What 's a 3Com 3c515 worth these days?

From: Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
Date: Tue Dec 25 21:33:12 2001

On Tue, 25 Dec 2001, Ethan Dicks wrote:
> --- Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net> wrote:
> > On Tue, 25 Dec 2001, Ernest wrote:
> >
> > > > There were very few *ISA* 10/100 NICs ever made. The 3C515 is one of
> > > > them.
> >
> > I don't really consider these cards to be hard to find, you just won't
> > find them in most used computer shops. The 515 isn't too popular, since
> > there isn't much gain with it compared to a less expensive 509.
>
> Much gain? 10BaseT vs 10/100? Seems like a win to me. The only real
> problem is that you can't saturate a 100mbps line from an ISA card.

The ISA bus can't handle anywhere near the full 100mb/s bandwith, so these
cards throttle the bandwith considerably. From personal experience in
testing tons of different cards on my lan, I just don't see enough of a
throughput difference when comparing the 509 and 515 to justify the extra
cost. This is especially true when the second generation 509 cards can be
had for less than $5 easily, and have much better driver support.

> As I mentioned in my first post, I think the only real need for one is
> if you find yourself on a 100BaseT *only* network.

That would be about the only use for them that I can think of. Most modern
100mb/s networks are switched and support N-way autonegotiation (and
10mb/s), so there just isn't much use for a 100mb/s ISA nic anymore.

-Toth
Received on Tue Dec 25 2001 - 21:33:12 GMT