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USB network card vs PCI network card

Forum CPU & Components : Network Interface Cards - USB network card vs PCI network card

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Apeman   10-02-2002 at 12:56:28 PM

Hi everyone,

my pc got an old pci 10mb network card, and I changed to the SMC's 10/100mb USB network card.

BUT....when I play war craft 3 LAN game with my mates, it lag even worse than my old 10mb network card!!!

my pc is p3 900 (150*6)
256mb sdram
Geforce2mx
win98se

should I change to PCI network card? or i didn't configure it right?

thanks

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CALV   10-02-2002 at 02:13:40 PM
- 0 +

well, when people ask me about usb network cards, I always say this:

"USB is for gamepads and scanners, network cards are for networks"

I say that, because the problems you are having are not uncommon with usb networks.



If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil?

Reply to CALV
  10-03-2002 at 03:47:51 AM
- 0 +

As implied by CALV the USB ones are totally weak. You were probably better off before. Get a GOOD internal network card and you'd be set. I like PCI myself, but I'm lazy and fat. There are some who won't touch it if it aint ISA. Also pick a good one and don't listen to the fools who say that any old thing will do. I've found that precisely for ping reasons (for my games) you NEED a good NIC.

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dstell   10-03-2002 at 04:13:51 PM
- 0 +

The performance of USB Nics is VERY bad, issues like you describe are very common, and are compounded if you have multiple USB devices beyond your USB NIC.

Reply to dstell
upec   10-11-2002 at 02:24:28 PM
- 0 +

USB port only have 12 Mbps bandwidth and it have to be shared by all the devicce connecto to the port.

Reply to upec
Apeman   10-12-2002 at 10:02:04 PM
- 0 +

Hi upec,

oh!..only 12mb per sec? wa..that is quite slow..how it suppose cope with 100mb? is it some kind of marketing tricks i didn't aware of?

anyway...i will buy a new PCI NIC soon...

oh, can you give me some advice...

I saw a 1000mb NIC, Intel PRO/1000 MT, and i wonder if i can use it in my compute environment?

I got a 5 port switch 10/100, and all my mates are using 100mb NIC, the cable is Cat 5..and all runs windows system.

will i benefit from that network card? or where is the bottleneck of my pc environment when i play LAN game wiz my mates?

Thanks

Reply to Apeman
upec   10-13-2002 at 02:14:17 AM
- 0 +

You won't benefit from a 1000mb NIC. It will just run as a 100mbps when you connect it to 10/100mbps switch

Reply to upec
jihiggs   10-13-2002 at 04:42:47 AM
- 0 +

thats if the card will do 100, and if the card is fiber or cat5

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

Reply to jihiggs
  10-13-2002 at 06:04:21 PM
- 0 +

"oh!..only 12mb per sec? wa..that is quite slow..how it suppose cope with 100mb? is it some kind of marketing tricks i didn't aware of?"

This can be done since 10mbps isn't quite enough to take full advatage of the 12mbps bandwidth. In order to realize the entire 2mbps more bandwidth you need to step up to the 100mbps standard. Pretty sad IMO, but it allows the shifty eyed a stab at some fool money.

My guess is that you suffer more from the high latency required to do the protocol hopping more than total bandwidth limitations of USB though, thus the better performance from the 10Mbps NIC.

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Apeman   10-15-2002 at 06:31:07 PM
- 0 +

Ok everyone..

Thank you very much for all your replys.

so usb NIC is definitely a dead end..that's for sure!!

um..just one more question:

How to setup a 1000mb network environment? maybe...1000mb/sec is a waste for gaming environment...
I'm just interest...is there a article about it?

thanks

Reply to Apeman
techsgin   12-06-2008 at 07:36:58 PM
- 0 +

For 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g.
If you don’t have USB 2.0 or higher, then use PCI.
If you are a heavy USB user use PCI, otherwise you can safely choose USB 2.0.

For 802.11n networks you better use PCI.

USB (*I think that’s a total of all your USB ports together.)
v1.0: 1.5 to 12Mbps.
v2.0: 480Mbps.
v3.0: 4.8Gbit/s. (Note the G - Giga)

PCI
133 MB/s

PCI Express (per lane)
v1.x: 250 MB/s
v2.0: 500 MB/s
v3.0: 1 GB/s

802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g - up to 54. Proprietary (Super 802.11g) may reach 108mbps.

802.11n - up to 540 Mbps

How do I know if my PC has USB 2.0?
http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm

Reply to techsgin
johnlove   01-01-2009 at 04:30:52 PM
- 0 +

Thanks techsgin, that is very helpful.

Reply to johnlove
marshmellow1991   01-28-2009 at 08:59:44 PM
- 0 +

isnt USB also a bad choice since its not bi-directional? it can only send data one way at a time?

Reply to marshmellow1991
Devastator_uk   03-01-2009 at 12:41:30 PM
- 0 +

Since you only have a p3 900 I would imagine your motherboard only has USB1.1 (12Mbps) and the USB NIC is probably designed for USB2.0 (480Mbps).

Reply to Devastator_uk
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