can someone reccomend good networkcard

i have 3 pc's i need to network in the not too distant future and i need some info on nic's

i've already laid the cat5 cable int the roof of my house, and i want a 100Mb/s connection with a 8 port hub / switch.

oh yeah........... can you recommend a good breed of hub / switch as well ?

thanx.

The NICs and the 4-port router I'm currently using is made by Linksys.  It's also what we use for our equipment at UCSD...well, aside from 3COM NICs.  I think the Linksys ones are a lot easier to deal with.  Both the NICs and the router can operate at 10/100.  I know that you can get the NICs for as low as $10 USD (Fry's) here and I just saw an advertisement for the 8-port router for $200 USD.  Combine that with the $5 rebate on the NIC cards and I forgot what the rebate was on the router.  It's definitely worth it.  I wish I had waited for the 8-port one because I just about got the 4-port one for the price of the 8-port!

[Keefe]

I find very good performance with my Netgear 10/100 ethernet card.  I have also used the 3Com 10/100 ethernet card; that one has always worked for me.  For the switch i am using a LinkSys 5-port, I get great throughput and it was fairly inexpensive...

i like the netgear 310tx, very good card. the newest one is the 311tx, i also believe that work well, if not better/same.

thanx for all the info gang, but i really should have asked if any of the systems that you use the nic's in are overclocked cos all 3 pc's i want to network are running higher fsb's and nic's are notorious for spitting the dummy at higher pci bus speeds.
anyone ?

One of the computers I have is overclocked and the Linksys NIC operates fine with the change.  Also, I have a lot of gaming friends that overclock the hell out of their computers and they all use the Linksys cards.  No problems there either.