Review on StarTech.com Dual Gigabit NIC Card - Intel i350 Chipset - 🔌 PCIe Ethernet Network Card - RJ45 Port - Server/Desktop Network Card (ST2000SPEXI) by Clarence Calcara

I've been building PCs for over 15 years and have encountered countless hardware and software issues in that time. In addition, I am a Licensed/Certified Computer Technician with many years of experience. I'm also well versed in setting up large networks and anything related to network configurations etc. In other words, I'm not new to proper software/hardware uninstall/installation and the necessary troubleshooting that may be required to resolve potential issues. .My motherboard's built-in Ethernet card has given me countless problems since I built the system (random disconnects, DNS/gateway errors, etc.). I ended up getting fed up with this and bought this card to replace it. After removing all drivers for the built-in network card, disabling it in the BIOS and making sure that there were no traces of a conflict with the new network card, I turned off the computer, restarted the BIOS and installed this card. I pressed the power button and turned on the PC, but the debug LEDs on my motherboard showed a PCH initialization error as well as a CPU display error (meaning the CPU is bad or not installed). I thought maybe my PCIE controller was defective (my PCIE 2.0 controller is chipset driven and PCIE 3.0 is processor driven. So one could be defective and the rest worked fine). But as soon as I removed the card, the computer booted normally with no errors. I've tried this at least 4 times, each time using a different PCIE slot, resetting the BIOS in between and making sure all the cables in the PC are properly connected. All for free. I ended up sending this product back. I bought an Intel i210-T1 which is made directly by Intel (it only has an Intel chip but is made by Startech) and after installing it on my computer it started fine on the first try. Bottom Line: While this card has worked for some, be warned it can cause problems like the ones I've explained here. I may have been unlucky and got a bad block, but so far I haven't had this experience with any NIC made directly by Intel or other major NIC manufacturers (TP-Link, Broadcom, etc.). ) .