Intel recommendations for Windows Server.

[_Grid21]

 

I need some help picking out a network card for my Windows Server 2012 Standard. I was looking at Intel's NICs but all of them are either for teaming, fiber, or something else or not compatible with Windows 8.1 which is what Windows Server 2012 Standard is built on. So can someone suggest an Intel PCIe Gigabit network card I can use with Windows Server 2012 Standard? 

 

Thanks in advance!

[Tabs]

Depending on how many ports you need and what speed of connection you're looking for, there are a lot of options. The basic PRO/1000 MT cards from ages ago will all work out of the box with no additional drivers or configuration needed.

 

Here's the complete support list for intel Ethernet cards under 2012 R2; you can find the product that most suitably fits your needs and do a search for the SKU to find a seller.

 

It might be worth looking for a dual/quad port card even if you only need 1 port, since they are regularly for sale in bulk (1gbps cards anyway) on sites like ebay, where they have been replaced with 10gbit equivalents.

Edited November 16, 2017 by Tabs
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[_Grid21]

1 minute ago, Tabs said:

Depending on how many ports you need and what speed of connection you're looking for, there are a lot of options. The basic 1000/MT cards from ages ago will all work out of the box with no additional drivers or configuration needed.

 

Here's the complete support list for intel Ethernet cards under 2012 R2; you can find the product that most suitably fits your needs and do a search for the SKU to find a seller.

 

It might be worth looking for a dual/quad port card even if you only need 1 port, since they are regularly for sale in bulk (1gbps cards anyway) on sites like ebay, where they have been replaced with 1gbit equivalents.

I am gonna be using my network card for file copies and OBS NDI video streaming from my gaming PC to the server to twitch. So I need as fast a card as possible that won't de-sync after 2 or 3 hours of streaming. 

[Tabs]

2 minutes ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

I am gonna be using my network card for file copies and OBS NDI video streaming from my gaming PC to the server to twitch. So I need as fast a card as possible that won't de-sync after 2 or 3 hours of streaming. 

You really shouldn't have any network issue with any modern gigabit network with a workload like that. Buy the cheapest intel card you can find, search for any intel PRO/1000 card that runs on pci-express and they should all work for your needs.

 

If the server you're building already has a network port - which I have to assume it does if it's also capable of running server 2012 R2 - it should be fully capable of dealing with that workload already.

 

Is there some issue with the builtin port that has made you look for alternatives?

[_Grid21]

1 minute ago, Tabs said:

You really shouldn't have any network issue with any modern gigabit network with a workload like that. Buy the cheapest intel card you can find, search for any intel PRO/1000 card that runs on pci-express and they should all work for your needs.

 

If the server you're building already has a network port - which I have to assume it does if it's also capable of running server 2012 R2 - it should be fully capable of dealing with that workload already.

 

Is there some issue with the builtin port that has made you look for alternatives?

The built-in port is only 10/100 and the network card I have is by Realtek, so I think that network card is causing issues somehow after a period of 2 to 3 hours, but the issue isn't all the time. 

[Tabs]

14 minutes ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

The built-in port is only 10/100 and the network card I have is by Realtek, so I think that network card is causing issues somehow after a period of 2 to 3 hours, but the issue isn't all the time. 

 

It's really odd that a machine with hardware good enough to run Server 2012 R2 well doesn't already have gigabit Ethernet. Edit: I originally got my figures wrong, saying that you'd be low on bandwidth when streaming with a 100mbit link. Even a realtek card should have no problems keeping up with a ~6mbit stream with a 100mbit link. I dunno specifically what might be causing you problems right now.

 

If you want to really upgrade on a budget, I'd recommend purchasing a HP/IBM rebranded version of the EXPI9404PT series, which is a quad-port gigabit adapter with partial hardware offloading for traffic processing. I've seen it available in the UK for as little as £32, and I've seen listings on Amazon us for the same card for $40. These are usually refurbs pulled from working servers. Failing that, get a single/dual port Pro/1000 MT card (pcie x1 variant, not the older pci version) which should be readily available for $30 or less.

[_Grid21]

2 minutes ago, Tabs said:

 

It's really odd that a machine with hardware good enough to run Server 2012 R2 well doesn't already have gigabit Ethernet. Oh well, in this case you're likely having issues with the fact that the server machine only has 1 network port running at 100mbit. Even with duplexing that doesn't give you a lot of spare bandwidth if you're streaming at twitch/youtube max bitrates (Around 3500 and 6000 if i remember correctly).

 

If you want to really upgrade on a budget, I'd recommend purchasing a HP/IBM rebranded version of the EXPI9404PT series, which is a quad-port gigabit adapter with partial hardware offloading for traffic processing. I've seen it available in the UK for as little as £32, and I've seen listings on Amazon us for the same card for $40. These are usually refurbs pulled from working servers. Failing that, get a single/dual port Pro/1000 MT card (pcie x1 variant, not the older pci version) which should be readily available for $30 or less.

Well as I mentioned, right now I am using a PCI Gigabit card, which doesn't seem like the right thing to use. I thought if I went to PCIe it would be much better for what I am trying to do. And also, that would mean I may have to run a second network cable from my router. 

[Tabs]

1 minute ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

Well as I mentioned, right now I am using a PCI Gigabit card, which doesn't seem like the right thing to use. I thought if I went to PCIe it would be much better for what I am trying to do. And also, that would mean I may have to run a second network cable from my router. 

 

If your board has a pci slot and you're using a gigabit pci network adapter (and this setup works for you), then there's really no reason to change it. Moving from pci to pcie for your network card won't change the performance of your network if it's already running at gigabit speeds. The slowest operating speed of a pci slot on a motherboard is 133MB/s, which is higher than the peak throughput of a single gigabit link (which is around 120MB/s). There's no way you're going to be streaming at those speeds - no service would accept it.

 

Unless you are certain you've narrowed down your performance problems to the network link in the server, you may want to do a little investigating to see if there's some other kind of problem causing your desyncing issues.

 

Then again, the intel quad port card I mentioned, if you can find it for cheap ($40ish), might be worth buying regardless.

[_Grid21]

5 minutes ago, Tabs said:

 

If your board has a pci slot and you're using a gigabit pci network adapter (and this setup works for you), then there's really no reason to change it. Moving from pci to pcie for your network card won't change the performance of your network if it's already running at gigabit speeds. The slowest operating speed of a pci slot on a motherboard is 133MB/s, which is higher than the peak throughput of a single gigabit link (which is around 120MB/s). There's no way you're going to be streaming at those speeds - no service would accept it.

 

Unless you are certain you've narrowed down your performance problems to the network link in the server, you may want to do a little investigating to see if there's some other kind of problem causing your desyncing issues.

 

Then again, the intel quad port card I mentioned, if you can find it for cheap ($40ish), might be worth buying regardless.

I do know that probably software encoding isn't great on OBS, and I plan to switch the GPU from a GTX 260 to GTX 760 and I just thought it'd make sense to switch the network card too to PCIe. 

[Tabs]

2 minutes ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

I do know that probably software encoding isn't great on OBS, and I plan to switch the GPU from a GTX 260 to GTX 760 and I just thought it'd make sense to switch the network card too to PCIe. 

That's a good idea if this box is purely used for encoding to stream. Have you had a chance to see exactly how much bandwidth your machine is using under NDI? I totally missed earlier that you said you were using NDI, so your machine is transmitting footage via NDI to the server and the server itself is encoding to the streaming service right?

 

In that case it could be a network issue, but if it happens after an extended period of time you might be encountering throttling (due to heat) if the machine is under heavy load the entire time. 

 

Definitely worth looking into, imo. If you can find a specific bottleneck it'd help you plan your upgrade accordingly.

[_Grid21]

14 minutes ago, Tabs said:

That's a good idea if this box is purely used for encoding to stream. Have you had a chance to see exactly how much bandwidth your machine is using under NDI? I totally missed earlier that you said you were using NDI, so your machine is transmitting footage via NDI to the server and the server itself is encoding to the streaming service right?

 

In that case it could be a network issue, but if it happens after an extended period of time you might be encountering throttling (due to heat) if the machine is under heavy load the entire time. 

 

Definitely worth looking into, imo. If you can find a specific bottleneck it'd help you plan your upgrade accordingly.

It's receiving over 100Mbps a second and on top of that I have to use Chrome remote desktop to control OBS on my server from my gaming rig.

[paddy-stone]

1 hour ago, Tabs said:

Depending on how many ports you need and what speed of connection you're looking for, there are a lot of options. The basic PRO/1000 MT cards from ages ago will all work out of the box with no additional drivers or configuration needed.

 

Here's the complete support list for intel Ethernet cards under 2012 R2; you can find the product that most suitably fits your needs and do a search for the SKU to find a seller.

 

It might be worth looking for a dual/quad port card even if you only need 1 port, since they are regularly for sale in bulk (1gbps cards anyway) on sites like ebay, where they have been replaced with 10gbit equivalents.

Agree, I got a quad gigabit card e1000 IIRC for around £20 off ebay, works brilliantly in my server running freenas/esxi.. works in my desktop too as you'd imagine.

[Tabs]

1 minute ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

It's receiving over 100Mbps a second and on top of that I have to use Chrome remote desktop to control OBS on my server from my gaming rig.

What's your cpu/gpu load and temps like on the rendering server? Do you notice any throttling after a while? Degradation over time generally means throttling in some form, unless the amount of data you send starts increasing - not sure why that'd be - to hit the 1gbps limit on your current card. 

 

I'm assuming here you literally meant 100mbit/s (not 100MB/s which would be close to saturating your gigabit connection).

[_Grid21]

On 11/16/2017 at 7:33 PM, paddy-stone said:

Agree, I got a quad gigabit card e1000 IIRC for around £20 off ebay, works brilliantly in my server running freenas/esxi.. works in my desktop too as you'd imagine.

Well see, this is a local server, I don't have a need for a quad network card when there is only one cable going to the server. 

On 11/16/2017 at 7:34 PM, Tabs said:

What's your cpu/gpu load and temps like on the rendering server? Do you notice any throttling after a while? Degradation over time generally means throttling in some form, unless the amount of data you send starts increasing - not sure why that'd be - to hit the 1gbps limit on your current card. 

 

I'm assuming here you literally meant 100mbit/s (not 100MB/s which would be close to saturating your gigabit connection).

A lot of the temps sit around 60 *C and sometimes not even that. There is still a lot of headroom when I send video data over LAN to my server. As for the network card itself, I don't think it's having issues, I do Have 2 other NICs that are also PCI but barely used so maybe I should try swapping NICs and see if that's the issues.