Found someone selling a dual intel nic for $30.00 CAD. Should I grab it for Unraid/ESXi?

Intel PRO/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter

RJ45 PCI-X PWLA8492MT

They have 2 available.

Wanted to Set up ESXi for Unraid/PFSense/Win7 for plugins/etc..

This is PCI-X not PCI-Ex.  There is a huge difference.  PCI-X is old and usually found on server motherboards.  PCI-Ex (express) is the newest and found on most newer boards.  Make sure you know which kind your motherboard supports.

Do note that for a network card you could plug the PCI-x card into a standard PCI slot and it will probably work just fine.  You DON'T want to use a PCI port for your HDD controllers normally but for a network card it will likely be fine.

Do note that for a network card you could plug the PCI-x card into a standard PCI slot and it will probably work just fine.  You DON'T want to use a PCI port for your HDD controllers normally but for a network card it will likely be fine.

 

BobPhoenix is correct, but only if there is nothing in front of the regular PCI slot that would prevent the rest of the PCI-X card from seating properly since it is longer and the rest of the golden fingers will be exposed, such as capacitors or heatsinks for chipsets, etc.  I've used a PCI-X card in a regular PCI slot lots of times and it works fine.

Do note that for a network card you could plug the PCI-x card into a standard PCI slot and it will probably work just fine.  You DON'T want to use a PCI port for your HDD controllers normally but for a network card it will likely be fine.

 

BobPhoenix is correct, but only if there is nothing in front of the regular PCI slot that would prevent the rest of the PCI-X card from seating properly since it is longer and the rest of the golden fingers will be exposed, such as capacitors or heatsinks for chipsets, etc.  I've used a PCI-X card in a regular PCI slot lots of times and it works fine.

Sorry should have specified that as well.

Do note that for a network card you could plug the PCI-x card into a standard PCI slot and it will probably work just fine.  You DON'T want to use a PCI port for your HDD controllers normally but for a network card it will likely be fine.

 

BobPhoenix is correct, but only if there is nothing in front of the regular PCI slot that would prevent the rest of the PCI-X card from seating properly since it is longer and the rest of the golden fingers will be exposed, such as capacitors or heatsinks for chipsets, etc.  I've used a PCI-X card in a regular PCI slot lots of times and it works fine.

 

Yes thanks guys I thought it was PCI not PCI-X. So it will work on regular PCI? Yes I want to save my PCIe lanes for my Hard drives and have this card on my PCI slot.

PCI should be fast enough for 2 gigabit ethernet ports right?

So is $30.00 a good deal or wait for another deal to come up. He has 2 cards for $30 each.

AFAIK that card is a 64-bit card and the PCI bus in your mobo runs at 33MHz. A 64-bit card in that bus is capable of 266MB/s which equates to 2.12 Gb/s, which should be just enough bandwidth.

 

It's been a good while since I dealt with old PCI. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

As dirtysanchez says it will be close using 2 ports on the card at the same time but it should work.  Theoretical and actual are usually different so you would probably not be getting 2Gb/s anyway.  I would not go over 2 network ports on a PCI bus.  If you only need 1 network connection then you might be able to find a REAL PCI slot gigabit network card and it might be even cheaper.  Then you wouldn't have to worry as much about if it will fit.  The last PCI network card I got that was gigabit did not stick out past the PCI slot so I could plug it in anywhere.  For instance here is the cheapest single port gigabit nic I could find on newegg.  Have no idea if it is any good however.  Then if you want dual you might be able to use the nic built into the MB to achieve a pseudo dual nic configuration.