At the right time, dual port 10GBase-T cards (X540-esque) can be had for $200, probably second hand though - my last purchase was 200GBP a pop. Though you still need one at the other end point, unless you picked up a SOHO/SMB server or NAS already with 10G, like a Xeon-D based one.
For now, but this switch brings prices down to where a 10G consumer NAS/workstation might sell to a few enthusiasts so there'll be more network-oriented boards. Right now it's only in the "we'll throw in any crazy thing we can think of" $500+ mobos. Even a single HDD can do >125MB/s, if it's sequential...
Hopefully it also can handle the packets per second for minimum packets. What I really want is a switch with 10Gb uplinks and 2.5Gb or 5Gb ports, so my firewall/router can better handle micro-bursts.
Without teaming support, I don't see any point in this device other than to daisy chain together to make in effect a big 1x 10 gbit + as many 1gbit ports as you want switch.
Somebody with a file server and one primary client that they'd like 10GbE on, but who doesn't want to shell out $800 to bring 10GbE to secondary systems, printers, etc. would be a pretty good target for this device.
I think I'm smack-dab in the middle of the target group for this. I'll be building a video editing rig for my girlfriend in winter/spring, and at the same time want to move our backups off the current combo HTPC/NAS and onto a dedicated network storage unit (windows file sharing is just not my friend) that can also serve as a raw clip dump for her.
I have no actual need for anything beyond GBE for my desktop or the HTPC, but having a 10GBE link between the NAS and her editing rig would be a HUGE boon. Of course, 2.5/5GBE across the board would be nice for future-proofing, but considering the spec was just announced I doubt any affordable switches will be showing up in the near future.
That's exactly why i bought it! 2x10GbE for my server and workstation, 8x1GbE for all my other devices. 2 Intel X540-T2 cards in my systems working well with this switch.
No point to this device? Do you know many people with multiple (as in 3 and up) 10G connected devices in their home but with a $250 budget limit?
This is a consumer product. Most people would probably connect one PC or one NAS that would serve the rest of the 1G connections at once without hiccups. Some could possibly cascade two routers but would still have 2 ports available for the devices.
The features you're looking for are beyond an unmanaged $250 switch.
Maybe for random consumers, but currently you can do this already without a appliance type switch.
You already need the 10gbit adapter on the server and the client, so all you have to do is plug in either a 8/10 port gigabit switch into either the server or client, or if you want the full bandwidth to all the 1gbit clients, then plug in some dirt cheap 2 port 1gbit adapters into either your server or client and you replicate the capabilities.
Is a 10G "appliance type switch" a $250 device that you buy, plug in, no configuration an no fuss and it works? Can you give me a link to such a switch that has at least 2 10G ports (and 4-8 1G ports) that I can literally set up from scratch in a minute, is silent and costs around $250 or less? Because that's what this is.
If you want management or teaming this is not for you. Go to eBay, you'll find cheap, second hand, rack-mount, actively cooled 10G switches that do exactly what you want.
Next you're gonna complain it doesn't do routing since any "appliance type router" does it...
What sort of cooling does this use? Current gen 10GbE NICs are 15-20W per port, which suggests that this probably needs at least 35W to operate. Does it have a fan for active cooling (something regularly cited as a strict no-go for consumer hardware), or is the aluminium chassis doing double duty as a fashion statement and heat sink?
That high wattage is because of old 45nm sized fabrication. Intel's 32nm quad port 10Gb NICs only consume about 20watts, and Intel's newest dual port 40Gb NICs only consume about 12 watts, but they're 28nm.
Intel does have 14nm SOC dual port 10Gb with 8core Xeon, where the entire system only consumes something like 50watts total. At 14nm, the 10Gb ports consume about the same power as 1Gb.
10Gb is trivial and cheap at 14nm, but no one is going to waste perfectly good bleeding edge fabrication on small margin network gear when they can make large margins on CPUs.
I will be a lot more interested when they can offer a 4x4 switch at this price point - I'd like to have my PCs and NAS connected and still have at least one expansion option left on 10G. A few 1Gs to connect my printer, modem, etc would be perfect. Hopefully by then NICs will be priced significantly lower.
When the total package for a 4x10G switch + 1 NIC is closer to that ~$250 is when we will see this gain traction in the consumer market and even then still in the higher end consumer/prosumer - grandma and your neighbor aren't going 10G until it's cheap as chips.
D-Link have a four port 10GbE SFP+ with 24port 1GbE managed switch for £320. I've been interested in their 20 port model which has dualSFP+, dual SFP and 16x 1000baseT, managed. Yes they aren't 10GbaseT but are SFP, but generic DAC cables or even SFPs can be quite economic.
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close - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
I know some guys commenting here on Anandtech that must be ecstatic about this. They can finally reliably stream media to their TV... o_OSarcasm aside, at $250 this is a bargain. Too bad that you'll have to double the investment to get 10G on a motherboard.
Ian Cutress - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
At the right time, dual port 10GBase-T cards (X540-esque) can be had for $200, probably second hand though - my last purchase was 200GBP a pop. Though you still need one at the other end point, unless you picked up a SOHO/SMB server or NAS already with 10G, like a Xeon-D based one.Kjella - Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - link
For now, but this switch brings prices down to where a 10G consumer NAS/workstation might sell to a few enthusiasts so there'll be more network-oriented boards. Right now it's only in the "we'll throw in any crazy thing we can think of" $500+ mobos. Even a single HDD can do >125MB/s, if it's sequential...Philmatic - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
"The total switch fabric affords a 56 Gbps bandwidth (which is more than enough for the switch)".Not *more than enough*, it's *just* enough".
Switching fabric refers to the total amount of bandwidth available on all ports simultaneously, factoring in full-duplex.
2 x 10gb = 20 x 2 (Full duplex) = 40gbps
8 x 1gb = 8 x 2 Full duplex) = 16gbps
56gbps.
bcronce - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Hopefully it also can handle the packets per second for minimum packets. What I really want is a switch with 10Gb uplinks and 2.5Gb or 5Gb ports, so my firewall/router can better handle micro-bursts.Communism - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Does the switch support teaming?As in can you do 4x 1 Gbps teamed transfers directly to either of the 10 gigabit ports?
Communism - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Without teaming support, I don't see any point in this device other than to daisy chain together to make in effect a big 1x 10 gbit + as many 1gbit ports as you want switch.Black Obsidian - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Somebody with a file server and one primary client that they'd like 10GbE on, but who doesn't want to shell out $800 to bring 10GbE to secondary systems, printers, etc. would be a pretty good target for this device.Valantar - Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - link
I think I'm smack-dab in the middle of the target group for this. I'll be building a video editing rig for my girlfriend in winter/spring, and at the same time want to move our backups off the current combo HTPC/NAS and onto a dedicated network storage unit (windows file sharing is just not my friend) that can also serve as a raw clip dump for her.I have no actual need for anything beyond GBE for my desktop or the HTPC, but having a 10GBE link between the NAS and her editing rig would be a HUGE boon. Of course, 2.5/5GBE across the board would be nice for future-proofing, but considering the spec was just announced I doubt any affordable switches will be showing up in the near future.
Renderman - Wednesday, October 14, 2020 - link
That's exactly why i bought it! 2x10GbE for my server and workstation, 8x1GbE for all my other devices. 2 Intel X540-T2 cards in my systems working well with this switch.close - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
No point to this device? Do you know many people with multiple (as in 3 and up) 10G connected devices in their home but with a $250 budget limit?This is a consumer product. Most people would probably connect one PC or one NAS that would serve the rest of the 1G connections at once without hiccups. Some could possibly cascade two routers but would still have 2 ports available for the devices.
The features you're looking for are beyond an unmanaged $250 switch.
close - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
*cascade two switches.Communism - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Maybe for random consumers, but currently you can do this already without a appliance type switch.You already need the 10gbit adapter on the server and the client, so all you have to do is plug in either a 8/10 port gigabit switch into either the server or client, or if you want the full bandwidth to all the 1gbit clients, then plug in some dirt cheap 2 port 1gbit adapters into either your server or client and you replicate the capabilities.
close - Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - link
Is a 10G "appliance type switch" a $250 device that you buy, plug in, no configuration an no fuss and it works? Can you give me a link to such a switch that has at least 2 10G ports (and 4-8 1G ports) that I can literally set up from scratch in a minute, is silent and costs around $250 or less? Because that's what this is.If you want management or teaming this is not for you. Go to eBay, you'll find cheap, second hand, rack-mount, actively cooled 10G switches that do exactly what you want.
Next you're gonna complain it doesn't do routing since any "appliance type router" does it...
DanNeely - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
What sort of cooling does this use? Current gen 10GbE NICs are 15-20W per port, which suggests that this probably needs at least 35W to operate. Does it have a fan for active cooling (something regularly cited as a strict no-go for consumer hardware), or is the aluminium chassis doing double duty as a fashion statement and heat sink?close - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
If the article is any indication of the real life product: "The external adapter is rated at 18W".bcronce - Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - link
That high wattage is because of old 45nm sized fabrication. Intel's 32nm quad port 10Gb NICs only consume about 20watts, and Intel's newest dual port 40Gb NICs only consume about 12 watts, but they're 28nm.Intel does have 14nm SOC dual port 10Gb with 8core Xeon, where the entire system only consumes something like 50watts total. At 14nm, the 10Gb ports consume about the same power as 1Gb.
10Gb is trivial and cheap at 14nm, but no one is going to waste perfectly good bleeding edge fabrication on small margin network gear when they can make large margins on CPUs.
Valantar - Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - link
My only concern about this: can it be wall mounted?Icehawk - Sunday, October 16, 2016 - link
I will be a lot more interested when they can offer a 4x4 switch at this price point - I'd like to have my PCs and NAS connected and still have at least one expansion option left on 10G. A few 1Gs to connect my printer, modem, etc would be perfect. Hopefully by then NICs will be priced significantly lower.When the total package for a 4x10G switch + 1 NIC is closer to that ~$250 is when we will see this gain traction in the consumer market and even then still in the higher end consumer/prosumer - grandma and your neighbor aren't going 10G until it's cheap as chips.
bobdvb - Sunday, November 6, 2016 - link
D-Link have a four port 10GbE SFP+ with 24port 1GbE managed switch for £320. I've been interested in their 20 port model which has dualSFP+, dual SFP and 16x 1000baseT, managed. Yes they aren't 10GbaseT but are SFP, but generic DAC cables or even SFPs can be quite economic.bobdvb - Sunday, November 6, 2016 - link
See here: D-Link DGS-1510-28X 28-Port Gigabit Stackable Smart Managed Switch including 4 10G SFP+ (smart fans) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00MCZNW5G/ref=cm_sw_r...