installing Gbit NIC on PC with motherboard 10/100Mb interface

[kmmcdonald]

I wish to install a PCI-based 1000BaseT NIC on my existing Windows 7 PC. This PC is several years old and has an existing 10/100Mb interface on the motherboard, which I have been using up until this point.

Can I install the new NIC and selectively disable one ethernet interface or the other (from control panel)? (Both of the two NIC's will be connected to different points in the same network.)

Or, would it be better to enable only the 1000Gb NIC from this point on?

thanks

Keith

 

[stevech]

disable the old one.

Note too that some PCI bus NICs cannot sustain gigabit. Slow CPU also limits.

 

[devnull]

If your PC came with Windows 7 then it might have an available PCI-E slot. A quality PCI-E NIC is about $30 or less. PCI-E has enough throughput for full-duplex gigabit ethernet. PCI usually does not.

 

[kmmcdonald]

The PC in question is an HP s3100y. It is a small formfactor PC which has one PCIe slot and one PCI slot. The PCIe slot is currently occupied by a video adapter, leaving the single PCI slot for expansion.

Keith