Rack mounted workstation. Need 2 ethernet ports.

[dwarfzen]

I need to set up a rack mounted workstation for my lab with 2 ethernet ports. One for connecting to a Vector Network Analyzer and another to a VLAN.

1. Any product suggestions? Dell/Asus/HP etc.
2. Do I need 2 network cards on the motherboard for this purpose?
3. How do I find this feature when I am customizing the computer?

(I'm not very well versed in computer architecture, i work in physics)

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Something like this Intel® Gigabite dual port card; it even comes with a low profile braket to fit within small cases. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106015

Or you can find out more about our NIC cards at
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/network-adapters/gigabit-network-adapters/ethernet-server-adapters.html

 

[twelve25]

Are you looking for suggestions for the whole system, or just the networking?

If you need a whole system, please provide details. If it is just the network, most motherboards have at least one built in network port and you can add a second via the PCI or PCI express slots on the motherboard. You can buy motherboards with two ports, and if you buy a rackmount server, it likely will ship with 2-4 ports already.

 

[dwarfzen]

I'm looking for suggestions for the whole system. My budget is around $2500-3000. 16 or 32 GB RAM, Quad Core processor ~3.4GHz. 1TB HDD, system is mainly for data acq. & signal processing.
Also, is having an ethernet adapter with 2 ports functionally same as having 2 cards?

 

[twelve25]

For most purposes, the port arrangement makes no difference.

Do you intent to build this, or purchase a rackmount server from like HP or Dell? Does it need to have 24x7 availability (i.e. redundant power, etc).

 

[dwarfzen]

Buying a rackmount system would be my preference. Yes, it needs a redundant power supply.