Basement Relay Switches

[nephri]

Hi,

I want to install small switches in my basement at differents locations

Ideally i want small switches that must be quiet and offer multi-gig connectivity (at least 2.5Gbps RJ45)
I will buy 3 switchs (can be a mix)

For now i studies theses switches:

• Unifi USW-Flex-XG
  • 4x RJ45 10Gbps
  • 1x RJ45 1Gbps POE
  • fanless
  • ~ 315 €
• Qnap QSW-IM1200-8C
  • 8x RJ45 10Gbps COMBO
  • 8x SFP+ COMBO
  • 4x SFP+
  • fanless
  • ~ 850 €
• Qnap QSW-1108-8T
  • 8x RJ45 2.5Gbps
  • ~ 180 €
• NetGear XS508M
  • 7x RJ45 10Gbps
  • Buggy Jumbo Frames support
  • ~ 400 €
• NetGear MS510TX
  • 4x RJ45 1Gbps
  • 2x RJ45 2.5Gbps
  • 2x RJ45 5Gbps
  • 1x RJ45 10bps
  • 1x SFP+
  • max 27.3 dba
  • ~ 300 €
• NetGear MS510TXPP
  • 4x RJ45 1Gbps POE
  • 2x RJ45 2.5Gbps POE
  • 2x RJ45 5Gbps POE
  • 1x RJ45 10bps
  • 1x SFP+
  • max 27.3 dba
  • ~ 350 €
• Tp-Link TL-SG105-M2
  • 5x RJ45 2.5Gbps
  • fanless
  • ~ 140€
• Zyxel MG-105
  • 5x RJ45 2.5Gbps
  • fanless
  • ~ 110 €
• Zyxel MG-108
  • 8x RJ45 2.5Gbps
  • fanless
  • ~ 180 €
• Zyxel XS1930-10
  • 8x RJ45 10Gbps
  • 2x SFP+
  • 28 to 50 dba
  • ~ 480 €
• Mikrotik CRS312-4C-8XG-RM
  • 8x RJ45 10Gbps
  • 4x RJ45 10Gbps COMBO
  • 4x SFP+ COMBO
  • not fanless
  • ~ 540 €
• Mikrotik CRS317-1G-16S+RM
  • 1x RJ45 1Gbps
  • 16x SFP+
  • not fanless
  • ~ 280 €

At this time, my best competitors are:

• Qnap QSW-1108-8T having a small price at 180€ but haven't any 10Gbps capability
• Netgear MS510TX/PP having multigig RJ45, SFP+ for a small price. But it's not silent because not fanless
• Zyxel MG-108 that is very similar to the Qnap

For now, my preference goes to the Netgear MS510TXPP


Have you other switch i should take care of ? and what is your opinions / feedbacks about theses switches ?

Best regards,
Sébastien.

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

Why not consider a used Brocade switch?

 

[nephri]

Will it be mostly silent ?
I have (on the servers room) theses ones:

• Quanta LB4M
• Gnodal GS4008
• Mellanox SX6036

None of theses can be used on living rooms because they do to much noise...
How much noise do brocade ones ?

 

[LodeRunner]

Why not consider a used Brocade switch?

The only Brocade that meets the criteria would be a ICX 7150-C10ZP and good luck finding that for less than 1k € .

The 7450-32ZP is a full size switch with no silent mode options. The 7150-48ZP is also a full size switch and _may_ support fanless mode, but that caps PoE budget to 150 W.

Is the reason for multiple switches to consolidate connections and trunk back to a core?

 

[nephri]

Yep,

my core installation is on the basement (where the ISP fiber come to, with servers and switches)

After that, i want to deliver a network to :
- the ground floor (living room, the office room)
- the upstairs (children's bedrooms)

At the upstairs, i want one "uplink" cable from the basement switches capables of 1G, 10G and 40G to a local switch that will serve the floor.
The upstairs will have least a Wifi 6 router that can handle 2.5Gbps RJ45. So i want at least a switch that can handle this speed.

The ground floor for the living room, will have only devices that can handle 1G RJ45 (like the PS5, TV, Nvidia Shield, ...) so i didn't need a big switch for this part.

The ground floor for the office room will need to have a 40Gbps for the main computer. I will not use a switch and will connect directly the PC to the basement switch. But on this room i have other devices and want also another uplink (SFP+ or RJ45) and a local switch for be able to serve all devices.


I have the choice to use RJ45 Cat 6a/7 for uplinks or SFP+ or even QSFP
I didn't see any small switch capable to handle an uplink at 40Gbps QSFP...

I'm not very confident with bulk SFP+ cable that i will have to add termination (good term ?)
I'm sure to be able to handle bulk RJ45 and adding keystone connector !
So it's why i'm prefering for now to use RJ45 for uplinks (except the main PC that will use a patch cable because the length to the basement is not too long)

The current choice is:
- upstair switch : NetGear MS510TX (uplink RJ45 at 10Gbps)
- ground floor - living room : Zyxel MG-108 (uplink RJ45 at 2.5Gbps)
- ground floor - office room : NetGear MS510TX (uplink SFP+ with a patch cable)


PS: sorry for my poor english.

Sébastien.

 

[LodeRunner]

Unless you have the right gear and are trained, just buy preterminated fiber. Sure you'll have to loop the excess, but you'll be better off. You can get LC/LC keystones; I have a patch panel I'm installing in my rack to handle some stuff and it's just 24 empty keystone holes.

I can't think of any switches that do 40Gb that don't have fans. They will all be datacenter oriented gear and not quiet. Depending on what you get you can replace the fans, but some switches do not like the lower RPM and can go into an error state if you have no way to reprogram the thresholds. 40Gb over a single LC pair requires a BiDi optic that'll cost north of $300 USD, however that converts to Euros, otherwise, you have to pull MTP-12 fiber (12 strands in one cable) and there are MTP/MPO keystones for that. Even with bend-insensitive cable, you'll probably want angled wall plates (example Amazon.com: Leviton 41081-2WP Angled QuickPort Wallplate 2-Port, Single Gang, White : Electronics ) for easier installation, strain relief, and not having cram it into the wall.

Doing CAT-5/6a/7 to a keystone is easy, just get solid cable, not stranded. Keystones are quite easy to terminate and install. If you want to make your own patch cables, then you'll want a separate spool of stranded cable; much easier to crimp in the RJ-45 ends. Most keystones will have the color code on them, just pick one standard and stick to it. I prefer 568B, only because that was the color pattern I memorized first; there's no technical advantage. 10Gb over copper UTP is highly dependent on cable quality and quality of termination. I seem to recall CAT-7 having some finicky requirements; CAT-6a isn't different from CAT-6 or CAT-5 that I recall beyond having an annoying plastic core to deal with (maybe that was that specific cable and not a CAT-6/6a requirement).