Re: [tlug] hardware

[Jonathan Q <jq@example.com>]

On Monday 19 May 2003 20:02, Sam Tilders wrote:

> Is there a specific reason you condemn realtek?

Cheap NIC chipsets in general do not perform as well under load
as better ones do (often, performance can be twice as good
with a high-quality chipset).  

Realtek 8129 and 8139 chipsets have had a lot of problems,
particularly under load and more particularly if NFS is 
involved.  The driver code for one or more of the BSDs 
described the level of brokenness in the the 81x9 chipsets
in fairly unflattering terms.

Now, if you're in a low-load situation and never push the
NIC hard you may never experience a problem, but it's
usually a good idea to stay away from hardware that has
had a bad history.  Jim T.  mentions that they 8100x chips
are much better than the older ones, so perhaps I should
modify my statement to "Avoid anything with a Realtek
81x9 chip."

Jonathan
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