[FatBastard]

What exactly is it? Faster? By how much? Is it actually possible to take advantage of it? How?

[ghporter]

Not really. Gigabit ethernet is capable of handling data faster than a PCI interface can supply/accept it. The current real market for gigabit is in large corporate networks that supply tons of data throughput to thousands of users. Sure, it would be nice to have something that fast, but I might see a difference in transferring large files, like CD image files, from machine to machine. While I don't have a CD burner on every computer, I don't make and move images that often, and 100BaseT handles files of that size pretty quickly.


Plus (darn it!) the equipment is pretty expensive now. I saw a display of various kinds of network cards the other day. You could get 10/100 PCI cards for less than $10. Gigabit cards started at about $170. Rats!

[Camelot]

Woah! Hold your horses there, GHP!

First, according to Apple the Mac's PCI bus has a maximum sustained throughput of 266MBps, that's megaBYTES per second, which is way, way over the 1000 megaBITS per second supported by Gig-E.

Granted, you're not likely to run at full throttle all the time, but to say that a Gig-E card outperforms the PCI bus just isn't so.

Secondly, as for cost, all current Macs including Gig-E onboard, so you don't need to buy a card unless you don't have a Gig-E equipped Mac, which wasn't the original question.

Speaking of which, the advantage of gigabit ethernet is that it's theoretically 10 times faster than the 100Base-T ethernet used previously.

I say theoretically since very few people will ever achieve maximum throughput - there's many factors involved and I won't bore you with details here, but suffice to say most people will see 400-600mbps sustained throughput on a gigabit ethernet network, which is still 4 to 6 times faster than the theoretical limit of 100Base-T

The down side is cost, which is certainly a factor, if only at the switch end. Gig-E switches cost way more than 10/100 switches.

[ghporter]

I'm not arguing that the Mac's PCI bus can handle more data than G-E needs, but remember that it has to handle that data in both directions, with overhead, management, error handling, etc. This tends to slow even the best machine down. Further, G-E supposedly has even more management overhead because it's supposed to be tolerant of "nominal" media-like when your buddy buys cheap CAT3 cable and says it's fine for him. More overhead slows things down.

A big reason to put off making your entire LAN gigabit is that the current ATA standards (aka Ultra DMA) don't really go up high enough to buffer that data to really squeeze out the performance that gigabit promises.

I used the card pricing as an example of the price difference between 10/100 and gigabit equipment. CompUSA, for example, lists only one (SOHO) switch for gigabit networks; it's an SMC box that lists for $149, while CompUSA's house brand gateway router/switch costs $30. Further, this 8-port switch only has one gigabit port-the WAN port. Everything else in this box is 10/100.

There are new Macs on the shelf today that can use gigabit very nicely, but really only between each other, since the home networking equipment to tie it all together isn't there yet. My advice is to wait and let things mature-particularly since your new Mac is ready. When the prices and features are there, go for it! But don't expect your broadband service to keep up for a LONG time!

[FatBastard]

This has been very enlightening, thanks. I'm doing digital video and have enourmous amounts of information that constantly needs to be pushed, pulled and drive swapped (external Firewire drives) from station to station. With the quick peek of firewire networking and the even quiclker end to the technology, this re-newed old issues of creating a hi-speed network. All this gigabit ethernet marketing that Apple boast has always been a "how do I utilize it" issue.

So from what I gather, it's very possible in the near future, given the pricing, advancements in production of multiple gigabit port hubs and bus speed limitations. The bus speed limitation is understandable and the pricing of the hubs is somewhat expected (compared the price of switched hubs 10 years ago).

All I'm looking for is increased throughput on network transfers. If it can come close to the bus speeds, then I can't complain. But when it's running at the max of 100bits and I'm trying to transfer 2 gigs of info I'm better off sticking with multiple external firewire drives that can be walked over to another station at about 100gigs per 10 foot stroll Sounds like a rare, manpower over technology instance.

Thanks for all of your help!

[ghporter]

FB,

You have one of the few current applications that can really benefit from gigabit today. As I said, the only problem is finding reliable switches to hook your Macs together. Yes, you can benefit from the speed and higher throughput, and there are some products on the market that you can use to connect your gigabit network (assuming you have deep pockets). I'd love to see this technology take off and drive manufactrers to making a wider selection of products at a lower price so I can get in on it. It would also push the broadband ISP market to up the ante a little, I think, and that's another reason I'd like to see it open up.