Hello all,
Over the past year I've been slowly upgrading various bits of my network to 10Gb and I'm now to the point of wanting to upgrade some of the "access" switches in the living areas of my home. For most of these switches I don't need 10Gb device ports, 1Gb is sufficient, but I would like to leverage the 10Gb capabilities of the uplink (10GBASE-T). Some type of management is desirable, as is the potential for LAG/LACP on the uplink, but these portions of the network will be mostly static so the management interface is largely for troubleshooting. Support for the various PoE standards is a plus, but not a requirement as I've already got a collection of injectors that can be used if needed; even if I do make use of the PoE capabilities in the switch, I expect the power load to be low (one or two devices).
The big constraint is that it needs to be *quiet*. While none of these switches are going into a bedroom, they are going into a living room, home office, etc.; they don't need to be fanless, but they do need to be close to silent.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a lot of switches that meet these requirements, so I'm reaching out to you nice people in hopes that you can point me in some new directions. A quick summary of what I've found so far is below:
Over the past year I've been slowly upgrading various bits of my network to 10Gb and I'm now to the point of wanting to upgrade some of the "access" switches in the living areas of my home. For most of these switches I don't need 10Gb device ports, 1Gb is sufficient, but I would like to leverage the 10Gb capabilities of the uplink (10GBASE-T). Some type of management is desirable, as is the potential for LAG/LACP on the uplink, but these portions of the network will be mostly static so the management interface is largely for troubleshooting. Support for the various PoE standards is a plus, but not a requirement as I've already got a collection of injectors that can be used if needed; even if I do make use of the PoE capabilities in the switch, I expect the power load to be low (one or two devices).
The big constraint is that it needs to be *quiet*. While none of these switches are going into a bedroom, they are going into a living room, home office, etc.; they don't need to be fanless, but they do need to be close to silent.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a lot of switches that meet these requirements, so I'm reaching out to you nice people in hopes that you can point me in some new directions. A quick summary of what I've found so far is below:
- Mikrotik CSS/CRS326-24G-2S+RM (~$170 new)
No fans so noise is not an issue, does have management capabilities, no PoE. The uplink ports are SFP+ which would require a S+RJ10, or some other 10GBASE-T transceiver, which carries cable length limitations (~30m vs ~55m) and heat risk. Unfortunately, they have external power supplies which is a big negative as I have developed an irrational hatred of wall warts over the years. On the plus side, the switches are absurdly cheap and seem to be well reviewed.
- Mikrotik CRS328-24P-4S+RM ($340 new)
Similar to the CRS326 but adds PoE, an internal power supply, and fans. From what I can tell RouterOS handles the fans well, with little to no fan activity on a lightly loaded switch (PoE load) at room temperature; unfortunately SwitchOS still seems to be a bit noisy, but improvements are expected in a future release (a common theme with SwitchOS from what I can tell). The uplink ports remain SFP+. While more expensive than the CRS326 these switches would appear to still be a bargain, but there does not seem to be many (any?) real world reviews for these devices. Does anyone have any CRS328 experience they can share?
- Netgear XS505M / XS508M (~$600 for 8-port new)
The switches do have a fan, but they are touted as "whisper quiet" as based on the XS708T review here it looks like 23-30db can be expected (likely good enough for most of my needs). All of the ports support 10GBASE-T (the multi-gigabit support is not interesting as my aggregation switch only speaks 1/10GBASE-T). No management or PoE, but there is an internal power supply.
- Netgear GS110MX (~$200 new) / GS110EMX (~$250 new)
Compared to the XS505M/XS508M, these switches lose the fan, but gain an external power supply. They also only support 10GBASE-T on two of the ten ports (which is fine for my use case, but worth noting). The EMX model has basic management capabilities while the MX model does not. No PoE.
- Netgear XS708Ev2 (~$640 new) / XS512EM (~$850 new)
I consider these to be the XS508M's big brothers. All of the ports in each switch support 10GBASE-T (the XS512EM does offer some SFP+ combo ports) and basic management is provided, but no PoE. Both switches have two fans, with the XS708Ev2 carrying a ~36db noise rating (probably a bit on the loud side) and the XS512EM carrying a ~30db/idle to ~40db/loaded rating (probably okay when idle, too loud under load). Does anyone have any experience with these switches? Is the noise rating accurate in the real world?
- Netgear MS510TX (~$350 new) / MS510TXPP (~$450 new)
Two more relatives to the humble XS508M, and close cousins to the XS708 and XS512 models. Both of these switches have fans, although the noise ratings are ~21db and ~29db respectively. Both switches also have internal power supplies and provide management capabilities, the MS510TXPP even provides PoE+ support. Although both switches do have an odd port configuration with an assortment of speeds across the switch; both have at least one 10GBASE-T port.
- Netgear XS708T (~$820 new)
Favorably reviewed on this site, so I don't have much to add. Fans, but they fall into the "reasonable" noise level category, management support, internal power supply, plenty of 10GBASE-T ports for my needs, no PoE.
- Dell N1124T-ON (~$1160 new)
This is the wildcard entry in the list and I've really only included it because I've used a fair number of Dell switches over the years and have had good experiences with them, especially the freely available firmware updates for older models. Fanless, internal power supply, management support, no PoE, and 10Gb uplinks are SFP+ so a 10GBASE-T transceiver would be required (may be able to use the Mikrotik S+RJ10).
Does anyone have any other switches they can think of which might be a good fit? Any experience with the switches listed above?