Network Adapter Card Suggestions

Minigun · 2013-01-22, 08:02 PM

I was looking to get some opinions on network cards from you guys if anybody happens to use them. My USB adapter is no longer up to the task, If possible i would like the card to take advantage of my 5GHz router band.

Thanks.

Mobo: Asrock Z75

Rbstr · 2013-01-23, 10:26 AM

I've always had good luck with Linksys stuff. Mostly routers, I've only had one desktop wireless card from them. It was fine, for a wireless connection.
I'm having a hard time finding worthwhile benchmarks.
It seems like Asus makes decent networking stuff, they've always been good to me with other things.

This looks pretty hard core http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320136
Here's 5ghz on the cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833166082

Don't use USB unless you have to. (Except for mice, this goes for all peripheral thingies: Get a real sound card, use eSata for external disks, PS/2 is better for keyboards and so on)

But really:
I suggest buying some cat-5e and wiring it up. Wired networking is so much better in latency and connection quality. Personally I got so sick of intermittent reconnection and crap latency I just pinned a wire to the ceiling and ran it through my apartment.

Ailos · 2013-01-23, 10:51 AM

That second Rosewill card should serve you well. I've never had a bad experience with any Rosewill product.

However, for best results, wire it up. Especially for PS2.

Minigun · 2013-01-23, 08:39 PM

I'm well aware wired is the way to go, my old rig was wired for 6 years. Unfortunately with my new setup that is not an option. That asus card is mighty appealing but I don't think I can justify $100 for that, the rosewill looks perfect the only problem i have with it is its not compatible with the new 802.11 ac software/hardware or whatever which seems to yield the highest speeds (atleast what i've read).

Thanks for putting me on the right path if I can find something in the $40-$60 bracket with the new technology I'll probably pull the trigger there.

Edit: Decided to grab this one, 1 step up from the rosewill you recommended, not a bad deal with its current sale. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833166076

After looking into it more I thought my router had the ac band but I was mistaken. It has the N and A technologies at the 5GHz band. After doing more reading that Asus model is designed to be paired with their comparable router, with that combo i'm looking at $300 in the hole so i opted out of that option. My cisco e3200 advertises up to 600mpbs on the 5ghz band so I believe this rosewill will be a perfect fit.

Rbstr · 2013-01-23, 09:30 PM

So your router is 'ac' or is it dual-band 'n'?

EDIT: Yeah, that's what I thought. The rosewill is exactly what you want.

Rbstr · 2013-01-23, 09:44 PM

You should dd-wrt your router.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

I did my E2000 a while back in order to underclock the CPU because it seemed like it was overheating, requiring a reset fairly often. Did the trick, also seemed to clear up some UPnP problems I had. It's a pretty neat bit of software.

Mutant · 2013-01-24, 03:21 AM

Wired is always an option

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabit-Powerl...owerline+1Gbps

Minigun · 2013-01-24, 06:14 PM

Originally Posted by Mutant

Wired is always an option

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabit-Powerl...owerline+1Gbps

I'll never give Belkin another dime of my money. Look at half those reviews on the link you sent me >.<.

Also thanks for the tip to underclock i'll definitely look into it.

Mutant · 2013-01-29, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by Minigun

I'll never give Belkin another dime of my money. Look at half those reviews on the link you sent me >.<.

Also thanks for the tip to underclock i'll definitely look into it.

That one just came out 1st, the point was powerline connections are awesome when you cant lay cable.