High Street PC Stores fail

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Dale
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Had a on board network card fail in a fairly recent PC, the PC only has PCIe slots.

So off I go to the local PC shops...

PC World - not a single wired network card in the building, no PCI, PCIe or USB

Maplins - only PCI network cards, PCIe cards I quote "are very rare"

Local PC Specialist - "PCIe - whats that?"


Well done PC shops, ordered from DABs, will be here tomorrow
 
To be fair (unless something big has happened) PCWorld is plop, Maplin is no longer the store it was when Doug & Sandra ran it from their kitchen table and if my local PC man is anything to go by everything costs a kidney and was current about 2 years ago.

Mind you since BT bought Dabs they've headed towards the U-bend too.
 
I tried to find a null modem cable quickly a year or so back. Even the local specialist PC shop had to ask me what it was....
 
Not really I'd go as far as to say most home users use wireless only.

I'd agree with that given the amount of people who've visited me and asked for access to my wireless network. When I say that I've got to turn it on first they ask how all my computers "get the internet". When I say ethernet the blank look on their faces tells me that in the mind of these people there's only ever been one way to connect to the internet, and that's wireless.
 
I'd agree with that given the amount of people who've visited me and asked for access to my wireless network. When I say that I've got to turn it on first they ask how all my computers "get the internet". When I say ethernet the blank look on their faces tells me that in the mind of these people there's only ever been one way to connect to the internet, and that's wireless.

exactly, if i did a poll of the users at work and asked if they used any ethernet at home id suggest it would definately be under 10%, possibly under 5%.

supply and demand, if no one buys network cards no one is going to waste retail storage and shelf space with them.
 
neil_g said:
exactly, if i did a poll of the users at work and asked if they used any ethernet at home id suggest it would definately be under 10%, possibly under 5%.

supply and demand, if no one buys network cards no one is going to waste retail storage and shelf space with them.

I feel very special then.
 
So if no one runs ethernet, why are home plugs so popular in the above stores?

:p
 
To be fair, your average home user doesn't run Ethernet.

:eek:

I guess I'm not an average home user ;). I only use Ethernet, even for the laptop, and have a "plate of spaghetti" arrangement of cat5e throughout the house and loft.
 
Something else that hasn't been mentioned is that most modern mother boards have the Ethernet port integrated - thus negating the need for PCI(e) accessories.
 
Something else that hasn't been mentioned is that most modern mother boards have the Ethernet port integrated - thus negating the need for PCI(e) accessories.

Until it fails :p

Which is the position I am in :(
 
It arrived from Dabs 10 minutes ago, chepest was £6.89, I got intel ones for £20 each.
 
Not really I'd go as far as to say most home users use wireless only.

I suppose that depends on your main computer, if a desktop I would think your more likely to use ethernet but laptops are more likely to be wireless. I havent used ethernet to contect my computer since I got rid of my iMac.

So if no one runs ethernet, why are home plugs so popular in the above stores?

:p

I fancy most of those are not for computers but for consumer items such as sky and xbox.

Steve
 
It arrived from Dabs 10 minutes ago, chepest was £6.89, I got intel ones for £20 each.
Bizarrely, I've just rec'd an Intel PCI-e NIC as I want to see if it is faster than the inbuilt Realtek one. I have some speed issues occasionally which I think are W7 driver related....
 
Something else that hasn't been mentioned is that most modern mother boards have the Ethernet port integrated - thus negating the need for PCI(e) accessories.

Might be why this thread is here;)
 
Something else that hasn't been mentioned is that most modern mother boards have the Ethernet port integrated - thus negating the need for PCI(e) accessories.

Not just modern boards, but I would imagine the vast majority of them over the last 15 years.

Apple has had Ethernet (in various guises) built on to the mother boards since the introduction of the Quadra range back in 1991.
 
Wasn't it still in warranty?

Yeah, but warranty means send the computer away for 2 weeks or more, and will come back with everything wiped.

So I will lose the computer for 2 weeks or longer
Have to reinstall everything, lose files etc. OR take a system image (I am in a position to do this and it is easier and simpler) and restore on the machine when it returns.

I personally can't be without the machine for 2 weeks or spend the time sorting it all out before it goes and comes back. (Its a work machine)
 
Not just modern boards, but I would imagine the vast majority of them over the last 15 years.

Apple has had Ethernet (in various guises) built on to the mother boards since the introduction of the Quadra range back in 1991.

By modern, I meant that 'external' cards (to the Mb that is) hadn't really been that common since in installation of Gb ports became standard - ie no necessity for upgrading.

If a component is rarely used then a high street retailer is unlikely to stock it - as has been mentioned a few times.
 
Bizarrely, I've just rec'd an Intel PCI-e NIC as I want to see if it is faster than the inbuilt Realtek one. I have some speed issues occasionally which I think are W7 driver related....

Are you copying between Windows 7 and Windows 7/2008 R2?

It could be the SMB version, we had to change the SMB version on one of our virtual servers to 1 iirc to get good copying speeds between it and Windows 7 machines.
 
Are you copying between Windows 7 and Windows 7/2008 R2?

It could be the SMB version, we had to change the SMB version on one of our virtual servers to 1 iirc to get good copying speeds between it and Windows 7 machines.

something rings a bell in regard to SMB, realtek and TCP chimney offloading. iirc disable the chimney?
 
what machine is it?

i guess herein lays the benefits of applecare and dell on site warranty.

Dell Vostro 460.

Dell onsite is nice, but we have 8 dell servers and I think 12 desktops/laptops.

In the last 5 years (since we moved all our servers and desktops to Dell) we have had only hard disks fail (replaced under warranty) and 2 laptop powersupplies die.

So with 22 machines, that is a saving of about £1500 a year by not paying, instead we have redundancy in the office.

However for our webservers we do pay for it :)
 
something rings a bell in regard to SMB, realtek and TCP chimney offloading. iirc disable the chimney?

Always disable the chimney (on all of our servers), although it may of changed on newer computers.
 
Dell Vostro 460.

Dell onsite is nice, but we have 8 dell servers and I think 12 desktops/laptops.

In the last 5 years (since we moved all our servers and desktops to Dell) we have had only hard disks fail (replaced under warranty) and 2 laptop powersupplies die.

So with 22 machines, that is a saving of about £1500 a year by not paying, instead we have redundancy in the office.

However for our webservers we do pay for it :)

thats fine, i guess its either a luxury or a necessity :)
 
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Re copying... I get 100MByte/s between SMB shared data on a FreeBSD server on write, 45Mbyte/sec copy on read. Something is strange. Not sure what at the moment, but am working on it ;)
 
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