Best 100gb switch
- Thread starter tritron
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One that has low power consumption (with no ports used, 50 % and 100% connected), freely available firmware/os updates, 2-4 sfp28 ports and 1 or 2 1gbe ports 
Under $500? There aren't a whole lot of choices. Looking at eBay today, the bulk of the results for "100gbe switch" that are under $500 either aren't switches, aren't 100 Gb, or aren't Ethernet.
There are a few Edgecore switches and a couple Dells, but I'd be really cautious about them. Older (cheap) Edgecores quite likely have C2758 CPUs, and *may* just fail to boot the next time you power them on. Although I'd hope that most of the bad ones are dead by now. In either case (Dell or EdgeCore) you'll probably be stuck running SONiC (or however it is they're capitalizing it these days), which you probably don't want to do. That's its own long topic.
There are a few Cisco Nexus 3xxx models just over $500 that *might* be okay, but I don't really know the Nexus line. IIRC a few of them had really substantial limitations, so do your research before buying.
There are a few cheap-ish Arista models listed as 100G, but they're all older models with "MXP" ports. When used as 100G ports, those are 10x10G, not 4x25G like everything else over the past decade, and they're going to be incompatible with anything that you're going to want to plug into them. They'd be okay at 10G or 40G, but not 100G.
Be aware that getting new firmware for Cisco, Juniper, Arista, etc from the manufacturer is basically impossible on used devices. Arista firmware isn't *too* hard to find, because almost all of their devices run the same firmware image, but Cisco and Juniper can be a pain because every product family (and sometimes individual products) will have their own build, which means you'd need to find someone with the exact file that you're looking for.
It may not matter in this price range, though, because *everything* is going to be out of support and no longer getting upgrades, even for security issues.
Be aware that almost all 100G switches are intended for datacenters, so they have *loud* fans, and older ones may draw a lot of power. There are only a few models that I've seen under 100W, and I'm sure you could find a multi-KW switch without trying too hard. So read datasheets before ordering, or you'll end up spending more on power every year than you did on the switch.
There are a few Edgecore switches and a couple Dells, but I'd be really cautious about them. Older (cheap) Edgecores quite likely have C2758 CPUs, and *may* just fail to boot the next time you power them on. Although I'd hope that most of the bad ones are dead by now. In either case (Dell or EdgeCore) you'll probably be stuck running SONiC (or however it is they're capitalizing it these days), which you probably don't want to do. That's its own long topic.
There are a few Cisco Nexus 3xxx models just over $500 that *might* be okay, but I don't really know the Nexus line. IIRC a few of them had really substantial limitations, so do your research before buying.
There are a few cheap-ish Arista models listed as 100G, but they're all older models with "MXP" ports. When used as 100G ports, those are 10x10G, not 4x25G like everything else over the past decade, and they're going to be incompatible with anything that you're going to want to plug into them. They'd be okay at 10G or 40G, but not 100G.
Be aware that getting new firmware for Cisco, Juniper, Arista, etc from the manufacturer is basically impossible on used devices. Arista firmware isn't *too* hard to find, because almost all of their devices run the same firmware image, but Cisco and Juniper can be a pain because every product family (and sometimes individual products) will have their own build, which means you'd need to find someone with the exact file that you're looking for.
It may not matter in this price range, though, because *everything* is going to be out of support and no longer getting upgrades, even for security issues.
Be aware that almost all 100G switches are intended for datacenters, so they have *loud* fans, and older ones may draw a lot of power. There are only a few models that I've seen under 100W, and I'm sure you could find a multi-KW switch without trying too hard. So read datasheets before ordering, or you'll end up spending more on power every year than you did on the switch.
If you only need a few ports and stretch your budget a hair, this should work nicely.
Amazon.com
www.amazon.com
And if you want something quieter with extra 25gbe ports, there’s the QNAP QSW-M7308R-4X:
While new it’s way over your budget, they do sometimes pop up in the 700-range on ebay. Also note that unlike the Mikrotik above, this switch cannot do 40gbe.
Amazon.com: QNAP 12-Port 100GbE Half-Width Rackmount Layer 2 Managed Switch with Four 100GbE QSFP28 and Eight 25GbE SFP28 Ports (QSW-M7308R-4X-US)
Amazon.com: QNAP 12-Port 100GbE Half-Width Rackmount Layer 2 Managed Switch with Four 100GbE QSFP28 and Eight 25GbE SFP28 Ports (QSW-M7308R-4X-US)
www.amazon.com
While new it’s way over your budget, they do sometimes pop up in the 700-range on ebay. Also note that unlike the Mikrotik above, this switch cannot do 40gbe.
The product page for that Qnap switch states 40G is supported
Supports 100GbE breakout to 25GbE, and backward compatibility with 40GbE
The QSW-M7308R-4X is one of the few switches on the market that supports 100GbE backward compatibility at a very low cost, enhancing deployment flexibility. You can connect more servers, switches, or NAS via 100GbE QSFP28 to 4 x 25GbE SFP28 breakout cables or connect 40G/100G servers and switches via DAC/AOC cables or transceivers.
Supports 100G Breakout Cable
100G QSFP28 ports support 4 x 25G SFP28 breakout cables and 40G QSFP+ cables, easily accommodating various network configuration requirements.
I wish Mikrotik has a competitor to that Qnap switch. CRS504 has no 25G port, so when one of the 100G ports is used with breakout cables, that leaves only three 100G ports remaining. Its next biggest 100G switch is the CRS520 which has sixteen 100G ports. There's a big gap between these two switches, unlike the 10G lineup which has the CRS309 with eight 10G ports, inbetween CRS305 (four 10G) and CRS317 (sixteen 10G).
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What about this one?The product page for that Qnap switch states 40G is supported
Supports 100GbE breakout to 25GbE, and backward compatibility with 40GbE
The QSW-M7308R-4X is one of the few switches on the market that supports 100GbE backward compatibility at a very low cost, enhancing deployment flexibility. You can connect more servers, switches, or NAS via 100GbE QSFP28 to 4 x 25GbE SFP28 breakout cables or connect 40G/100G servers and switches via DAC/AOC cables or transceivers.
Supports 100G Breakout Cable
100G QSFP28 ports support 4 x 25G SFP28 breakout cables and 40G QSFP+ cables, easily accommodating various network configuration requirements.
I wish Mikrotik has a competitor to that Qnap switch. CRS504 has no 25G port, so when one of the 100G ports is used with breakout cables, that leaves only three 100G ports remaining. Its next biggest 100G switch is the CRS520 which has sixteen 100G ports. There's a big gap between these two switches, unlike the 10G lineup which has the CRS309 with eight 10G ports, inbetween CRS305 (four 10G) and CRS317 (sixteen 10G).
CRS510-8XS-2XQ-IN | MikroTik
A versatile 100 Gigabit switch that offers speed, value, and diverse connectivity options. 2x 100 Gigabit QSFP28 ports, 8x 25 Gigabit SFP28 ports, dual hot-swap power supplies.
mikrotik.com
Mikrotik calls CRS510 a 100G switch, but I would rather call it a 25G switch with 100G uplink/downlink since it only has two 100G ports. Similar to how I would classify CSS610 as a 1G switch with 10G uplink/downlink rather than a 10G switch.
CRS510 uses the same 98DX4310 chip from the CRS504 except two 100G ports have been broken out into eight 25G ports. With just two 100G ports, it's not a switch for a medium number of 100G clients.
A competitor to the QSW-M7308R-4X would essentially have to use the 98DX8525 chip from the CRS518 and produce six 100G ports, or four 100G + eight 25G ports. Ideally, it would use the 98DX7332 instead and have eight 100G ports.
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Looks like that’s a recent and welcome development that I was unaware of: QNAP Upgrades 100GbE Switch QSW-M7308R-4X, Adds support for Breakout, 40GbE QSFP+ and Cloud Centralized ManagementThe product page for that Qnap switch states 40G is supported
Supports 100GbE breakout to 25GbE, and backward compatibility with 40GbE
The QSW-M7308R-4X is one of the few switches on the market that supports 100GbE backward compatibility at a very low cost, enhancing deployment flexibility. You can connect more servers, switches, or NAS via 100GbE QSFP28 to 4 x 25GbE SFP28 breakout cables or connect 40G/100G servers and switches via DAC/AOC cables or transceivers.
Supports 100G Breakout Cable
100G QSFP28 ports support 4 x 25G SFP28 breakout cables and 40G QSFP+ cables, easily accommodating various network configuration requirements.