Killer NIC M1 Gaming Network Card – 10/100/1000Mbps PCI Network Adapter -- Less Game Lag, Smoother Gameplay

Pros: So now, to answer the burning question… is the card worth the money?
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: It does just what it says it is going to do. I play World of Warcraft and KillerNIC dropped my ping by 20-30ish ms and has boosted my FPS in situations where there is LOTS of action going on the screen and my FPS is dropping like flies. It reduces times where you would normally see lag in the game making for a smoother experience over all. Now I’ve got a higher end gaming system and I did not see worlds of difference in my games… could I live without this card, you bet. Am I having a better gaming experience so far? Yeah… and that’s what this card is aiming for. I am looking forward to doing some more graphic’s intense stuff later where there is going to be even more crazy stuff going on to really put this thing to the test and I’ll keep ya posted.

Cons: My first card was DOA & while it would load & the OS saw that it was there, something was hosed & it would not get an IP address (it took six hours of solo troubleshooting to confirm it was hosed, I was getting really annoyed).
Called Bigfoot & they heard me out, did a basic troubleshoot, & suggested I put in a ticket on their website (to some not the best way to handle tech support but to me this is the best way to describe every little thing that I tried to do to troubleshoot the card).
Bigfoot sent me an email thanking me for attempting to troubleshoot with them & that they believe the card is dead (well duh); setup next day RMA cross ship & wait.
Next day- no replacement card… *gurr* oh well I did get my credit card info to them at the last minute to have them cross-ship me another card.
Day two of waiting- Replacement card arrives, uninstall bad card, & drop in new card… lights up to start… that’s a good sign; installed drivers and everything works. That’s MORE LIKE IT!

Overall Review: Well the NIC is shiny right out of the box with a sweet “K” shaped aluminum nickel-plated heat sink… put it in though and it kind of disappears in-between my other cards so you can’t see it, oh well. . Lights on the card flash like a warning beacon on a cell tower at night… not to annoying, has a cool effect to it. Tentative final impressions:
Tech support is there to work stuff out, I’m happy with the support, second card working as advertised, if you have the money to blow and you would call yourself a hardcore gamer that needs that little extra edge or your looking for a better online gaming experience this card is what your looking for.

Pros: Nothing

Cons: There was no noticeable difference in performance or ping. What makes it worse is the Killernic wasn't compatible with most of the games I played (Chaser, Battlefield series, UT3, etc.) These games would never load their server browser list, or if they did the pings would all show 999, and the only way to fix that was to run Killernic in comparability mode which negates the performance enhancement (if there ever was). Also, the ping throttle doesn't work and crashes most games, and most of the FNA apps don't work the way they are supposed to. Check out their forums and see for yourself.

Overall Review: I made sure to use their newest drivers and followed the install directions exactly. I have a Q6600 cpu and GTX 260 gpu, Windows XP. Product returned.