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NIC for Dimension 8200
Hi folks, A quick query: I'm looking to pop a wired NIC (network interface card) into my ageing (but still reliable!) Dimension 8200. However, the majority of NICs these days state a requirement of PCI 2.2/2.3. Having spoken with Dell Support, I've deduced that the 8200 is probably PCI 2.0 - although I'm happily using a USB 2.0 PCI 2.1 card in there are the moment, with no probs whatsoever. What I'd like to know is - is anyone using a PCI NIC in a Dimension 8200, and if so, which model - and/or do PCI 2.2 NICs work happily in the 8200 if it's only a PCI 2.0 motherboard? Either that, or I'll just use a USB2.0-NIC converter... Any opinions would be kindly appreciated. Kind regards, Gopha.
- Rather then bothering with a PCI card, or using a slot, etc, and you are or have USB 2.0, simply use a USB Network adapter, Linksys adapter the size of a thumbdrive about $29.00 at CCity. No drivers required, your PC will find it and establish it as the NIC. No restriction in bandwidth at all.
- Hi Tom,Thanks very much for the info. I actually *do* already have one of these USB-NICs - although I've yet to break it out of its packaging ;-)I'd prefer to use a dedicated NIC (have a spare slot). My reasoning is that I've got USB2 as a PCI card, and when transferring data over the USB PCI bridge (for example USB HDD to USB HDD) - it's *really* quite slow - I reckon this is because the processor on the USB card is having to deal with a lot of internal traffic. Couple this with if - for example - I want to transfer stuff across USB devices/over the network using the USB-NIC - and I'm theorising that there will be a bandwidth bottleneck - probably not if just using the USB-NIC on its own, but if I'm using other devices on the USB card simultaneously...Hence I figured it best just to plump for a dedicated PCI NIC. Tho' it's a bit more hassle to open up the machine etc and pop it in, I'm in the mind to might as well do it right. Incidentally, the USB-NICs are more expensive than the PCI-NICs (£15 vs £4! - sorry UK here!)... but I've got the USB-NIC handy, because it's a useful little thing to have around :-)I've also got a load of stuff already plugged into the USB PCI card - and it'd mean unplugging something (I prefer not to use hubs).Any opinions kindly appreciated!With kind regards,Gopha.
volcano11
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Posted October 23rd, 2007 17:00