Looking forward to the 2.5G switch review! I've had my eye on like 6 of the ones in that little dolly shot.

@zachradabaugh4925

Жыл бұрын

Agreed, I would love to add some 2.5G to my K8S cluster but the smaller size actually appeals more to me as I don’t need quite the amount of 2.5G ports

This is the exact switch I was looking for for my home setup. It ticks all the boxes: 12x (or more) 2.5gb ports, 4x (or more) 10gb SFP+ ports, unmanaged, no POE, fanless. I think a smaller version 12&4 ports at a lower price would be even more awesome. It only lacks the CE regulatory sticker on the bottom.

@danjw1

Жыл бұрын

Yes, even a cut in half version at a appropriate discount would be awesome!

@User_9yt0aw6

Жыл бұрын

There is a 16&2 version TL-SH1218 for 2000CNY

@slappymcphee

Жыл бұрын

​@@User_9yt0aw6 where? That model number is used for a 10/100 switch from what I see.

@Daniel15au

Жыл бұрын

MikroTik CRS312-4C+8XG-RM is better value IMO, but it sounds like you need more ports than what it provides. The MikroTik is fully managed a d has 8 x 10GbE ports and 4 x 10GbE and SFP+ combo ports (for each combo port, you can use either 10GBase-T or SFP+, not both at the same time). The MikroTik is around $500 on Getic.

@theangelofspace155

Жыл бұрын

@@Daniel15au does it have 2.5G? Thats the main difference here, how much are every sfp? I have a 24 port 10gbp mikrotik thats why I say it.

Ended up buying two of these. They are awesome. One at my home one at my office.

@ServeTheHomeVideo

9 ай бұрын

Sweet!

My guess is that: in order to be able to sell in the US, it has to pass all regulatory requirements, which cost quite a bit time to get approved and money. More importantly, it is likely due to the trade treaty and tariff.

This kind of models is aimed at the Internet cafe market in China (where people who can't afford graphics cards play their games), so there's little need for management features and they can cut a lot of the cost. If they ever make a managed version and market to the West, it will be priced at a premium as it fills a market niche.

I appreciate the 2.5Gb and 10Gb low cost switch round up, including power consumption. They are starting to become cost effective solutions for small and home offices that use a NAS as a central storage point.

The is an unpopulated square BGA footprint with a RAM footprint besides. So there might actually be a managed variant in the pipeline.

Mikrotik should make a managed version of something like this. Or even a bonus POE version.

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

Yes please

@BillLambert

Жыл бұрын

A multi-gig switch is the missing link in my Mikrotik stack. So many consumer devices are coming with 2.5G ports these days, a simple CRS with a dozen mGig ports and 10/25G uplink would be an instant buy for me.

@levifig

Жыл бұрын

An updated CRS328 with 2.5GBe would be phenomenal!

@JeremyTaylorNZ

Жыл бұрын

@@ServeTheHomeVideo well, they've now released the TL-SG3428XPP-M2 which also has the PoE

Unmanaged? Yeah, that's useless to me.

@XenHat

Жыл бұрын

As someone owning a Mikrotik and looking to get an unmanaged switch, I am interested in your use case

@jonpinkley2844

Жыл бұрын

@@XenHat There are use cases for dumb switches. For one thing they are easy to configure.🙂If you have a managed switch, and haven't used the features, then a dumb switch will fill your needs. If you have never used vlans, then I can understand why you wouldn't be interested. Once you have used vlans, you won't want to look back. A switch with this many ports just begs to have the ability to "partition" it into multiple "mini-switches", each with a different class of users. And there are other features that most managed switches also have, like the ability to mirror a (set of) ports. Or display the mac address table to locate the port where a mac address is.

@jonpinkley2844

Жыл бұрын

@@jakewynn At first I thought what you are describing is a "hub" or a multiport repeater that operate at layer 1 (physical layer). But even repeaters have "active circuitry" and are not passive (and won't work with analog phone lines) I really have no idea what you are trying to describe. Do you have something I can do a google search for to understand what you are referring to? When I said "dumb" switch, I meant it as I have normally seen the slang used, i.e. dumb == unmanaged. Any ethernet switch produced in the last 20 years is based on an ASIC, and these have mac learning capability built in. I would guess that most ASICs produced are all "capable" of handling vlans, but the "unmanaged" switches just operate in "vlan-transparent" mode. The difference between unmanaged ("dumb" e.g. TL-SG108), vlan-aware and minimal configurability ("smart" e.g. TL-SG108E), and managed (e.g. TL-SG2008) are how configurable the switches are, and also most managed switches have ASICs with more features and larger CAM tables to allow use in larger LANs. Layer 3 switch (e.g. Cisco 3850) are in a different class, as they have routing capability built in.

@jakewynn

Жыл бұрын

@@jonpinkley2844 yep I realised that after I posted it, oops lol

@Zeric1

Жыл бұрын

Yes, for anyone running VLANs, having an unmanaged switch with that many ports wouldn't make much sense. Only one of my switches is unmanaged, and it has 8 POE ports that drive POE cameras. All the other switches, even small ones, need VLAN support. I realize some people don't run VLANs, but at this price point which isn't cheap, it should have some management ability.

I 100% agree, something like this is needed for the US market too. Add a L2 managed version as well. Maybe the asic allows for some light management already? Did you look under the heat sink?

@jonathanmarshall3974

Жыл бұрын

If you slow down the video when he’s showing the PCB you can see what looks like pads for a management SoC and memory. I don’t think the ASIC has this natively.

@alpharesearch2

Жыл бұрын

@Jonathan Marshall You are correct, looks like the PCB is already designed for a managed version. This is good news, but I would like a US compliment version. Btw, there is also an article with pictures on his website.

If it had a management pro restore, I'd say this is exactly what everyone is waiting for... Guessing that if this was nearly impossible to get before this video, it will certainly be impossible with the STH effect! Nice to know it exists though... This passively colored is frickin' awesome; I'd buy this for less than $450 in a heartbeat!

I want it, too! Make 8 of those 2.5 ports PoE++ and it's perfect for my at home use case.

STH channel and content always Rock's 👌

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

We absolutely need this in the US!

Compromised firmware…damn I didn’t even think about that. Good point.

The problem I have with 22.5GbE is that you can either get a switch with a small number of ports (5-8) or you can get one with a crazy number (24 and 4x uplink). It'd be nice to see a unit with say 16 ports and 1x uplink.

TP Link does sell the TL-SG3428X which is a 24 port 1Gbe plus 4 SFP+ ports switch for $350CAD (~$270US). It’s a managed switch as well. It’s a good budget option if 2.5GB isn’t essential and 4 SFP+ ports is enough.

YES, Yes make one of those for the US market! Please ❤

Super exciting! If I got one, I probably would do a 80 or 120mm Noctua in a side-flow arrangement in that space behind the PS; easy enough to 3d-print some ducting and some angled mount. By the looks of that switch's mainboard, there's already solder pads for another large asic/cpu, ram, and nvram. Guessing there's an L3-managed version in the works! Guessing as well that it may be all those regs and certs holding it up, takes probably months to get all those rubber stamps and meanwhile, why not make money off the locals? How about a 12+4 version and 8+2 in addition to PoE++ ?

+1 for Mikrotik to make one of these for the US market! Personally I would prefer managed and fans (that I could swap with Noctuas), but you nailed the use-case of 2.5Gb and 10GbE backhauls with PoE.

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

We have a managed version that is a bit more expensive.

I just bought a second 8 port 2.5Gb switch. Synology is updating their DSM to include SMB multichannel which would make me inclined to connect it via 3 Ethernet cables (1Gb each) to get closer to that 2.5Gb speed. I have 2 NAS and will do this on both. It would be great if they sold a 16 port version in the states.

Well I'm glad to know that it's not just me that finds it frustrating to not be able to find good quality at reasonable price networking gear in North america.

Another region restricted device. But looks amazing for the price.

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

That is why I want a US/ EU version

@udirt

Жыл бұрын

Love that it has sufficient 10g ports to attach something to it AND have sufficient bandwidth..

@marcogenovesi8570

Жыл бұрын

should probably appear on Aliexpress, as other china-only things that enterprising individuals there decide to resell

@dyong888

Жыл бұрын

Amerika is a much smaller market and doesn't warrant China's attention. Once the product gets common place it will be released to amerika.

I you love to buy a switch like this in the US market!

If it is L2 managed, it will be "shut the f**k up and take my money" for me

any idea if this has port mirroring? assume it does not since it's not managed.. Would be super cool to have mirroring and use it to monitor home network traffic with a IPS/IDS

That switch would be amazing.

What are the best options for 10Gbe PCIE and faster cards for this switch? I feel like the NIC segment is still lagging behind in terms of value.

I've been looking at the DrayTek VigorSwitch PQ2200xb recently, which is a 16x 2.5Gbe + 4x SFP+ with a mix of PoE+ and PoE++ switch for about €700. It's also L2 managed, so that seems like the closest competitor to this switch (and it's actually available outside of China). There's also a version without PoE for about €550, called the Q2200x.

I agree about bringing this with poe (and other options, maybe one exactly like this, another with poe, and yet another that then adds management on top of the poe for those that want management; maybe do a similar for smaller variation too like someone else asked for) to the US. I'm sure I'd still think it's too expensive at 5-600 bucks but like you said, you're not wasting ports (space, and additional power) with 15 smaller units to accomplish the same result. Maybe my pfsense/opnsense/etc is all the "management" I need, maybe not!? Personally I'd rather just do MAC management and use "dumb switches", no idea if that's even possible, but yeah...

Does it only come as unmanaged or is there a managed alternative with similar specs around there as well? I've been looking for a more modern version of my old trusty rack mounted SG3216 (which still works great), but it lacks 10gig and/or multi gig ports.

I have been looking at using one of the really small all sfp+ switches from mikrotik as the core and maybe 3-4 small switches for the rest of the network at least one of which would have 2.5gbps, all because I never found anything like this readily available.

Now that hardware with management capabilities would be perfect. Does anyone know if a comparable option exists?

Love it, I don’t have much use for that many 10Gb SFP ports, and it’s a little pricey, but this would be a perfect home upgrade. I want to 10Gb much of the house, at least for the uplinks to most switches. This would let me do it with fiber, and have a bunch of space to spare. Just need to get my hands on one, looking like $750 Australian at the moment 😩

I just joined to help you buy more 2.5gbe switches to review them for us! keep up the great work. Thank you

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

Wow!!! Thank you so much! Just got a tip on another crazy one. I will order it this afternoon (albeit I only see it on Taobao so shipping may take some time)

Damn I love this channel!!!!!

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, and thank you for your support Scott!

Been looking for something like this. Do the brocade switches do 2.5gbe?

Despite me just buying a mikrotik 48x1G 4x10g 2x40G switch for ~$350 used(the guy wanted more L3 features) i might just have to get this switch as well.

Now I just need a switch that's half of this. 12 2.5G ports, 4 SFP+ ports, 8W idle power. That'd be the ultimate switch for me. Many switches come with only 2 SFP+ ports, and at that point I need an extra SFP+ switch because I have 3 devices that use SFP+...

For my home use, I would throw 2 Zyxel 12 port -> 1 SFP+, 1 10Gb copper, 2x 2.5Gb on top of each other, link it to my existing gigabit Zyxel, link the 2 units via SFP and call it a day for 2x 239.99 Web managed, and Zyxel's interface is usually decent. Of course, depending on what you need, I only have 3 PCs with 2.5 ports, so realistically 1 + my existing switch would be OK (also linked via SFP) ps: I wouldn't buy an unmanaged switch ... There is little I need from a switch at home, but the lack of vlan's is not something I can live with (2 fibre connections for house/office and IOT Lan has to be separated ... yes yes ... could be a firewall device as well but so easy to do on a single switch ... )

I'm still rocking the Aruba S2500 - 24 gigabit poe, 4 SFP+. Can't find anything reasonable to replace it.

what would be a good recommendation for something like this but managed and with POE?

I bought a big spool of CAT6A cable a couple years ago and I'm still waiting for a good price on a 10GbE RJ-45 switch

POE would be great, but that power supply would struggle. Cost would go up drastically due to the higher cost of the higher rated power supply.

This is the version sold in China hence it only needs chinese regulatory stamping, but in order to get it sold in the US, then you add on CE stamping fee, Rohas fee, and all likes of certification fee, that pushes up pricing. And this is also why in asian countries they can quickly build up infrastructure, fiber, high speed internet to home, where as here in the US, people are still using slow cable internet and get charged an arm and leg for monthly bill. The high cost of equipment is slowing down technological innovation.

I ordered one from Aliexpress. They showed it as delivered when it was not. According to them now it has been help up in customs for the last two months.

This does look actually awesome for some business. I doubt that many companies would sell it in US, without some ridiculous mark up, but if it was possible to get certifications, someone could import it from China and sell it in US. Bulk would probably be cheaper in shipping, so I don't see a reason why it couldn't be around 600$. I guess I'm missing some pretty obvious stuff.

I'm holding off on buying a Mikrotik CRS328-24P because I'm hoping they will release a 2.5g version shortly. There has been a smattering of product releases in the past couple of days and it wouldn't be there first 2.5g switch either. Can't wait for too much longer though because I'm wiring the house now 🤞😬

Take my money! I need two, one for my central wiring closet and one for my office. Can I connect 10GbE devices to the uplink ports with the right SFP modules? I could finally uplink my two main switches with 10GbE, get multi-gig fiber internet and actually use the bandwidth, plus have overhead for the switches to communicate.

How much would an FCC or CE sticker add to the price?

This switch would be great in the US, please make it. But what I despretly want is a nice home router with all 2.5gig switched LAN ports (not nics). If it could support LACP on two LAN ports, that would be icing on the cake to then go get a managed 2.5gig switch for expansion.

Cant find it on Aliexpress, would by it instantly! Thank you for this great video. Can someone please post a link to ali?

an unmanaged switch for homelab? who the heck needs that? Homelab needs at least vlans.

Would definitely be interested in the switch if it had a managed switch as an option for homelabs

Hm, so they are using the same board of the managed one, but the maangement chip is not populated

Do you have any information about the TL-SG3428X-M2. It should be quite similar except having 4 SFP+ ports less but in addition is managed. Could not find any reviews or tests about that switch - in the EU it cost around 450€ and it therefore not as cheap as the Chinese switches you tested but also not as expensive as the other brands.

I wish TPlink had something similar to this in their Omada lineup. I'd love to give Omada a try but unless you are spending well over a grand here you only get SFP and 1GBE. I don't even mind the gigabit RJ45 ports I just want SFP+ uplinks, even just 2 SFP+uplinks and like 8 ports poe for less than a grand with Omada support would be aweseome for setting up APs. The only products like what you described that I know of are some hella expensive Unifi switches.

@T0X1C89

Жыл бұрын

TP-Link TL-SG3210XHP-M2 8 2.5G POE+ and 2 10G SFP+ Omada Integrated and $400 on Amazon

Dang, my poor CRS305 might have met its successor.... provided it can be bought locally in time.

Damn, I’d even take half the ports if they offered it at a decent price!

Is it just me or is the smiley face in the background flickering even more than usual

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

Still working on that :-/

@ivanyang2022

Жыл бұрын

😂

Is out there any good fanless, unmanaged 10 GbE 8x RJ45 switch ?

Would want 8 POE+/++ ports, and replace two of the SFP+ ports with 10Gbase-T ports. That would allow for a relatively low-cost switch. Would obviously need a heavier duty PS and a couple fans.

The only reason I could think why a multinational corporation would restrict a product geographically would be for test marketing and to see how the product performs 'in the wild'. The heat concerns are a relevant engineering issue so it will be interesting to see how the longevity is impacted on switches deployed in demanding environments. If this thing had cooling option. management and layer-2 functionality such as vlans it would be the default choice for a core switch. The only reason why makers don't integrate into all their products optional expansion for cooling, redundant psu's I can think of is to sell more gear.

@sluflyer06

Жыл бұрын

It's only 17 watts, why are you worried about cooling? Fanless is a huge draw for a lot of tho this switch interests, this isn't meant for a sitting in a server room under heavy load, it's a low power unmanaged switch

Cheaper to just go the full SFP+ setup. Mikrotik switches + Mellanox NICs (2nd hand). That's what I did, anyway.

Would you still recommend this switch? Thinking about grabbing one, but not sure if I should wait for anything incoming or look at other options available today.

Been looking for a switch that will allow for wifi 6e, looks like I'll be waiting a while.

Draytek pq2200xb is managed has 16 ports 2.5g + 4x sfp+ and has poe+ and poe++ - in my opinion a much better switch for homelab

One or the other? Why not put LEDs on the ports and duplicate them off to the side?

Not only the US market, we need them in EU aswell! I want 2.5G but i can't afford it.

@mrmotofy

Жыл бұрын

Stick with 10Gb, buy used off Ebay for much less frequently. With NAS and multigig internet rolling out all over. I'm seeing adds for 10G internet and Redditors saving they have it....2.5G is already outdated. They're just trying to sell more products, stick with industry Standard 10Gb

They need to add a coupling POE ports and it would be perfect.

Would love if they made this more 'desktop' size so I could put it in my media panel. Always lots of dead space in these rack width units.

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

This comes with four rubber feet and is fanless so you could.

If these were managed I'd be replacing my 3COM 1900's that run at like 13W :)

hopeless to get still but the TL-SG3428X-M2 is "almost" there but only 4x 10G ports but it is MANAGED... and there is a POE version too for nearly double the price with 500W POE total but 4 ports 10G is okay would have been sweet with the 8 ports...

is there a switch with 2.5GBE and 10GBE with less ports and POE+???

@thetj8243

Жыл бұрын

that's a thing I'm also looking for... the closest I could find is the TP-LINK TL-SG3210XHP-M2 with 8x RJ45 + 2x SFP+ for ~400€

@paulvancyber1979

Жыл бұрын

@@thetj8243 but that one is not POE??? And the 10GBE I want rj45, cause my new motherboard will have 2 ports

I'm actually about to drop DOWN from a 48-port gigabit switch to an 8-port gigabit switch as a result of a massive server consolidation project for my homelab. 5 NAS systems are being squished down to one, and my gaming system is also being virtualised as well. As a result, and since Proxmox VE 7.3-3 support virtio-fs, I am able to SKIP a lot of the network altogether and have direct host access for the VMs that need and/or want it. Saving a TON of money by NOT building out my networking infrastructure.

It's a unicorn!

do you really need to use link shorteners? it's really unsafe to click even from trusted sources. Thank you for doing isolation testing!

Price is probably regulatory based. China doesn’t seem to care so much as the US or EU. Also, import taxes, shipping and the fact that the US doesn’t seem to trust china companies for some reason.

Weird thing is, this week several TP-Link european distributors reached back with an info that TL-SH1832 is bound for European distribution in 24Q1... I really hope they finally get this to the rest of the world... maybe even in a managed variant as well, as a "better" version of TL-SG3428X-M2...

I clicked on the link to see the Ali-Express listing, nowhere on their page does it say the actual model name. Not even on the switch itself. The one demod in this video, the model name is just to the right of the TP-Link name. It's blank on Ali-Express website.

This switch, with 4-8 of the ports as PoE... Perfect!

Cannot find on Taobao. Could anyone give me a Taobao link?

12+4 (half size) I would use in my home office

@Guillaurent

Жыл бұрын

Exactly

TP-Link makes an Omada managed switch, the TL-SG3210XHP-M2 that has (8) 2.5G rj45 PoE+ and (2) SFP+ ports for around $400 which is the closest thing I can find. I really wish the price would come down though. Something with 2.5G with or without PoE++ and SFP+ is the one piece of networking hardware I have been hunting forever to try and get and can not seem to find these features for a good value

@gallifreyan

Жыл бұрын

That one is now on my wish list - looking to replace a SG2008P + MS510TX-PP in my home network, and move the 2008P to my remote location that currently has a 10 year old gigabit unmanaged TPL switch driving the LAN. :)

"Suddenly I wonder how the performance graph is measured. Is there a place where the testing methodology is explained? What happens if all 2.5Gbit ports try to send data to one of the 10Gbit ports simultaneously? Do they each get a fair share of bandwidth? Are packets dropped? What about average and tail latency? What is the longest round trip when the switch is loaded? What happens if each 2.5Gbit port is paired with another 2.5Gbit and each 10 Gbit port is paired with a 10Gbit port and bidirectional communication bandwidth measured between the pairs? What about tail latency in this case? What happens if each port as simultaneously as possible sends data in turn to all of the others? Is this much different than the case when the data flows only between pairs of ports? Given the equipment and switches available, it would be great to develop some tests that might characterize performance between switches in a more distinctive way." -from sth website comments

I'm pretty sure you probably answered your own question. Certifications in North America will require specific design requirements and money, etc. I don't know the regulations for China, but I'm guessing they aren't as strict so it's probably cheaper to market. They are likely also targeting a market in China that now has had a void caused by NA trade restrictions, etc.

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

I totally agree, but you drive more volume by having one model sold worldwide with multiple certifications. TP-Link is a brand sold in the US. Also, why do other vendors not create a version for the US/EU markets like this one.

Does anyone have a link for the TL-SH1832 Unable to find any links

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

Did you look in the description?

there's another tp link switch on AliExpress , TL-SE2420 , 16 2.5g, 4 10g sfp managed. i need a managed switch , will it work in the usa? what do you think about it ?

@ServeTheHomeVideo

3 ай бұрын

I think Rohit has one that is similar 16x 2.5GbE or 24x 2.5GbE and SFP+ from Amazon. Testing is underway.

@MAD20248

3 ай бұрын

@@ServeTheHomeVideo do you have a link ? can't find any Rohit switches

I would like to see a long term test of the thermals in a rack environment

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

The second one just arrived, so we now have two installed in racks. Likely that would be an update that would happen on the STH main site.

@sluflyer06

Жыл бұрын

It's a unmanaged 17w tdp switch...heavily loaded data center environment is not what this thing is targeting.

I wonder if some patents are involved in making cheap 2.5Gb switches unviable in the US and EU.

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

Realistically, most of these switch chips are Marvell, Broadcom, Realtek. MediaTek has Nephos which is trying to go higher-end in networking as a low cost solution, but it is probably a tier below right now.

Managed switches are great, but nine times out of ten I don't need the management option. A "dumb" switch like this is perfect for a lot of situations but they sure aren't exiting. And that's just it. A unmanaged switch should never be exiting. It should be a boring box that sits in the network closet and you never have to think of except when you run out of ports. Managed switches on the other hand are way to often exiting for all the wrong reassons.

I have a dream that one day soon I'll be able to buy something like this switch on Amazon for $450, a managed version for ~$550, and a POE++ managed version for ~$600-$700

I would pay like 6-800 for this with L2 manageability and PoE+ (don't even need ++/bt) on the RJ45 ports.

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

PoE++ makes running decent WiFi 6E APs more realistic.

As a teacher in an IT school, I was looking for a switch like this. Sadly, it's China only.

isn’t there some small, basic 4-port 10GbE switch?

@ServeTheHomeVideo

Жыл бұрын

See our MikroTik CRS305 review for that

without l2 how could it be a good choice for smb...

To Europe too please :)

US gov?

add some poe+ and i will buy it

Mikrotik.... Wakey wakey