Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2000 16:11:11 -0700 (PDT) From: John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.ORG> To: Chris Dillon <cdillon@wolves.k12.mo.us> Cc: jfb@visi.com, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: New system for FreeBSD -- pls advise Message-ID: <XFMail.000707161111.jhb@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007071709080.33618-100000@mail.wolves.k12.mo.us>
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On 07-Jul-00 Chris Dillon wrote: > On Fri, 7 Jul 2000, John Baldwin wrote: > >> >> On 06-Jul-00 Chris Dillon wrote: >> > On Thu, 6 Jul 2000 jfb@visi.com wrote: >> > >> >> Hello, all, >> >> >> >> I'm looking at getting a brand new box at home, and want to make sure >> >> that I don't end up with components that will preclude me from using >> >> my OS of choice. >> >> >> >> Currently, my hardware selections are as follows: >> >> >> >> 3Com 3c905b ethernet >> > >> > One word: yuck. Get an Intel EtherExpress PRO 10/100B. >> >> Why yuck? Both of these ethernet cards work quite well. > > I've just had very bad experiences with the cards in the Windows > arena. 3COM also thinks they should charge more money for products > that aren't even close to par with competitors, yet consumers seem > very ignorant of this and I like to point it out. Try comparing the > price/performance/features of a 3COM SuperStack II 3300, an HP > ProCurve 4000M or 2424M, and a Cisco Catalyst 2924M-XL. The 3COM > SuperStack II costs more than either of those other switches, yet > doesn't even come close to the performance/features of the other two. > As for the NICs, everywhere I look the 3COM NIC costs more than the > Intel, yet the Intel NIC has added advantatges such as WOL, an > integrated boot ROM, and much slimmer Windows drivers that work for > the whole NIC family. In regards to these two network cards (fxp and xl), both perform equally well under FreeBSD at least, so perhaps 3com's driver is just more brain-damaged under Windows, which could be a problem. However, other products are unrelated in this. Also, both the Intel Etherexpress Management adapter and the 3c905c ship with a PXE ROM BIOS for booting, however, the ROM on the Intel adapters is buggy and must be flashed to a newer version before it will work properly. 3Com's BIOS works out of the box. Also, if he is buying a package deal, it may not save him money to switch network cards. Finally, that card will run happily on several platforms. -- John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ PGP Key: http://www.cslab.vt.edu/~jobaldwi/pgpkey.asc "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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