I'm not usually a fan-boy of much stuff. However, I'd read a lot of reviews of this "Linux based firmware NIC" and FNApps from Bigfoot Networks. Some people saying it was crap and others that couldn't stop singing it's glory. The only thing that bit me, was the $250+ price tag.
When I heard they had released a sub-$200 version and our tax return happened to come in about the same time, it was time to bite. I bought the K1 version, which was still painful in the price department.
I installed it in my 3 year old Athlon 64 3200+ XP SP2, PC with 1GB of RAM and a couple year old GeForce 6600 video card, and ran through the installation of the drivers off the included CD-Rom.
After the system rebooted the K1 immediately checked Bigfoot Networks for updates and let me know that new drivers and firmware were available. Due to reading user complaints about some of the early releases of their drivers and firmware, (not withstanding that I was on the newly released hardware and that, to their credit, they were purported to fix user problems very quickly) I went ahead and allowed the updates. I also accepted the install of the FNA firewall, with the full desire to remove the CPU bound slowness of the Windows and McAfee firewalls I'd previously been using from the equation.
Upon completing all of the installs, updates and corresponding reboots I was ready to launch my favorite online game, WoW and see what affect this NIC had on my system, and more importantly, my gameplay. It was immediate, running through Ironlag, Stormwind and Hellfire Peninsula's Hold, my common ping times of 65 to 130 milliseconds were down to 32 to 40 ms. Quite unbelieving, I repeatedly ran through these tests, only to find that it stayed consistent, during high and low login times.
So, now I'm a hardware fanboy, of a Network card of all things. Quite unbelieving, and all of the different reviews out there complaining about this and that, but the Killer NIC has convinced me and has had a real impact on my game play. In fact, so much that my wife with her GeForce 4 motherboard and built-in Nvidia NIC has told me she wouldn't mind seeing one put into her PC. ;-)
1 comment:
I must admit that I do want one due to the fact that it has a definite positive affect on his daily gaming mexperience. Thank goodness I have a geekazoid husband who cares very much about my gaming and tries very hard to make sure it is very pleasurable for me in the hardware department! What would I ever do without him???!
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