Understanding PowerEdge T710 network adapters

I work for a company that has a PE T710 server for 1.5 years. Currently it is running Hyper V and a couple of Windows Server 2008R2 virtual machines. I would like to optimize network I/O, especially for backups. This server has around 6-8 RJ45 network ports on the back of it, which are described with lots of acronyms, for example:

"Dual embedded Broadcom NetXtreme II 5709c Gigabit Ethernet NIC with failover and load balancing (4 total ports). 
TOE (TCPIP Offload Engine) supported on Microsoft Windows Server 2003, SP1 or higher with Scalable Networking Pack
Intel Ethernet X520 DA2 Dual-Port 10 Gigabit Server Adapter"

As best I can recall I used trial and error back when I installed the WS2008R2 and virtual machines as far as connecting to the network. I also recall Dell had to change the motherboard once and that totally screwed up all the network configuration, which I had to trial-and-error again just to get VM's communicating again. The whole setup of network was very confusing with something like, "virtual NIC, with a built-in hardware virtual switch, running WS2008R2 with a virtual-virtual-switch, blah, blah..." very confusing, but somehow I got things working, not optimal I'm sure but working. It has been running stable for 1.5 years. However I am wondering if I can significantly improve performance by connecting more (or all) of those network connections to the switch, and how I should utilize those in my VM's.

Is there a good document or guide for best practices on how to use the network technology of this server? I am looking for some sort of practical user's guide.