Mixing 100mbps and gigabit

[zellsillusion]

I've got a pretty simple question but I haven't been able to find much information searching or what I have found has been conflicting.

I have five computers with 100mbps network cards and/or cabling. In addition I have a synlogy NAS with a 1000mbps connection. Currently these are all hooked up via a 10/100 switch.

Would there be any advantage in buying a gigabit switch? Such that each client would always have full connection speed. Or would the mixed nature of the network auto-limit the NAS to 100mbps anyway?

 

[CTJoyce]

The switch will give the maximum speed to all clients that both the switch and NIC support (ex 10/100/1000 switch will still only give a 100MBps connection to a 10/100 NIC). However most switches (not to mention network cards) have built in flow control. This means the host finds out how much bandwidth the destination can handle and then throttles itself down to match the destination.

In your situation the only thing you may see is slightly better transfer rates when multiple computers are connected and transferring at once.

Cheers
Cameron