[Beowulf] onboard Gb lan: any opinion, suggestion or,impression?

[SIM DOG]

I agree, the current generation boards all seem to have decent GigE.
Nvidis runs it's own NForce. Broadcom and Marvell seem popular too.
Intel mobos run Intel (strangely enough) as do Supermicro. I think Tyan
uses Intel for some and 3Com for others.

My only word of caution is if you go bargain bin hunting. I seem to
remember that some boards a few years back used a Realtek chipset that
was a complete woofer.

As, always, Google is your friend. See if you can find a trail of woe ;)

Cheers
Stevo