Ethernet port (onboard or ethernet card)
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This page may be useful in case your (on-board) ethernet port has stopped working and you need to purchase a new ethernet card to replace it.
See:
Networking not working - Cannot connect to the Internet:
http://linux.overshoot.tv/wiki/networking_not_working_cannot_connect_int...
PCI vs PCI-e ethernet cards:
- Gigabit Ethernet: around 100MB/s.
- PCI bus: 33Mhz x 4 bytes (32 bits) = 133MB/s, shared by all PCI devices.
- PCIe :
v1.x 250 MB/s
v2.x 500 MB/s
v3.0 985 MB/s
v4.0 1969 MB/s
The older PCI bus is limited to 1000Mbps. It is sufficient for an ethernet card, but it depends on whether the PCI bus is being shared with other devices.
PCI-e theoretically offers higher speeds, but in practical use, it is unlikely to make much of a difference, because the bottleneck would be elsewhere.
Also, consider the physical consideration on your motherboard: see the relative positions of the PCI and PCI-e slots with regard to the PCI-e slot used by the graphic card that you may be using. On some mother boards, you may not be able to fit a PCI-e ethernet card right next to the slot used by the graphic card, leaving only PCI slots available.
Besides, you may want to keep PCI-e slots available for other cards (SATA controllers...).
In most situation, a PCI card is adequate enough for an ethernet card.