Best desktop NIC to use?

[jackaninny]

I'm curious if there are any particular desktop NICs that perform better than others. All of my PCs use onboard (mostly 10/100/1000 Realtek) NICs and get decent performance but if I can increase performance by dropping in a new NIC I'd look at that option. Specific model #'s would be helpful too. Thanks in advance.

[gibxxi]

Just posted about this in another thread. Any add-in NIC card that has dedicated processing chip rather than using your PC's CPU will probably increase throughput. Realtek chips AFAIK use the system CPU to do the work, and so you'll be CPU limited in that scenario.

Intel's NIC cards are quite highly rated in a lot of places I've read, but as I said, to see a noticeable increase in performance (in order to justify the price outlay), get one with a dedicated processor. Even then, you'll still be limited by your other hardware (Router, switch - or lack thereof, cabling, etc.).