May 11th, 2009 
Kiwi Si 
I often get asked to to recommend a network card for use in a work or home VMware ESX(i) home lab. As well as the onboard NICs of my HP Proliant ML110/ML115’s, that I generally use for the service console traffic, I use either a PCIe based dual port Intel Pro 1000 PT or HP NC380T. Both are on the VMware ESX I/O compatibility list.
I have used both in anger for sometime now and have found them both to offer solid performance event under heavy load. I bought my cards off of EBay which I found to regularly have both cards available for sale.
Can’t beat a picture of kit (brings out the anorak in me 
) so here they are (even took the photos myself)…
Intel Pro 1000 PT
HP NC380T
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My name is Simon Seagrave and I am a London (UK) based Senior Technology Consultant and vSpecialist working for EMC. 
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