Brocade ICX 6450-24 vs Cisco Catalyst 2960G-24TC-L

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richard.dzavoronok

Active Member
Jun 23, 2021
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Hi,
If this is wrong forum to ask this I'm sorry.
I can't decide which switch should I go with.
I'm total newbie in terms of networking and I want to learn something new (on a homelab level).

I don't have any special requirements, but I'm planning to use pfsense/opnsense on my R220 (I did not decide on hypervisor yet) along with hosting game servers and few of my websites.

I can get ICX 6450 for 120€ and Cisco 2960G for 60€, so there is significant difference in price.
Is brocade worth 2x price?

Thanks
 

Scarlet

Member
Jul 29, 2019
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The Cisco 2960G seems to have only 24 ports and is limited to 1GBit only - maybe most ports are even 10/100 MBits only - I could not get that straight from the documentation at a glance. 4 Ports are SFP Combo Ports.
The ICX 6450 has 24 1GBit Ports plus 4 10 GBits (SFP+) Ports.

I would strongly suggest to lean on the experience in the Brocade Megathread and go for the ICX 6450.
 

notgeneric

New Member
Dec 11, 2020
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pedrof.me
The 2960G is gigabit (The G in the name is for Gigabit). While the Brocade is substantially more expansive, I would personally go with it. It’s much newer, it has 4*10GbE interfaces and it is a Layer 3 switch to boot. Check out the Brocade thread here to get a better idea of what those switches can do.
 

ccie4526

Member
Jan 25, 2021
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The WS-C2960G-24TC has 20 x 10/100/1000 + 4 x combo Gigabit SFP ports. No 10G ports.
ICX6450 is either 24 or 48 x 10/100/1000 ports + 4 x 10G SFP ports.

Even I went down the path of an ICX6450-24P here at my house because of the 4x10G ports. Would have gone with the ICX7250-24P for the 8x10G ports, but those are still beyond the budget I'm willing to spend on my home network, and I'm not hurting for the extra 10G ports anyway, only using three of them right now.
 
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richard.dzavoronok

Active Member
Jun 23, 2021
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Brocade it is then.
it is a Layer 3 switch to boot. Check out the Brocade thread here to get a better idea of what those switches can do.
What is layer 3 switch to boot if I may ask?
Yep I checked that thread, but it's whopping 350 pages so lot of reading.