Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5720-2P - 2x 1GbE PCIe NIC

Product Overview

AI-generated summary

For £71.64 ex‑VAT, the Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5720 “2P” card is a pretty sensible buy if you’re plugging a server into a standard 1GbE network and you want something boringly reliable. Broadcom NICs are usually strong on driver support and day‑to‑day stability, which matters more than fancy features in most UK server estates. If you’ve got an older host, a spare PCIe slot, and you just need dependable dual-port connectivity for a VMware/Proxmox box, NAS, or general virtualisation workload, this is the kind of part that keeps support calls down.

That said, I wouldn’t buy it if you’re aiming for future-proofing or trying to get maximum value in 2026—there’s no point spending money on 1GbE when your bottlenecks are likely to be elsewhere. Also, because these are used/older-generation server NICs depending on how it’s supplied, I’d sanity-check compatibility with your exact OS/hypervisor and PCIe slot constraints before ordering (and confirm it’s really “Broadcom” branded/complete, not an OEM mystery variant). If you can use it cleanly, it’s good value; if you’re already moving to 10/25GbE, this is more “get-by” than “grow-with.”