Need help choosing an NIC

[MixedNuts]

Hey guys the Dynex network card that I bought about a year ago had problems and come to find out the manufacturer states that there is no windows 7 64 bit support but the box says differently so I got my money back. Can you guys suggest a card that will play nicely with my build and not break the bank. I really don't want to spend more than $30.00 bucks if I don't have to.
Thanks in advance.

[grimmster]

Whats wrong the the on-board? Or do you need two for something? been a long time since I even looked at standalone nic cards, but I always got 3com. Does not help you one bit, but there ya go :-)

OK, maybe go with an intel, they always have good driver support

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833106121

[MixedNuts]

Whats wrong the the on-board? Or do you need two for something? been a long time since I even looked at standalone nic cards, but I always got 3com. Does not help you one bit, but there ya go :-)

OK, maybe go with an intel, they always have good driver support

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833106121

The on-board crapped out about a year ago.

[MixedNuts]

Anybody know if wireless adapters are as fast now as wired adapters? I am running an N speed router.

[grimmster]

if you only had a 100mb nic card, and your isp only provides a 10-15mb download, then I think a wireless g would work out if you can be within a 15 ft distance of the router. If however you had a 1000mb nic, and a 15+mb connection, then the wireless will not be able to match the speeds of the wired connection.

right now I have two laptops, one has a G speed on has a N, the N always goes at least twice as fast as the G no matter what speed test I try it on. I have a 25mb download from ISP, when I get to me desktop running at 1000mb connection to the router, I'll compare those speeds to the N.

[grimmster]

so, I d/l 4Mbps on G speed, 8/Mbps on N speed and 16Mbps on wired.

[Bryan]

The other issue is latency with wireless which will be greater then a wired connection.

But if your not doing online gaming or heavy video streaming latency won't be much of an issue.

[MoogleStiltzkin]

intel nics are the best performers :X i only recommend those for ethernet nics ...

[MixedNuts]

Thanks for the input everyone. I went with this one because it's PCI e, really small, Windows 7 compatible, and the reviews were pretty good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833166015