DEAD ** Dell 2608 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch - 8 port now $49 AR

[superHARD]

nice deal!

I paid $60 4 months ago for my dlink 4 port gig switch

 

[cerebusPu]

can anyone else report much faster speeds? 33% increase isnt worth it in my opinion.

 

[htne]

Before, on 100 megabit ethernet, on large file transfers, I
would get 60% effeciency, at best.

100,000 bits * .60 = 60,000

On Gigabit, I get around 11% efficency.

1,000,000 * .11 = 110,000

This is almost double, or 110,000 / 60,000 * 100 = 183%

In other words, an 83% improvement.

Let's show this another way. Say I am moving a dvd movie image
file, which is 4,700,000 bytes. 100 Megabit ethernet achieves
60,000 bits per second, which is 7,500 bytes per second, which
is 450,000 bytes per minute. 4,700,000 divided by 450,000 is
10.44 minutes to move the file.

On Gigabit, I achieve 110,000 bits per second, which is 13,750
bytes per second, which is 825,000 bytes per minute. 4,700,000
divided by 825,000 is 5.45 minutes to achieve the same file
transfer.

You will need fairly fast computers to achieve the above results.
Do not expect to move data this fast on a P2 450.

The above results were achieved WITHOUT the use of jumbo frames,
which would increase the speed for the gigabit ethernet.

 

[Tweakmeister]

Hey guys,
In terms of the PCI Gigabit cards, what are the better makes for under $30?

I see a ton of generics (Realtek chipset, etc.), an Intel, Netgear, and Dlink on Pricewatch.

I guess in terms of speed they are about the same, but how about in terms of CPU utilization? Is it worth it for the Intel over a Realtek?

 

[ECartman]

I bought the generic Airlink PCI card from Fry's for $9.99. I believe it is a Realtek. I looked at my CPU usage number in the processes tab in Task Manager and never noticed it about 32% during a large file transfer. Most of the time it was around 16-19% during the transfer.

I dont have anything else to compare it to.

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: cerebusPu
can anyone else report much faster speeds? 33% increase isnt worth it in my opinion.

On my gigabit setup a ~4gig file transfers at about 25 MB/sec over gigabit straight windows drag and drop. FTP transfers of the same file were around 35 MB/sec. That is well over 2-3x what 100BaseT is capable of.

That is with Marvell NIC on client with a 7200.7 Seagate drive (Windows 2k)
Intel NIC on server with 3ware RAID5 array of 4x7200.7 Seagates (linux 2.6 kernel)
Same with either a Trendware 8 port switch or SMC 8 port switch, or with the two switches cascaded (and only one transfer on the network). Using the SMC switch (jumbo frames capable) and enabling jumbo frames did not improve transfer rates.

My assumption is that the hard drive on the client is the limitation, because I saw 600+mbit/sec burst rates from the server, but it obviously couldn't sustain that.

I do not have a baseline at 100BaseT, because I moved from coax 10Base2 all the way to gigabit (a small increase in performance ). But given 100BaseT will max out around 10 MB/sec, I'm definitely seeing a significant improvement over that.

Cartman, try maxing out any send/receive buffer options in the driver options. Also ensure your MTU is 1400 or more (I think 1417 is the limit without jumbo frames). I don't know too much about how the Realtek chipsets perform, as I know they were not great for 100BaseT, and assumed the same for gig. I specifically avoided them. The Marvells seem okay for me.

16-19% at only 12-13MB/sec seems kinda high on CPU utilization. That will climb as the processors have to deal with more transmission units in the same amount of time.

Also, keep in mind that gigabit is WAY faster than a typical IDE/SATA drive can write. That will typically be the limitation on a simple two PC transfer.

 

[Aravot]

How does it compare to Linksys SD2008

 

[Tweakmeister]

Aravot

Those are probably fine too, along with the Netgear GS105

The difference is these are rackable!

 

[asdren]

10/100BaseT Ports
None

pardon the stupid question but I can still plug 100 nic systems to this switch, right?

 

[catrats]

Yeah, Fast Ethernet NICs should work without a problem.

 

[rsolomon]

Looks like now $69 AR. Dang! Just as my 5 port 10/100 switch bites it, up goes the price

 

[Buzzman151]

Originally posted by: rsolomon
Looks like now $69 AR. Dang! Just as my 5 port 10/100 switch bites it, up goes the price

the 16 port version almost doubled in price :|

 

[imported_sjaxkingpin]

Of course I can't find it now. But I saw an article which explained that the Jumbo Frame support is very important on Gb nets. I wonder if this is why you're only seeing 33% speed increase. I notice on Dell's Managed switches, they do offer that support.