For those who like to be on the cutting edge

New Intel processor review:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/824/1/

And EVGA answers the call with a motherboard that has a lifetime warranty--

http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=132-BL-E758-A1

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

And EVGA answers the call with a motherboard that has a lifetime warranty--

http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=132-BL-E758-A1

I noticed this has two LAN ports.
Is this a new trend for extreme computing?

greg11 wrote:

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

And EVGA answers the call with a motherboard that has a lifetime warranty--

http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=132-BL-E758-A1

I noticed this has two LAN ports.
Is this a new trend for extreme computing?

No. My current Gigabyte motherboard has 4 lan ports and it's 18 months old.

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

No. My current Gigabyte motherboard has 4 lan ports and it's 18 months old.

What!?!?
Do you use them all?
I can understand using two if you have two internet connections or if you want to use your computer as a gateway, but why would anyone need 4?

greg11 wrote:

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

No. My current Gigabyte motherboard has 4 lan ports and it's 18 months old.

What!?!?
Do you use them all?
I can understand using two if you have two internet connections or if you want to use your computer as a gateway, but why would anyone need 4?

Lol, see for yourself:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2553

and yes, I have used all 4 when doing computer repairs on other pcs. I can hook up to 4 pcs at a time and use my pc as a gateway.

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2553

quad...quad...quad...quad...

allows 2 sets of 2GB connections to each act as a single connection for twice the bandwidth, improving overall throughput with lower CPU utilization.

Wouldn't you have 2 ip addresses?
Also wouldn't you only increase your bandwidth with multiple tcp connections?

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

and yes, I have used all 4 when doing computer repairs on other pcs. I can hook up to 4 pcs at a time and use my pc as a gateway.

Why not just use a switch?
I guess I am just not seeing the practical use for a desktop to have multiple lan ports. But then again, I am not an extreme gamer.

greg11 wrote:

Wouldn't you have 2 ip addresses?
Also wouldn't you only increase your bandwidth with multiple tcp connections?

No. You can bind two network cards together (though this requires compatible network equipment - a decent switch with proper capability - to register as a single IP and get the equivalent of a single 2GB connection. Google for "adapter teaming".

greg11 wrote:

Why not just use a switch?
I guess I am just not seeing the practical use for a desktop to have multiple lan ports. But then again, I am not an extreme gamer.

Usually you're using it to do something like network connection sharing - using a system as a gateway or server. If you're doing PC repair on a budget, having four ports can allow you to service three machines using network connection sharing (basically turning your system into a 3 port switch with an uplink). Paying for a switch can be an issue.

And if you're anal with some strange combination of equipment on your LAN, you can direct game traffic over one NIC but send all other traffic over a different NIC, in an attempt to leave your game traffic uninterrupted. Servers can use multiple NICs to do that, team them for faster bandwidth, or even hook up the second NIC to a NAS (using a dedicated network for the NAS rather than sending all the "disk data requests" over the same network as your LAN). I have systems here that technically have 3 connectors (though we haven't teamed any nor hook them up to a SAN, so one of the "regular" connections usually goes unused) - two for normal network work, and one for a management card.

As for me, I had a G capable wireless switch with four ports ... but I got rid of it when I got FiOS - they hooked up a G capable switch with 10/100 ports directly to the coax - instead of using a two unit cable modem and switch setup.

And not only for aggregation (more bandwidth) but also for fail-over capabilities. You also want to split network traffic from iSCSI traffic if at all possible (though it is more common to do with servers than with PC's)