Thanks for addressing the security aspect - I watched the Hasivo video, but that was in the back of my mind the whole time. Glad to know you're monitoring for it!
Thank you so much for testing these switches for basic security vulnerabilities. There have been so many backdoors and exploits found in chinese networking hardware recently, so your testing definitely helps to assuage some fears
It is 100% not a perfect security audit by any means. We just wanted to see if there was anything obvious. At some point, state level actors have more resources than we do.
Patrick, Thanks for providing this great service of finding, testing and maintaining a list of the latest affordable home and small business switches (2.5Gb, 10Gb and above).
Love these switches. Picked up two SODOLA models (4x2.5,2xSFP+, and 5x2.5,1xSFP+). They pair really nicely with my older Mikrotik CRS305 4x10G and CRS309 8x10G switches giving them 1Gb and 2.5Gb RJ45 without using -T transceivers.
Why bother? You can get a 48 x 10g SFP+ switch for under 250, for example Arista 7050S-52-R can be found for 230 plus shipping ...10g sfp+ cards are under 10-15$ a piece, you can get 2 x 25g cards for 30 dollars backwards compatible with 10g ... sfp28 switches would be an interesting thing to see ... they're not as common.
@@mariushmedias Because sometimes people don't want to put jet engines into their living spaces? That Arista will be hotter as well. Please realize that people have different use cases..
Been using the 8 port version of the XikeStor ever since it came out. Managed 8 port for the price of unmanaged 8 port, and it comes with a UL listed power brick. Been rock solid with zero issues.
I went into my attic and found a 2005 HP NC6120 laptop that had a 1gbe controller, basically 20 years later 1gbe is still the standard for most laptops and lower to mid range desktops.
Same with drives, many desktop computers still come with SATA drives and most all of those run at SATA 3 / 600MB just like 20 years ago. USB and WIFI have increased speed 100X in 20 years but 1GB ethernet is still standard. I have a few computers at work on 2.5G that I frequently move videos between and it a good improvement.
Seeing all mentions about switches taking about 5W of power makes my two 715W PSUs on my Cisco switch look like an aberration 😂 But I can totally snag some of these basic switches to act as layer 2 port extensions where I don’t need a Cisco 10Gb slot assigned to a port using less than the 100Mbps. Much appreciated for the set of options, Patrick!
Just received a pair of Xikes 8x2.5G + 1xSFP+ and work quite fine. Added a 2x2.5G PCIe card to my home server and now file transmission is base HDD speed of ~190MB/s. Cool stuff. Iperf is 2.35Gb/s. I'm waitng for a 10Gb cable to feed that SFP+ and pair with a Mikrotik router for connecting to 10Gb internet, that's quite cheap in my city.
Thanks for this pretty thorough review! I can't believe 2.5gb ports are finally getting this cheap! I feel like a year ago I was looking at some of them on Amazon and they were like AT LEAST double the price of the cheapest one... crazy
We will love to see more review on brand like Netgear, Qnap, TP Link, and D-Link. Also on the reliability as well since a lot of these "Cheap" multigig switches overheat and died within a year.
Great overview. A lot of rebrands of same stuff, but that is ok too. I personally do not use 2.5G, nor plan (already moved to 10,25,100), but the fact that there are so many and cheap switches, plus you got 1 or 2 10G ports, and some come with management is really good and generally welcome. Definitively networking at home and small office is finally transforming for real, after 20 years of staying in place at 1G. These switches now basically make 1G switches completely irrelevant for home or small office use. 1G switches might still have some use in rack mount settings (i.e. 48 port 1G switch with poe for things like cameras or other iot stuff, because you really do not need much bandwidth, and every cent of money spent switch or power usage is worth saving, if 2.5G will never be used. But in few years maybe even 1G 48-port rack switches will be also totally gone. For example for connecting things like small desktops and laptops in the bigger office, 2.5G is definitively a nice thing to have. Still many big brands do not have such switches in their offering. They just go straight to 10G (or in few small cases 5G with support for 2.5/1000/100), because that makes more sense as a long term investment these days. Because these are fanless, and maybe are cheap capacitors, it would be interesting to test them at full load for few hours and probe temperature, especially close to electrolytic capacitors. If the heat is not managed well, these will be dying in few years time.
Really glad you're doing exfilltration testing. Might be fun to do it with IP cameras, as every single one I've ever bought has shown some, and as such they sit on a non-routable vlan in my network
I would love to see some of the larger 16 and 24 port managed switches included in the next review. There are several of them out there from ienron, xikstor, TPlink, Mokerlink, etc.
So, the main takeaway is that if you're just looking for a faster-than-gigabit switch for simple home use, literally anything will do the job well, and cheaper ones tend to use less power while not sacrificing meaningfully in terms of performance? Sounds good to me!
@@ServeTheHomeVideo your most welcome, looking forward to the higher port counts of some of these once they come out. The 16-24 port versions with POE are what I'll be looking for in my home lab.
Is it awkward because it's honest and from AliExpress? It nics and gigas. Right in the brand name. Very honest. Kind of like Netgear. It is gear for your net.
Zyxel 8 port 2.5GbE smart switches would be nice to see on STH. I'm currently torn between Mikrotik CRS310-8G+2S+IN and Zyxel XMG1915-10E. Zyxel is a little more expensive but the power consumption looks to be much lower and it's fanless with a seeker design. I'm a bit worried about the management tho.
Shame you didn't look at the tiny 5 port 2.5 gb D-Link that was released end of last year. I would really like to see pictures of the inside, and about learn power consumption.
Most of these we got in Q4 and early Q1 as people asked about them. We already tested a number of 5-port 2.5GbE switches and those are in the guide already.
All the switches are obviously quite low power but that only makes the relative power draw differences seem enormous, I wonder how that's possible. Are different generations of components being used?
Usually with these it is also manufacturing variances and the actual power adapter being used. We have swapped power supplies on rebranded switches to check this
They ALL need to be listed on a spreadsheet for easy comparison and sorting by what ever spec's or features we're looking for. And add to the spreadsheet as you review more. Also really need to see the handling of the POE's full loaded and stress tested. Have you thought about running a cable around your house a dozen times and see how the switches and hubs handle it?
So true. I'm always attentively listening to Patrick pronouncing it 😁I think he found a way by making a small pause between the two words (even though the company's name is a single word). If there were any bloopers, I bet they were edited out 😉
For the hasivo S600W-4GT-1SX-1XGT and S600WP-4GT-1SX-1XGT, I got a unit marked S600W-4GT-1SX-1XGT with no PoE that ended up having PoE, so it seems each unit will need to be checked after receipt.
@@ServeTheHomeVideo I purchased the S600WP version, so I was a bit annoyed. Before I tested the PoE functionality, I contacted them on Aliexpress and they sent a second one with proper markings and PoE indicators for $3.
@@ServeTheHomeVideo TrendNet TEG-S380. It's the only one that had 8 ports 2.5Gb, no SFP, and the ports are on the BACK of the unit along with the power 🙂 I have no need for SFP unless I can figure out a way to plug my ATT Fiber directy into the switch and get rid of that horrid unit ATT gives us.
As I have 13 PC I got 8+1 horaco and 8+2 xike 8+2 (malanox) connected each with DAC cable and I am super happy as had issue with tp link 1G and issue also with mikrotik when i used it as switch also, I have very demanding setup that make 5-10K connections all the time for dozen projects Would like to get 1 16+ 2 sfp port once they are in cheap range, hope you manage to find some for review soon
Hey, Is there possibility to look at Ruijie products like campus switches with 10x10Gbps 4x25Gbps and 2x40Gbps or their other products? I got recommendation for few of these and I`m curious how good they are with they stacking, web interface and so on.
thanks for the awesome video, ended up picking up one of the gigaplus gp-s250802 switches. I was also eyeing the trendnet teg-3102ws but oddly I cannot find the rack mount version you have. It seems your found some unicorn version of that switch. I cannot find mention of rack ears in any of the documentation or in any of the pictures for vendors that carry that switch.
4 ports plus SFP+ is a bit small, would be good to get a review of more 8 +2 port versions. Otherwise what a great review - never thought of getting one from Aliexpress! Thankyou!
@@ServeTheHomeVideo oh really! Ok will look again - thought I only saw 8+1. didn’t notice. I spent a good 45 minutes on Ali express thanks to this video lol.
one of the amazon listing variants, outside the scope of this video, kind of blows my mind: Gigaplus switch's Amazon page has a 10x 10Gbase-T ports for $270?! How does this perform? (cannot paste links or even references here, it's related to the first Gigaplus link in the video description)
Now I have 2x Horaco ZX-SWTGW218AS, as I need simple switch with VLAN and RSTP, works fine. Also have kind of older, "expensive" and rich web UI Hasivo PoE 5*2.5G+2 SFP+ and 8*2.5G. ( and one "core" 8*SFP+ Optfocus switch with router capabilities, BGP , OSFP IPv6 etc ) No issues so far.
This is great. Thanks! Any chance we can get 802.1p support (or lack thereof) as an added spec for each switch on your list? I feel like that is pretty important as a lot of people using switches like this may want to be able to use VLANs with them.
Did you really mean 802.1p? From what I can see that's priority tagging (~QoS) in VLANs - not something I'd consider realistic in such cheap hardware. VLAN tagging is 802.1q.
Man I really gotta question some of these prices. Why are many of the 8 2.5GbE (with no SFP or anything) more expensive than the 8 2.5GbE + 2 SFP switches?
A lot of it is that the 8+1 switches use a well-known dual Realtek chip solution that I think was developed for automotive. Then volume took over and the prices went for a nosedive.
Power consumption is more than just total wattage of power input. Alot of energy consultants focus on standby power of devices, but total power efficiency is also important. For example, you can have two devices that consume 5W at the outlet. But the device and its power brick both produce heat. One model may produce overall 2W of heat and another may produce overall 3W of heat. The heat, at least in the summer, is likely to have to be dealt with by your A/C system which is an additional power cost. While excess heat and overall power efficiency is not so much of a problem year around in Canada, it can be a significant hidden cost in hot places like Miami FL, Las Vegas NV, Phoenix AZ, Death Valley, half of TX, etc. Of course, the actual cost to eliminate the heat is going to greatly depend on the efficiency of you A/C unit. And while 1 single switch isn't likely going to break your bank due to heat generation, dozens of inefficient power bricks and devices running all over the lab will add up. If all your power bricks (and devices) actually make (or make use of) 100W of power but consume 250W of electricity, then it's also producing 150W of heat (that's 512 BTU/hour). Wall warts are not known for their efficiency and usually aren't rated with on an 80-Plus scale. Even though America is pushing for wall warts to have an under-load efficiency of 85%, I would bet that a large number of ones made of Chinesium are down in the range of 50% or worse, like technology was 40 years ago. Lower efficiency is nearly always lower manufacturing costs.
There is no black hole or warp to another galaxy inside switch, so if they consume 5W they produce 5W heat, in slightly different places: CPU, wires, LEDs etc. The law of conservation of energy tell us this simple thing.
Incorrect. The law of conservation of energy ensures the total energy in an isolated system remains the same, all forms of energy (nuclear, chemical, kinetic, potential, electrical, electromagnetic, etc. in the system. It does not mean that all electrical energy that goes into a circuit is converted to heat energy.
@@mjmeans7983 Yes, it is about all energy. And which type of energy produce this switch except of heat? Few mW of laser beam and few mW of ethernet signal - which adsorbed by wires and device on opposite side and become heat. Electromagnetic fields from consumer electronic very strictly regulated - not much of them either. What else - start flying around to produce kinetic one? May be it become chemical or nuclear reactor? Oh man...
I am skeptical of xikestor, i bought the sk1200' switch with the dual SPF+ ports and it actually may comtained a virus which may have damaged my gateway. It actually affected its ports from properly working requiring a replacement. Hard steer from some of these chinese brands. It literally occured within hours of connecting my switch.
11:20 it's kinda funny that the internal PSU-board of the NicGiga-switch clearly states "75W" and it still says 78W on the label on the outside. Kinda par for the course for this class of switch I guess... And no, in practice it makes zero difference, and if you're actually running this around 75W for extended periods, I can only assume something is gonna blow sooner or later anyway?
So I looked up the Trendnet TEG-3102WS as I desire a rackmount 2.5G switch. It is 215USD on Amazon, but no mention of it being rackmountable. Not even on their website. It's POE+ sibling, the TPE-3102WS, is rackmountable however, but it is 352USD. Where did you get those ears in the video???
I am not sure if it can be considered "cheap" (it is higher price than for switches presented here). But 2 weeks ago I have purchased Zyxel XMG1915-10EP (8x2.5G, 2x10G SFP+1), all 2.5G ports are POE++. It is fully managed switch. The "recalculated" price was 330USD. The non-POE version is about 270USD.
Buy once, cry once.. In many respects, I'd rather buy a quality product over a cheap; don't get me wrong, I do like cheap, but if the choice is buy once cry once, or get something cheap that MIGHT work, well, I'd rather cry and not waste my time.
Hi Patrick, what is the benefit of an 9 port switch that has eight 1GbE or 2.5GbE ports but also includes a 10GbE SPF+ port? I'm assuming it's to allow data to flow faster into and out of the switch to feed the 8 other ports. But exactly how much of a benefit does it offer? Is there any way you can do a video about that? Thanks!
Something that's been completely forgotten about in the 2.5Gbps era is the true desktop form factor. Ports on the back, lights on the front! None of these are appropriate for a switch that sits on a desk or in an entertainment center. I'm gonna be stuck on gig forever. :(
I need one that supplies 4xSFP+ and at least 2x2.5Gbit RJ45 for my living room 😅 Can't seem to find anything useable so far. I need 1 fiber link into the basement and 2-3 fiber links to the upper floor for 2 different rooms.. Router doesn't necessarily need 2.5Gbit but my PC in my living room does so there is that
@ServeTheHomeVideo would actually be somewhat worth a consideration since there isn't really anything out there. I already have a vimin 2xSFP+ +(4x2,5G) in my living room so I could reuse that one.. I didn't want to end up having multiple switches but I might look into it, thanks!
Are you actually writing "like" into your scripts as a means of subliminal programming? 😆 Seriously, though, thanks for the comparison. Special appreciation for doing the security testing.
I don't get why gigabit switches with 2.5g rj45 uplinks aren't more common. It would provide sufficient bandwidth without having to go fiber while also costing a lot less than 2.5g-only switches.
@@ServeTheHomeVideo True but it's still not there yet especially if you need a lot of ports, which unfortunately most people do. Great video regardless. Your videos on network hardware are top notch👍
Back in 2004'ish I got my first 2x1Gb/s network card in the same pc. And now 20 years (or so) later I can get a 2.5Gb/s switch. Honestly I don't even have anything to use a 2.5 Gb/s switch for. Network speed has moved so slow compared to everything else. Well wifi have change a lot, that was basically useless back then.
So picked a Gigaplus GP-S250802 up for just over £69 on Amazon, question on the SFP+ mods, what can you use in this ? are there any you recomend for putting in these ?
In case of the Hassivo switches, can you link 2 of them with eg the SFP port and use the 2 10T Ports to agregated make a 20gb link to your DIY NAS that have 2x 10T ports, or should I be looking for an alternative to the trendnet that actually will ship to my location ? The idea was to have an 8 port switch that is connected with 2x10gb to the NAS. Like other I'd like to get it without having to sell a kidney or 2 😄
Hey Patrick, Does the Hasivo S600W vs the S600WP still have the same MAC issue, or does the P version MAC address differs? i need 2 of the switches and saw your focus video on them, not sure if the other models of the switch still has the same mac clash issue. Also what transciever works with hasivo if you have that info?
Have you guys had any issues with the gigaplus gp-s250802 10gbe ports? I recently purchased one and have had issues with the 10gbe port randomly disconnecting. I was using one 10gbe to uplink to our WiFi router but it'd disconnect our (wired) internet in the middle of my work day. Using one of the 2.5gbe ports has not had any issues.
Yeah, cheap H!Fiber 10gbe rj45 dac from Amazon. Using optical for the router connection is doable but I was hoping to use the 2nd port with in wall Ethernet for 10gbe up to our 3rd floor. Ah well, get what you pay for I suppose!
This rushes in without explaining anything at all about SFP+ or the other advanced interface. A lot of us have never touched anything but gig-E. I've been in this industry for 40 years, but never on the enterprise side, so I simply have no contact with this stuff. A 60-second backgrounder on the ports would have been appropriate. Also, "managed" means what, precisely? I'm running OPNsense on my home network. What does a "managed" switch provide that I can't already get from my firewall appliance? I suppose it will allow me to firewall ports on my home network from each other at the switch layer rather that with host firewall configurations. Is that it?
It is a bit tough to go back and do well over 100 more power readings. Most SR optics these days use less power than the 10Gbase-T module so doing those measurements would only show a sub 2W power difference
I would love, if you could test to power these switch using a USB-C PD 12v instead of the crappy power supply. I've replaced all the DC 9v,12v power supply.
If you get one of those little adapter jack / usb PD with a 12v trigger board, there is no reason it wouldn't work as long as your USB brick can deliver enough current
I'm not sure that's an improvement, especially if you use an adaptor. The 9v and 12v switches are very tolerant of voltage meaning you could run the power over quite long cables or even the type of passive PoE found in some TP-Link devices. However any device requiring a 5v PSU is usually extremely fussy that it's 5v so a USB-C on those would be an upgrade. The 5v devices lack any internal regulation.
Other than five reviews "x is just like y that we just reviewed", it might be easier and faster to just list all the models you found that are obviously the same switch with a different sticker on the front...
@ServeTheHomeVideo I think that one isn't hardware switch router FIB, but using the CPU instead. Which is very inefficient if you use it for your main router. The reason I want one is that my routing VM(and the VPN VM) pegs the ESXi CPU quite a bit when having big downloads. A FIB L3 switch would erase all that since all the possible routes are pre-compiled and pre-loaded into the switch chip.
hey, some help please looking to get a 16-24 port full poe+ with ability to control POE power over CLI + port mirroring. currently have TL-SG2428P and cant say I had a gret success with it unless I'm missing something. -- plz advise
Can't wait until 2.5gbe becomes the new standard everywhere, nice review.
Thanks! It is happening more each year
Can you yell at Synology for me, I wish they would wake up, Their NAS units still use 1GbE ports, Everyone else has moved on.
Would be nice if they go straight to cheap enough 10gbe
@@ShaneMcGrath.They charge for the upgrade
I'd rather ditch 2.5 and go for 10. That should be the next evolution from GbE
Thanks for addressing the security aspect - I watched the Hasivo video, but that was in the back of my mind the whole time. Glad to know you're monitoring for it!
Thank you so much for testing these switches for basic security vulnerabilities. There have been so many backdoors and exploits found in chinese networking hardware recently, so your testing definitely helps to assuage some fears
It is 100% not a perfect security audit by any means. We just wanted to see if there was anything obvious. At some point, state level actors have more resources than we do.
Real security advantage of those switches is what they so much cheap - there is no CPU power to run exploit.
If you want to avoid backdoors - avoid buying CISCO equipment.
Patrick, Thanks for providing this great service of finding, testing and maintaining a list of the latest affordable home and small business switches (2.5Gb, 10Gb and above).
Love these switches. Picked up two SODOLA models (4x2.5,2xSFP+, and 5x2.5,1xSFP+). They pair really nicely with my older Mikrotik CRS305 4x10G and CRS309 8x10G switches giving them 1Gb and 2.5Gb RJ45 without using -T transceivers.
Great feedback.
Nice, you guys went all out on the cheap 2.5GbE + a couple of 10GbE switches. Cheers!
All out
Are you doing a round of ~8port 10Gbit switches at some point?
Why bother? You can get a 48 x 10g SFP+ switch for under 250, for example Arista 7050S-52-R can be found for 230 plus shipping ...10g sfp+ cards are under 10-15$ a piece, you can get 2 x 25g cards for 30 dollars backwards compatible with 10g ... sfp28 switches would be an interesting thing to see ... they're not as common.
@@mariushmedias But i'm looking for small fanless ones for the living room.
8 port 10Gbe fanless? That is a lot of heat unless you go fiber/dac.
@@TheAlapalooza I don't think fanless SFP+ switches exist. Even the small Mikrotik models with 8 SFP+ ports have fans in them.
@@mariushmedias Because sometimes people don't want to put jet engines into their living spaces?
That Arista will be hotter as well.
Please realize that people have different use cases..
Appreciate you guys for making the ultimate switch guide. Been wanting to add another 2.5gbe switch. Can't wait
Been using the 8 port version of the XikeStor ever since it came out. Managed 8 port for the price of unmanaged 8 port, and it comes with a UL listed power brick. Been rock solid with zero issues.
GREAT. Thanks man !
HORACO 2.5GbE Managed Switch
Cheap and fanless?
Relatable.
Golden
🤣
I went into my attic and found a 2005 HP NC6120 laptop that had a 1gbe controller, basically 20 years later 1gbe is still the standard for most laptops and lower to mid range desktops.
Perhaps, but 2.5GbE USB NICs are cheap and even $350-500 mini PCs are coming with 2.5GbE these days. So are many WiFi 6/ 6E APs.
Same with drives, many desktop computers still come with SATA drives and most all of those run at SATA 3 / 600MB just like 20 years ago. USB and WIFI have increased speed 100X in 20 years but 1GB ethernet is still standard. I have a few computers at work on 2.5G that I frequently move videos between and it a good improvement.
Seeing all mentions about switches taking about 5W of power makes my two 715W PSUs on my Cisco switch look like an aberration 😂
But I can totally snag some of these basic switches to act as layer 2 port extensions where I don’t need a Cisco 10Gb slot assigned to a port using less than the 100Mbps.
Much appreciated for the set of options, Patrick!
Super. That is the idea
Just received a pair of Xikes 8x2.5G + 1xSFP+ and work quite fine. Added a 2x2.5G PCIe card to my home server and now file transmission is base HDD speed of ~190MB/s. Cool stuff. Iperf is 2.35Gb/s. I'm waitng for a 10Gb cable to feed that SFP+ and pair with a Mikrotik router for connecting to 10Gb internet, that's quite cheap in my city.
Great feedback and results
Thanks for this pretty thorough review!
I can't believe 2.5gb ports are finally getting this cheap! I feel like a year ago I was looking at some of them on Amazon and they were like AT LEAST double the price of the cheapest one... crazy
We will love to see more review on brand like Netgear, Qnap, TP Link, and D-Link. Also on the reliability as well since a lot of these "Cheap" multigig switches overheat and died within a year.
Great overview. A lot of rebrands of same stuff, but that is ok too. I personally do not use 2.5G, nor plan (already moved to 10,25,100), but the fact that there are so many and cheap switches, plus you got 1 or 2 10G ports, and some come with management is really good and generally welcome. Definitively networking at home and small office is finally transforming for real, after 20 years of staying in place at 1G. These switches now basically make 1G switches completely irrelevant for home or small office use. 1G switches might still have some use in rack mount settings (i.e. 48 port 1G switch with poe for things like cameras or other iot stuff, because you really do not need much bandwidth, and every cent of money spent switch or power usage is worth saving, if 2.5G will never be used. But in few years maybe even 1G 48-port rack switches will be also totally gone. For example for connecting things like small desktops and laptops in the bigger office, 2.5G is definitively a nice thing to have. Still many big brands do not have such switches in their offering. They just go straight to 10G (or in few small cases 5G with support for 2.5/1000/100), because that makes more sense as a long term investment these days.
Because these are fanless, and maybe are cheap capacitors, it would be interesting to test them at full load for few hours and probe temperature, especially close to electrolytic capacitors. If the heat is not managed well, these will be dying in few years time.
Really glad you're doing exfilltration testing. Might be fun to do it with IP cameras, as every single one I've ever bought has shown some, and as such they sit on a non-routable vlan in my network
Love Nic-Giga ones.
Any particular reason? 👀
Mine broke after about 2 months and when I tried to reach out to their support, the emails all bounced. This was about 6 months ago.
I would love to see some of the larger 16 and 24 port managed switches included in the next review. There are several of them out there from ienron, xikstor, TPlink, Mokerlink, etc.
We have like 10 more switches including higher capacity ones in the pipeline.
So, the main takeaway is that if you're just looking for a faster-than-gigabit switch for simple home use, literally anything will do the job well, and cheaper ones tend to use less power while not sacrificing meaningfully in terms of performance? Sounds good to me!
Fair
lol you guys rock. Thank you for this.
Thanks
@@ServeTheHomeVideo your most welcome, looking forward to the higher port counts of some of these once they come out. The 16-24 port versions with POE are what I'll be looking for in my home lab.
I woul like to see a 10GbE version of this video discussing the best and most affordable 10GbE switches. 😗
Lol Nicgiga 😅
That's an awkward name if you know what I i mean
Is it awkward because it's honest and from AliExpress? It nics and gigas.
Right in the brand name. Very honest.
Kind of like Netgear. It is gear for your net.
No - please explain! :) Maybe they got the name idea from that movie "horrible bosses 2" ... ;)
Say it ten times fast 😎
It's all simple and honest it's got NIC's that giga. Nicgiga.
gear for your net? Netgear.
For sure my nicgiga
Zyxel 8 port 2.5GbE smart switches would be nice to see on STH.
I'm currently torn between Mikrotik CRS310-8G+2S+IN and Zyxel XMG1915-10E. Zyxel is a little more expensive but the power consumption looks to be much lower and it's fanless with a seeker design. I'm a bit worried about the management tho.
Got the managed POE Mokerlink and so far so good. 2.5/POE to my grandstream AP, 10 to my desktop, 10 to my crs317 edge
Sweet!
Dude. I'm so happy that this channel exists. You guys made it so much easier to shop for 2.5 gb switchs.
Thanks! Hope you enjoyed the video
Shame you didn't look at the tiny 5 port 2.5 gb D-Link that was released end of last year. I would really like to see pictures of the inside, and about learn power consumption.
Most of these we got in Q4 and early Q1 as people asked about them. We already tested a number of 5-port 2.5GbE switches and those are in the guide already.
All the switches are obviously quite low power but that only makes the relative power draw differences seem enormous, I wonder how that's possible. Are different generations of components being used?
Usually with these it is also manufacturing variances and the actual power adapter being used. We have swapped power supplies on rebranded switches to check this
@@ServeTheHomeVideo Interesting! Very excited about all of this, appreciate the video and all of your reviews and articles on lower power devices
They ALL need to be listed on a spreadsheet for easy comparison and sorting by what ever spec's or features we're looking for. And add to the spreadsheet as you review more. Also really need to see the handling of the POE's full loaded and stress tested. Have you thought about running a cable around your house a dozen times and see how the switches and hubs handle it?
Really gotta be careful when saying the "Nicgiga" brand name...
NIC Giga
So true. I'm always attentively listening to Patrick pronouncing it 😁I think he found a way by making a small pause between the two words (even though the company's name is a single word). If there were any bloopers, I bet they were edited out 😉
😅
Such a great effort, awesome work.
Thanks. Feel free to share :-)
There has never been a more carefully pronounced brand than nic-giga.
For the hasivo S600W-4GT-1SX-1XGT and S600WP-4GT-1SX-1XGT, I got a unit marked S600W-4GT-1SX-1XGT with no PoE that ended up having PoE, so it seems each unit will need to be checked after receipt.
Strange, but I can imagine that happening
@@ServeTheHomeVideo I purchased the S600WP version, so I was a bit annoyed. Before I tested the PoE functionality, I contacted them on Aliexpress and they sent a second one with proper markings and PoE indicators for $3.
Thank you. Pretty fantastic work, sir!
Thank you kindly!
I bought 2 KeepLink 2.5Gbps switch and happy with it
Good feedback.
What about Firmware support? How fast do they drop support? Etc.
it seems to be a good time to start adopting 2.5G to a degree for those that need a bump in speed
Still waiting for an affordable 16 port rack mountable 2.5 GB POE+ switch...
Naturally this comes out 2 days after I get my TrendNet 8 port 2.5GB switch in from Amazon ;-)
Which one? The one in this video?
@@ServeTheHomeVideo TrendNet TEG-S380. It's the only one that had 8 ports 2.5Gb, no SFP, and the ports are on the BACK of the unit along with the power 🙂 I have no need for SFP unless I can figure out a way to plug my ATT Fiber directy into the switch and get rid of that horrid unit ATT gives us.
As I have 13 PC I got 8+1 horaco and 8+2 xike 8+2 (malanox) connected each with DAC cable and I am super happy as had issue with tp link 1G and issue also with mikrotik when i used it as switch also, I have very demanding setup that make 5-10K connections all the time for dozen projects
Would like to get 1 16+ 2 sfp port once they are in cheap range, hope you manage to find some for review soon
Using the keeplink, works fine so far. It does come with the 1Gigabit manual though which is funny.
Always some strange stuff
Hey, Is there possibility to look at Ruijie products like campus switches with 10x10Gbps 4x25Gbps and 2x40Gbps or their other products? I got recommendation for few of these and I`m curious how good they are with they stacking, web interface and so on.
They make many of the FS dot com switches.
@@ServeTheHomeVideo Didn't knew that :D
thanks for the awesome video, ended up picking up one of the gigaplus gp-s250802 switches. I was also eyeing the trendnet teg-3102ws but oddly I cannot find the rack mount version you have. It seems your found some unicorn version of that switch. I cannot find mention of rack ears in any of the documentation or in any of the pictures for vendors that carry that switch.
Ours did not say it, it just was in the box.
4 ports plus SFP+ is a bit small, would be good to get a review of more 8 +2 port versions. Otherwise what a great review - never thought of getting one from Aliexpress! Thankyou!
We had three 8+2 switches at the start of this video
@@ServeTheHomeVideo oh really! Ok will look again - thought I only saw 8+1. didn’t notice. I spent a good 45 minutes on Ali express thanks to this video lol.
Nice review an list. For me the Ubiquiti Enterprise 8 PoE is missing in the Inexpensive Managed 2.5GbE Switches with Fans ;)
Yea at 8 ports and $480-500 that one is so much more expensive that it is hard to put in this round-up.
one of the amazon listing variants, outside the scope of this video, kind of blows my mind: Gigaplus switch's Amazon page has a 10x 10Gbase-T ports for $270?! How does this perform?
(cannot paste links or even references here, it's related to the first Gigaplus link in the video description)
Yea we have some bigger switches testing already.
can you also review the Mokerlink 2G08410GSM, and 8 port 2.5g, 2x10gbase-t 2x10g sfp+
Ok
Now I have 2x Horaco ZX-SWTGW218AS, as I need simple switch with VLAN and RSTP, works fine.
Also have kind of older, "expensive" and rich web UI Hasivo PoE 5*2.5G+2 SFP+ and 8*2.5G.
( and one "core" 8*SFP+ Optfocus switch with router capabilities, BGP , OSFP IPv6 etc )
No issues so far.
Have you checked Zyxel XMG1915-10E? No POE(= minimum power consumption), 802.1q(= ESXi trunking) and wire speed routing(= even more power savings!).
Also TRENDnet TEG-3102WS.
This is great. Thanks!
Any chance we can get 802.1p support (or lack thereof) as an added spec for each switch on your list? I feel like that is pretty important as a lot of people using switches like this may want to be able to use VLANs with them.
Did you really mean 802.1p? From what I can see that's priority tagging (~QoS) in VLANs - not something I'd consider realistic in such cheap hardware. VLAN tagging is 802.1q.
@@PetrSedlacek Yes. I was referring to the unmanaged switches. Many of them support 802.1p but not all.
Man I really gotta question some of these prices. Why are many of the 8 2.5GbE (with no SFP or anything) more expensive than the 8 2.5GbE + 2 SFP switches?
A lot of it is that the 8+1 switches use a well-known dual Realtek chip solution that I think was developed for automotive. Then volume took over and the prices went for a nosedive.
Power consumption is more than just total wattage of power input. Alot of energy consultants focus on standby power of devices, but total power efficiency is also important. For example, you can have two devices that consume 5W at the outlet. But the device and its power brick both produce heat. One model may produce overall 2W of heat and another may produce overall 3W of heat. The heat, at least in the summer, is likely to have to be dealt with by your A/C system which is an additional power cost. While excess heat and overall power efficiency is not so much of a problem year around in Canada, it can be a significant hidden cost in hot places like Miami FL, Las Vegas NV, Phoenix AZ, Death Valley, half of TX, etc. Of course, the actual cost to eliminate the heat is going to greatly depend on the efficiency of you A/C unit. And while 1 single switch isn't likely going to break your bank due to heat generation, dozens of inefficient power bricks and devices running all over the lab will add up. If all your power bricks (and devices) actually make (or make use of) 100W of power but consume 250W of electricity, then it's also producing 150W of heat (that's 512 BTU/hour). Wall warts are not known for their efficiency and usually aren't rated with on an 80-Plus scale. Even though America is pushing for wall warts to have an under-load efficiency of 85%, I would bet that a large number of ones made of Chinesium are down in the range of 50% or worse, like technology was 40 years ago. Lower efficiency is nearly always lower manufacturing costs.
There is no black hole or warp to another galaxy inside switch, so if they consume 5W they produce 5W heat, in slightly different places: CPU, wires, LEDs etc. The law of conservation of energy tell us this simple thing.
Incorrect. The law of conservation of energy ensures the total energy in an isolated system remains the same, all forms of energy (nuclear, chemical, kinetic, potential, electrical, electromagnetic, etc. in the system. It does not mean that all electrical energy that goes into a circuit is converted to heat energy.
@@mjmeans7983 Yes, it is about all energy. And which type of energy produce this switch except of heat?
Few mW of laser beam and few mW of ethernet signal - which adsorbed by wires and device on opposite side and become heat.
Electromagnetic fields from consumer electronic very strictly regulated - not much of them either.
What else - start flying around to produce kinetic one?
May be it become chemical or nuclear reactor?
Oh man...
Would like to see more managed stuff, for us overly complicated nerds.
the 16 x 2.5, 6 x 10g switch from ieonron looks interesting.
I am skeptical of xikestor, i bought the sk1200' switch with the dual SPF+ ports and it actually may comtained a virus which may have damaged my gateway. It actually affected its ports from properly working requiring a replacement. Hard steer from some of these chinese brands. It literally occured within hours of connecting my switch.
11:20 it's kinda funny that the internal PSU-board of the NicGiga-switch clearly states "75W" and it still says 78W on the label on the outside. Kinda par for the course for this class of switch I guess... And no, in practice it makes zero difference, and if you're actually running this around 75W for extended periods, I can only assume something is gonna blow sooner or later anyway?
Can you do a similar video, but about 10Gbe PCIe cards for PC?
So I looked up the Trendnet TEG-3102WS as I desire a rackmount 2.5G switch. It is 215USD on Amazon, but no mention of it being rackmountable. Not even on their website.
It's POE+ sibling, the TPE-3102WS, is rackmountable however, but it is 352USD.
Where did you get those ears in the video???
Mine came with ears. It was inside the box. The only negative thing I've really found with it is that I can't truly set a complex password
They were in the box.
I am not sure if it can be considered "cheap" (it is higher price than for switches presented here). But 2 weeks ago I have purchased Zyxel XMG1915-10EP (8x2.5G, 2x10G SFP+1), all 2.5G ports are POE++. It is fully managed switch. The "recalculated" price was 330USD. The non-POE version is about 270USD.
Buy once, cry once.. In many respects, I'd rather buy a quality product over a cheap; don't get me wrong, I do like cheap, but if the choice is buy once cry once, or get something cheap that MIGHT work, well, I'd rather cry and not waste my time.
Hi Patrick, what is the benefit of an 9 port switch that has eight 1GbE or 2.5GbE ports but also includes a 10GbE SPF+ port? I'm assuming it's to allow data to flow faster into and out of the switch to feed the 8 other ports. But exactly how much of a benefit does it offer? Is there any way you can do a video about that? Thanks!
Something that's been completely forgotten about in the 2.5Gbps era is the true desktop form factor. Ports on the back, lights on the front! None of these are appropriate for a switch that sits on a desk or in an entertainment center.
I'm gonna be stuck on gig forever. :(
That is a great point.
that mokerlink managed switch not having link aggregation is extremely unfortunate. it's the single feature I want a managed switch for lmao
It would help if you tell us which ones have trouble with SFP+ DAC.
I need one that supplies 4xSFP+ and at least 2x2.5Gbit RJ45 for my living room 😅
Can't seem to find anything useable so far. I need 1 fiber link into the basement and 2-3 fiber links to the upper floor for 2 different rooms.. Router doesn't necessarily need 2.5Gbit but my PC in my living room does so there is that
What if you used a 10GbE switch and one of these for 2.5GbE?
@ServeTheHomeVideo would actually be somewhat worth a consideration since there isn't really anything out there. I already have a vimin 2xSFP+ +(4x2,5G) in my living room so I could reuse that one..
I didn't want to end up having multiple switches but I might look into it, thanks!
Should try and do something like this for things that would go on a server rack or be found in a home lab 😮
4 days ago i bought Hisource 4 port 2.5Gb from aliexpress. I hope that will worth that 32 dolars 😂
Am I the only one laughing out loud at how carefully Patrick is pronouncing one particular Brand name?!
I wish we could go straight to 10g without stopping at 2.5 or 5
Are you actually writing "like" into your scripts as a means of subliminal programming? 😆
Seriously, though, thanks for the comparison. Special appreciation for doing the security testing.
What script?
i need a 16 port. So I guess I'll have to keep looking of add another layer/tier.
A Cyber-Frunk full of switches
Very. We could not think of a cool place to show them off
Hi Patrick, was wondering if you have tested any 10gb SFP+ for compatability?
We have not run into issues with cheap SFP+ SR optics but have not tested a ton of LR options and so forth.
I don't get why gigabit switches with 2.5g rj45 uplinks aren't more common. It would provide sufficient bandwidth without having to go fiber while also costing a lot less than 2.5g-only switches.
At this point, the 2.5GbE switches are getting much less expensive.
@@ServeTheHomeVideo True but it's still not there yet especially if you need a lot of ports, which unfortunately most people do. Great video regardless. Your videos on network hardware are top notch👍
Amazing job. 🎉
Back in 2004'ish I got my first 2x1Gb/s network card in the same pc. And now 20 years (or so) later I can get a 2.5Gb/s switch.
Honestly I don't even have anything to use a 2.5 Gb/s switch for. Network speed has moved so slow compared to everything else.
Well wifi have change a lot, that was basically useless back then.
Is the website guide up to date with the 2024 video?
Not all of the units have individual reviews (I think a handful do not yet) but the guide is updated. We also started a 10GbE main site guide
So picked a Gigaplus GP-S250802 up for just over £69 on Amazon, question on the SFP+ mods, what can you use in this ? are there any you recomend for putting in these ?
Have you noticed slower ping times on the 2.5gig switches vs the 1gig switches?
Not really.
What I have noticed is 10gig SFP+ DAC ping times are very low compared to 1gig Ethernet.
@@ServeTheHomeVideo with 1gig, I noticed ping times at around 0.25 ms. With the 2.5gig switches, I’m getting 0.6 - 0.9 ms.
In case of the Hassivo switches, can you link 2 of them with eg the SFP port and use the 2 10T Ports to agregated make a 20gb link to your DIY NAS that have 2x 10T ports, or should I be looking for an alternative to the trendnet that actually will ship to my location ? The idea was to have an 8 port switch that is connected with 2x10gb to the NAS. Like other I'd like to get it without having to sell a kidney or 2 😄
Im looking for a 2.5g 16 port POE with 10G uplinks but nothing as of yet
Hey Patrick, Does the Hasivo S600W vs the S600WP still have the same MAC issue, or does the P version MAC address differs? i need 2 of the switches and saw your focus video on them, not sure if the other models of the switch still has the same mac clash issue. Also what transciever works with hasivo if you have that info?
People have reported newer firmware fixed the issue. Also, we shoed in the video the Mokerlink is the Hasivo but on Amazon.
Have you guys had any issues with the gigaplus gp-s250802 10gbe ports?
I recently purchased one and have had issues with the 10gbe port randomly disconnecting. I was using one 10gbe to uplink to our WiFi router but it'd disconnect our (wired) internet in the middle of my work day. Using one of the 2.5gbe ports has not had any issues.
Are you using SFP+ optics or DACs? On these cheap switches optics seem to do better
@@ServeTheHomeVideo sfp+ to 10gbe Ethernet from Amazon. Maybe worth trying another brand or model?
Specifically:
10Gb SFP+ RJ45 Transceiver, 10Gbase-T SFP+ Ethernet Module Support 10G/5G/2.5G/1.25G, Compatible with Cisco SFP-10G-T-S, Ubiquiti UF-RJ45-10G, UniFi, Meraki,MikroTik,Supermicro and More, 30m
Yeah, cheap H!Fiber 10gbe rj45 dac from Amazon.
Using optical for the router connection is doable but I was hoping to use the 2nd port with in wall Ethernet for 10gbe up to our 3rd floor.
Ah well, get what you pay for I suppose!
Thanks for doing this video. Do any of the managed switches in this video support MLAG?
What does actually managed mean when talking about these cheap chinese switches?
Usually it is some sort of what other vendors would call web management or smart web management.
This rushes in without explaining anything at all about SFP+ or the other advanced interface. A lot of us have never touched anything but gig-E. I've been in this industry for 40 years, but never on the enterprise side, so I simply have no contact with this stuff.
A 60-second backgrounder on the ports would have been appropriate.
Also, "managed" means what, precisely? I'm running OPNsense on my home network. What does a "managed" switch provide that I can't already get from my firewall appliance? I suppose it will allow me to firewall ports on my home network from each other at the switch layer rather that with host firewall configurations. Is that it?
What about power reading of SFP vs DAC cable?
It is a bit tough to go back and do well over 100 more power readings. Most SR optics these days use less power than the 10Gbase-T module so doing those measurements would only show a sub 2W power difference
@ServeTheHomeVideo From now on I mean.
@ServeTheHomeVideo considering how much the SFPs heat up vs DAC cables - I am curious what the difference is.
Cant find the Sodola SL-SWTG015AS-POE anywhere. Without POE yes, but cant find the model with POE
wow that's a small trunk you have right there
I was surprised the frunk fit that many boxes
great video, thx
Glad you liked it!
Great video!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
How about a switch with 2 x 10Gbit (Base-T or combo) and 8 x 2.5Gbe.
What do you recommend?
Where are 16 and 18 ports switches?
Rohit is testing them now.
I would love, if you could test to power these switch using a USB-C PD 12v instead of the crappy power supply. I've replaced all the DC 9v,12v power supply.
If you get one of those little adapter jack / usb PD with a 12v trigger board, there is no reason it wouldn't work as long as your USB brick can deliver enough current
I'm not sure that's an improvement, especially if you use an adaptor. The 9v and 12v switches are very tolerant of voltage meaning you could run the power over quite long cables or even the type of passive PoE found in some TP-Link devices. However any device requiring a 5v PSU is usually extremely fussy that it's 5v so a USB-C on those would be an upgrade. The 5v devices lack any internal regulation.
@@wayland7150 pretty much all modern electronics is at less than 3.3v so yeah these will have internal regulation
So cheapest 2.5G switch with VLANs (which require a management interface) are still more than 200 dollars?
Dangit!
haven't heard many of these brands
Other than five reviews "x is just like y that we just reviewed", it might be easier and faster to just list all the models you found that are obviously the same switch with a different sticker on the front...
Often the included power brick changes power consumption. We have the list on the main site for people who want that info
Do you have MY perfect switch - 8x2.5G 2x10G no-POE Light L3 FIB(non-CPU) switch-routing?
Like the MikroTik we covered?
@ServeTheHomeVideo I think that one isn't hardware switch router FIB, but using the CPU instead. Which is very inefficient if you use it for your main router. The reason I want one is that my routing VM(and the VPN VM) pegs the ESXi CPU quite a bit when having big downloads. A FIB L3 switch would erase all that since all the possible routes are pre-compiled and pre-loaded into the switch chip.
hey, some help please looking to get a 16-24 port full poe+ with ability to control POE power over CLI + port mirroring. currently have TL-SG2428P and cant say I had a gret success with it unless I'm missing something. -- plz advise
What cheap rj45 copper 10g adapter is compatible with sodola for cheap on Amazon?
Looking for a 2.5 Gbe 16-port POE switch with atleast 2 sfp 10Gbe ports for around 500$. Any tips?