10/100/1000 networking

[w7u64xi7]

We are making a small network at home and will use file sharing transfer heavily.

We thought to buy 10/100/1000 network switch, cards, and cables.

Question is: is it mandatory that motherboard must support networking for 10/100/1000 or using cards support 10/100/1000 solve the issue?

We are using old computers like dell 745 core to due.

We are making a small network at home and will use file sharing transfer heavily.

We thought to buy 10/100/1000 network switch, cards, and cables.

Question is: is it mandatory that motherboard must support networking for 10/100/1000 or using cards support 10/100/1000 solve the issue?

We are using old computers like dell 745 core to due.

It is just that we gonna buy 16 or 20 computers with 20 cards, 3 switches, 2 adsl 2+ routers and cables for 10/100/1000, so it is a lot of money and this is why I am worried about going wrong.

Also one last thing, does file transfer using 10/100/1000 will be the fast like USB 3 or will be slow?

[Tripredacus]

I don't think motherboards care what speed NIC it has in it. If you decide to get Gigabit (there is absolutely no reason why you'd want 10/100 really) then make sure the speed is the same across all NICs. Do not introduce any 10/100 into that network (especially if you want to have good performance) unless you end up getting managed switches with Link Aggregation. As far as a USB 3 comparison, I can't help you there.

[allen2]

Usb3 is 5Gbits so it's 5X faster than 1000Mbits.... But in fact your speed will heavily depend on the speed of your hard drives if using gigabit ethernet network or usb3.

[w7u64xi7]

Yes I am using a network card, a switch and a network cable that is supported 10-100-1000

All computers using the same thing exactly.