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So which NIC is best for you? That’s a hard recommendation to make, again –because you can’t use the scores alone to determine that. If your implementation were going to be in the home or small office, then I would have to say pick a NIC that provides the fastest throughput with lowest CPU usage, and that doesn’t carry other features like WOL or Boot-ROM support –because they won’t be needed. Price is a big factor here too, because all you are worried about here is connecting your computers together for an occasional file transfer, or maybe an Internet connection share –and there were 5 networking cards in this roundup that fall into that category. Starting with the best performer (but not ranked based on performance), they were the Linksys LNE 100TX ($20), Linksys NC 100 ($18), the CNET Pro200WL, ($19) CNET Pro200, ($17) and the Asante FriendlyNET PCI 595 ($20). All these cards had good performance scores and are cheap –some even provide the higher end WOL and Boot-ROM support just in case you ever needed it! Of the bunch, the Linksys LNE100TX stands out for performance and pricing, and so does the CNetPRO200, which mixes a nice combination of value and on-par performance with its low CPU usage. The Linksys NC100 manages to bring in top performance at the lowest price in the roundup, but also with the highest CPU usage.

Then there are two other cards –the Netgear FA310TX and the Dlink DFE-530TX that offered nice performance scores, but really didn’t offer too much else in the way other benefits that would constitute spending the extra money to buy one when compared to the cheaper alternatives. You’ll notice that both these two cards have the more extensive diagnostic LEDs though, and if that is of value to you, it may override cost and performance considerations [ In our own office, we’ve found that often enough, connection and link activity are sufficient for most troubleshooting sessions – Editor ].

Then Lastly –there was the high-end “server oriented” Adaptec ANA 62011TX card. Obviously this NIC is for the server end market, or a higher paced arena then the SOHO. Even though this NIC impressed us with it’s high data throughput and low CPU utilization scores, the $79 price tag is just too much to consider for the home or small office.

Remember the NIC can make or break a network. So do your homework, and try to plan exactly what kind of LAN you want to build –then decide on a NIC or NICs to use. Planning, good hardware choices, and smart thinking all help to build a strong and manageable network