Hey guys, I've been using UnRAID for quite a while now. Been satisfied with the features but there was one caveat I wanted to address.

 

The onboard NIC of the motherboard sucks (100Mb/s, NOT 100MB/s) and I'm only getting about 12MB/s of throughput. I want to buy a new NIC, but I have no idea if a given card is UnRAID compatible.

 

So this is my question: can you guys recommend me a good NIC? I know a lot of people are looking Intel, but I don't know which model to choose.

 

My priorities

1. On ebay

2. Less than $50

3. Ships internationally

4. Has more than two ports (for teaming)

5. Compatible with UnRAID.

 

Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

And BTW, would using dual teaming improve speeds or is it all just snake oil?

before you go buy a new NIC, are you sure its the NIC on the motherboard and not your router/cables?

I don't think you'll find a card with more than two ports for less than $50, even on eBay. Have you looked there?

 

A lot of people are satisfied with the results they get with the onboard Realtek controllers that many consumer grade motherboards come with, myself included. But if I was looking for a PCIe card I'd go for an Intel PRO/1000 but your budget of $50 wouldn't buy more than a single port.

You can find used Intel dual ports on eBay cheap, but the only reason to get a dual over is if you want redundancy or have a managed switch to set up true link aggregation.

I'm fairly sure the ports on the MB is to blame - the router is an Archer C2 with gigabit networking. The only thing holding up the bandwidth is because the NIC onboard is only capable of 100Mbit throughput, which kinda sucks because I have to shop for NICs now.

 

Fitting the NICs are a problem, as well. I have a big tower, so size is not a concern - however, the connections are. The MB is an A55M-VS, which means one PCI-e and one (useless) PCI port. Since PCI port = USB (isn't it?) PCI-e is the only solution, and with the NIC filling up space, when the server kicks the bucket I have no way to troubleshoot because I would've taken out the graphics card to accommodate the NIC.

 

And, I was looking around yesterday - would this be good?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Pro-1000-Dual-PORT-GIGABIT-ETHERNET-PCIe-NIC-Card-EXPI9402PT-NC360T-/252245863355?hash=item3abb066bbb:g:mSgAAOSwoydWlMGk

 

This has dual ports, are fairly cheap, and ships to Korea. Is this a bad choice because it's from China? I'm back to the drawing board on this one. Get this or get another one?

 

Your Asrock motherboard's onboard LAN is indeed not gigabit compatible. With that motherboard, I'd buy a cheap PCI NIC and make use of that "useless" slot. Even a nasty Realtek "crab card" would give you much better performance than your current 100 Mb/s, but a better proposition is the Intel PRO/1000 GT. You mention having a graphics card so I assume you're using an Athlon II (or possibly the one Sempron that's supported) rather than an A-series Llano APU with built-in graphics. You've got four on-board SATA ports but if you need more you could free up the PCIe slot by replacing the CPU with a socket FM1 APU.

 

I must say I'm was little confused by your initial wish list, where you specified "more than two [LAN] ports". To  my mind, that means three or more. In practice, I don't know of any three port LAN cards so that implies four ports, which isn't really a sensible proposition with your motherboard. I suggest you go for a single one instead - you'll notice a big improvement over the onboard port.

 

Here is a dual port PCI not PCIe card I bought and used for a while with unRAID:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201218198950?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Thanks for the propositions. I just took out the graphics card and hinged my bets. Sure enough, the server booted. That means I could run without a graphics card, and pop it back in when I'm having issues. (I could also buy a cheap VGA cable and connect directly to the motherboard, but hey, whadda you know? I'm lazy)

 

So having more than two LAN ports shouldn't help me out in this case. I guess I'll go with A PCIe card, seems more sensible.

 

Edit: to some questions above, yes I am using an APU, in my case it's an A4-3400 cpu. I had the 3600 but it died on me and the manufacturer decided to mess with me and sent me a worse one.

 

Currently the server is choking on the limited bandwidth, so I'm really hoping to getting this issue fixed. I have a big trip planned for this month, so I'm going to watch movies in the car (I won't be driving because I'm yet underage). Lol I don't think eBay will ship within my time schedule. Will have to choke down something local.

 

So a Intel Pro/1000 is my best bet, correct?