Here's a $1.3k switch for you: 18x 40Gig QSFP and 40x 10gig SFP+

[PigLover]

Surprisingly not horrible. Not something you'd want in your living room, but no louder than the juniper switch it will be replacing...that is it would be replacing if not for the undisclosed physical damage to the ports...

At boot up it is quite a screamer. But once it finishing booting it's really quite tolerable.

Damage:

 

[PigLover]

Update: Seller (refurbnetworks) has already responded and is sending return/replace instructions. Looks promising for great customer service from them on top of their rapid shipping.

 

[MiniKnight]

Wow that is terrible. Did any ports "work"? I see the seller listed 3 more: Gnodal GS4008 40x 10GB SFP and 8x 40GB QSFP 1U Ethernet Edge Fabric Switch | eBay

 

[Jeggs101]

Update: Seller (refurbnetworks) has already responded and is sending return/replace instructions. Looks promising for great customer service from them on top of their rapid shipping.

Bad picture. Good they are coming through. Are you getting a chance to test before returning?

 

[PigLover]

Unfortunately I won't have time to test it before I need to ship it back.

 

[Cipher]

That's too bad, but at least the seller sounds like they are addressing it properly. Do you think it shipped this way or was it damaged during transport?

My unit is scheduled for delivery next Tuesday and I'm hoping I don't have to return/exchange it.

 

[ehorn]

Great work guys.

...

Here is one auction style with 15h left $450:

New Gnodal GS0018 Layer 2 Low Latency Ethernet 18X40GBE or 72X10GBE QSFP Ports | eBay

...

Someone got that one for a song!

 

[Jeggs101]

Lucky wow. $459. I'd bet not much competition on these.

 

[Cipher]

I think you would need SFP+ connectors to interconnect the two, the 10Gbps switch and the Gnodal.

As far as I know there would not be any way to hook up the 10gb-t to it. You will need a switch with sfp+ ports on it to plug into this one

Thanks, guys. So I guess I'm still waiting for that elusive 10GBASE-T switch that runs quiet, offers low power output per port, and won't cause the wife to slap me in the head when she sees the CC bill.

 

[bds1904]

Wow, just wow. I'm just getting on-board with SFP+, these things are making me drool.

I have seriously been considering building a communications hut in my backyard before looking at these things! I already have a spare standby generator and 2 heat/ac units. Time to start doing cost/return calculations on bandwidth, power, racks, servers & SAN. 3 providers fiber is 300ft from my house. Can anyone say ZFS backed web and VPS hosting? Colo anyone? lol

Those switches would be perfect for shared storage. 2 switches, 2x40Gb to each SAN head, 2x10Gb to each server. The bandwidth and latency would be great.

 

[Entz]

Fantastic deal for whoever got that GS0018.

PigLover, when you get your replacement back, would it be possible to see if most of the noise is generated by the PSUs or the fan tray? The former is hard to fix but the later can be (different fans/fan tray on top etc)

 

[Lichtwald]

Could somebody tell me if those would be expected to play nicely with the Brocade 1020 that I have?
Direct Connection sucks a bit.

I'm curious about this too. If so this would be an even less expensive option than bonding 4x1GbE on a bunch of nodes.

 

[Cipher]

My GS4008 arrived today and it looks good so far as there being no visible damage on the outside. They ended up shipping the power cords separately so I won't be able to test if it turns on, and how loud it is, until those arrive next Monday or Tuesday.

Unfortunately, that's as far as my testing will progress for a couple of weeks as I still have to order two SFP+ cards and cables. Once I pick those up I'll be able to see how the switch and each SFP+ port are functioning. Hopefully, by then, the others here who were able to pick up these units will have some good news from their testing.

Update: I removed the power supplies and they are both Emerson (Artesyn) DSD460S-3-001. More info on these, including tech PDFs can be found here Artesyn Embedded Technologies | DS460S Series.

This particular power supply reached EOF status in March 2012 and was replaced by the DS460S-3-003. According to this document, the DSD460S-3-001 had limited PMBus support whereas its replacement the DS460S-3-003 had full PMBus suppoort and is backwards compatible with the previous model.

 

[PigLover]

Received the replacement switch today - same week service from Canada after reporting the damaged unit Monday. They included a set of rack ears with the replacement for my trouble. Its a small thing, but a nice touch just the same.

Many thanks to Joe @ Knowledge Computers (aka ebay seller RefurbNetworks) for great customer service.

BTW, the switch seems to draw ~52 watts idle with no ports active. About half the idle draw of the Juniper EX2500 I use today. Noise isn't too bad.

@Entz Most of the noise appears to come from the fan tray between the two PSUs. PSUs appear to be near silent.

 

[Patrick]

So you are going to save power with this change... Crazy!

 

[bds1904]

Knowledge computers is who is selling those lb4m's for $159. They have excellent service and shipping.

 

[PigLover]

So you are going to save power with this change... Crazy!

Looks like it, yes. Not a lot but definitely lower than the EX. Will be interesting to see what it draws with 10g/40g ports live - but idle looks promising.

BTW - got any leads on new Intel Fortinet cards? I don't actually need 40gig, but then again I don't need 10gig either...

 

[Patrick]

Looks like it, yes. Not a lot but definitely lower than the EX. Will be interesting to see what it draws with 10g/40g ports live - but idle looks promising.

BTW - got any leads on new Intel Fortinet cards? I don't actually need 40gig, but then again I don't need 10gig either...

Fortville Dunno, IDF is coming soon as is a major platform launch if you believe yesterday's HP Gen9 announcement.

My GS0018 came in probably on the last delivery of the day today just as I was getting home. Not going to have a chance to unbox before getting on the plane again tonight but I am excited.

 

[Cipher]

BTW, the switch seems to draw ~52 watts idle with no ports active. About half the idle draw of the Juniper EX2500 I use today.

Looks like it, yes. Not a lot but definitely lower than the EX. Will be interesting to see what it draws with 10g/40g ports live - but idle looks promising.

That idle reading is very positive compared to their numbers! According to their datasheet, here are some example power draws:

Power Consumption
Maximum Power: 230W
Typical Power with Passive Twinax Copper: 114W
Typical Power with 40 x 10GBASE-SR and 8 x 40G-BASE-SR4: 164W

It will be interesting to see how our experiences compare to their published specs.

Also, now that I think of it, I don't fully understand these numbers when ports are in use. Is power actually being used once the cables are connected to the switch or only when they are connected and data is being transferred over them? Also, what is the time period for this published usage, are these watts used per second/minute/hour?

 

[Scott Laird]

I have a GS0018 waiting for pickup today, and cards and cables are due early next week. My big worry: does anyone have a manual for these things? I can find datasheets, but no pointers to the CLI docs. It's probably not a huge deal, but I'd be nice to have.