launched in 2005 seems a bit ridiculous imo..

Is the Intel Pro/1000 PT a good choice? seems to be supported, compared against the newer stuff like the i350 it only lacks virtualization support (which i dont need really right now, i will on day but cant afford $150+ for a i350 after my latest upgrades).. right now i really just care about speed for my network. I believe the Pro/1000 PT also has ECC which is nice.

Edit: Yottamark says this about the card:

Product Name: PRO-1000 PT Quad Port LP Svr Adapter
Manufacturing Date: Week 11, 2011
Manufacturing Location: Malaysia (AD)

 

[Stux]

How are you planning on gaining speed with a 4 port nic?

 

[gayle30]

How are you planning on gaining speed with a 4 port nic?

oh, i didnt mean i was planning on gaining speed. I just read some reviews of the cheap chinese knock offs where their throughput declined over time till the card died prematurely.

Also since the Intel Pro 1000 PT is older its only PCIe v1.0, but i think thats still fast enough for four gigabit connections?

Just dont want to build anything with a potential bottleneck.

 

[gayle30]

How are you planning on gaining speed with a 4 port nic?

for example looking at a cheap Realtek NIC it says its PCIe v1, but its only single lane.

The real Intel Pro 1000 PT is x4 lane.

I might be totally wrong here (im still learning, please be gentle) but a single lane PCI-E v1 (2.5GT/s) will support 250 MB/s in each direction where as a x4 lane would provide more than enough headroom for a quad port NIC.

 

[Stux]

The problem is you don't just get 4gbit by connecting your NAS to the switch 4x

If you've got dozens of clients then you might, but for a Soho (you didn't say) NAS that's not normally the case.

 

[ric]

its just really confusing.. from what i can see everything that is listed as legit on the etailers is like $200 on newegg etc. or everything on ebay is like a $30 knock off shipped from china.

But, I think ive found a quad port Intel Pro/1000 PT that's been pulled from a server for about $50, it has the yottamark sticker in the picture so it seems legit... just $50 for a used NIC that was launched in 2005 seems a bit ridiculous imo..

Is the Intel Pro/1000 PT a good choice? seems to be supported, compared against the newer stuff like the i350 it only lacks virtualization support (which i dont need really right now, i will on day but cant afford $150+ for a i350 after my latest upgrades).. right now i really just care about speed for my network. I believe the Pro/1000 PT also has ECC which is nice.

Edit: Yottamark says this about the card:

Product Name: PRO-1000 PT Quad Port LP Svr Adapter
Manufacturing Date: Week 11, 2011
Manufacturing Location: Malaysia (AD)

I am also interested in purchasing one of this Intel Pro/1000. I'd like to know if can support virtualization like ESXi?
Thanks.