Gigabit network speed for notebooks: Netgear GA511

Let's face it, files are getting bigger, and so is our need for network speed. Between streaming video, editing photographs, performing backups, or whatever else it is you do on your network, you are probably wishing your network were faster.

I recently upgraded my LAN's backbone with a Gigabit switch tied to an 802.11n (draft) wireless access point (the subject of another of my reviews). Though the speed of draft 2.0 Wireless-N technology is impressive, there are times, particularly when I'm processing a large batch of photographs, that I can use all the speed I can get. So I set out to find a wired Gigabit network adapter for my primary notebook computer.

Since most of my other network infrastructure equipment is from Netgear, I decided to give the GA511 Gigabit Cardbus PC card a try. I'm glad I did.

What it is: The GA511 is a PC Card made for notebook computers that support Cardbus (a modernized version of PCMCIA). The card provides a link to just about any standard wired network using Cat-5 cable and standard RJ-45 connectors. It is compatible with 10BaseT (10 Megabit), 100BaseTX (100 Megabit), and 1000BaseT (1000 Megabit, or one Gigabit) networks. It auto-senses the type of connection, and shifts to the appropriate speed.

Setup: On Windows XP installation was simple. Rather than install drivers from the included CD, I opted to download the latest directly from the Netgear website. Installing the drivers took under a minute. Then I removed my Wi-Fi card from my notebook, and inserted the GA511 Gigabit card. After plugging in a cable, I was connected to the network at gigabit speed. The total installation, including reading the instructions, took about 5 minutes. It couldn't have been easier.

Some simple tests: The best way I have to test the speed of my network is to move large files, or large folders full of files between my computer and my Buffalo Linkstation Live 320 GB network storage drive (the subject of another of my reviews). The Linkstation Live isn't known for its supersonic speed, but it's fast enough to put my network through the paces. When connected to the LinkStation via my Wireless-N WiFi cards, I typically achieve data transfers in the six megabyte per second range. That's not great, but it blows the barn doors off of my older Wireless-G 54 megabit WiFi network. Connecting via my notebook's built-in 100BaseT jack was also unimpressive, with file transfer rates of up to about 7 megabytes per second. Nothing to write home about, but remember, these are file transfers off of a single hard drive, not a raid array.

Next it was time to test the GA511 Gigabit adapter. After plugging it in I found that I could transfer a 260 megabyte file in about 15 seconds (it was taking 34 seconds with Wireless-N). That's a speed of about 17 megabytes per second, and double the rate at which I was able to transfer the same file wirelessly, even with the latest Draft-N wireless technology. A directory filled with 1.7 gigabytes of files broken into an average of 2.5 megabytes each took longer. The bottleneck seemed to be the overhead of dealing with 680 files more than the raw data rate, so not surprisingly that test returned substantially slower results of about 6 megabytes per second. Overall I'm very happy with the net result; I'm able to transfer large files at double the speed of my Draft-N (2.0 compliant) network equipment.

Lights: The GA511 has two lights. One lights up green when you're connected to a network, and flickers during network activity. That's pretty common, and shouldn't require further explanation. The second light stays dark when connected to 10 megabit networks. It lights amber when connected to 100 megabit networks, and lights up a happy green when connected to 1000 megabit (gigabit) networks.

Configuration: Gigabit networks can require a lot of work from your CPU in processing the rapid-fire packets and their related overhead. This network card can be configured to minimize the impact on your CPU in several ways. First, there are a couple configuration options mentioned in the instructions that specifically pass the task of manipulating large packets onto the network adapter card and out of the hands of your CPU. And second, the card supports jumbo frames up to 3000 bytes (standard frames are 1500). I didn't toy with this option because, though my network storage drive does support jumbo frames, my Netgear router/switch doesn't. Until I get a full-fledged gigabit switch I won't be able to tinker with jumbo frames. But the philosophy behind their use is solid. Each packet carries with it some data overhead, an some processing requirement of the PC receiving or sending the packet. By using larger packets that overhead is minimized, and network performance can improve. It's a nice touch that this card supports jumbo frames. Now if only my router did the same...

Conclusion: The GA511 is easy to set up, hot swappable, easy to use, seemingly reliable, and most importantly, FAST. Once you plug it in, there's nothing more to it. It just works, and works well. I recommend it for anyone looking for the ultimate in network speed on their notebook computer.