NIC 10/100/1000 for laptop - is it necessary?

[SCunning]

Hello,
Sales abound on laptops and I need one for occasional movie watching and working through LogMeIn on my desktop. I am not a Gamer. My choice comes down to one with a 10/100/1000 NIC and one without. What are your suggestions?

 

[WR2]

Hello SCunning;

Both laptops will have a NIC, you can be sure of that.
Got links to the ones you're looking at? Otherwise, list the make and models.

 

[Emerald]

it is not necessary since the internet connection is slower the 100Mb; therefore, 10/100 will be fine.

 

[IH8U]

I'd go for the one with an onboard NIC, as a wired connection is always faster than wireless. It makes a big difference for downloading, and or streaming data. (besides you need one to configure a decent wireless router anyway)

 

[SCunning]

Thanks for your advice - I guess I really want to know if the 10/100 NIC is sufficient for what I want to use it for or if I need to go to 10/100/1000. Both are incorporated into the laptop from what I can tell by the specs. The advertizing sort of uses scare tactics to say things will stop streaming at 100Mbps soon as everyone is going to 1000Mbps. I doubt that but how would I know.

I have to decide between i3, i5, i7 as well and I really can't find a good explanation as to the advantage of one over the other in consideration of price point.

 

[Emerald]

from the info given a i7 might be complete overkill

i3 will do what you need to do; however, the i5 might be worth investing in.

the i3 is a dual core CPU and the i5 is a quad core CPU.

 

[WR2]

For movie/video watching, web surfing, the usual home office and work tasks any i3/i5 CPU will be more than sufficient.

What speed is your internet connection running at?
If the internet is your main focus the Gigabit NIC is and the 100Mbps NIC will do just fine.

 

[jaguarskx]

Gigabit NICs are only for networks that have Gigabit connections. Meaning if at home you have a computer with a Gigabit NIC and you transfer a lot of files (especially large ones) between your PC and your laptop, then having a Gigabit NIC in your laptop would make sense.

Internet connections do not operate at 1000Mbps. They only operate at upto 100Mbps so getting a Gigabit NIC will not increase your internet bandwidth for faster downloading/uploading.

 

[jsc]

it is not necessary since the internet connection is slower the 100Mb; therefore, 10/100 will be fine.

Any more, not necessarily. 100 megabits, once you factor in overhead, is roughly equivalent to 10 megabytes per second. Many people have faster connections.

 

[SCunning]

Best answer selected by SCunning.