Or the US ebay link HP Gigabit Ethernet Quad Port Network Adapter Card 436431 001 NC364T HSTNS BN26 | eBayWell it's a Dutch ebay link, but this united states seller is selling for around 80 USD:
HP Gigabit Ethernet Quad Port Network Adapter Card 436431-001 NC364T HSTNS-BN26 | eBay
When you sum up your usb-setup costs and compare it to the ebay object, you would find out that it is cheaper and will have a better performance too.
I have had a bad experience with a couple of Silicom bypass NICs, that I bought used.Or the US ebay link HP Gigabit Ethernet Quad Port Network Adapter Card 436431 001 NC364T HSTNS BN26 | eBay
Much easier!
Tempting but also scary...looks like a clone of the hp and dell i350s I see all over.If you are feeling a bit adventurous, chinese brand Winyao makes relatively cheap NICs with Intel chips.
An example is this 4 port card with i350 chip for 99.99$.
Fair-to-good price but seller has some info wrong, I believe that is a Pro 1000 VT, quad 82575/6. (MT cards are older and regular pci)Dell Poweredge Server Intel PRO 1000MT Quad 1GBPS Ports PCI E Ethernet NIC YT674 | eBay
The USB idea has been tried before, not worth it.
Duals and quads are not that badly priced either and certainly don't match the claimed pricing.
They were never supported but were drivers and there are still drivers they are just not enabled by default.also, not all software supports usb nic adaptors...
VMWare dropped support for realtek and marvel all together!