SMC gigE unmanaged switches @ the egg

[mcfreiz]

SMC offering $20 rebates (till 9/30) on their gigE switches
making these hot!!!

5 port
8 port

supports jumbo frames

mikey c

 

[MIDIman]

Auto MDI/MDI-X on each port to simplify integration into a network
Support to handle Jumbo Packets up to 9K bytes packet
Features Store-and-Forward mode with wire-speed filtering and forwarding rates
IEEE802.3x compliant full-duplex flow control, HOL blocking prevention
Broadcast storm control and CRC Filtering
LED indicators for simple troubleshooting

Very very coool...might have to pick one of these up.

If one already has a router to talk between computers, what would be the best way to add this in (I have gigabit on two machines)?

 

[cmetz]

I can't speak to the new models, but the previous generation 8505T/8508T were great values for the money, good cheap little switches that supported jumbo frames and Just Worked. These appear to be the same guts in a cheaper plastic package that can't rack mount. That's not good for me, but good for most people in this forum.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: MIDIman

If one already has a router to talk between computers, what would be the best way to add this in (I have gigabit on two machines)?

Put both GbE boxes on this switch, a cable from switch to one of the (then) unused router jacks, then decide whether cable runs are neater for remaining system(s) to the router or the switch... probably best in the long-term to route a few more boxes to the switch since, someday, you may want GbE at these locations as well. IE- although many people end up putting their switch right next to their router, others find it advantageous to space the two out across the 'site more.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: cmetz
I can't speak to the new models, but the previous generation 8505T/8508T were great values for the money, good cheap little switches that supported jumbo frames and Just Worked. These appear to be the same guts in a cheaper plastic package that can't rack mount. That's not good for me, but good for most people in this forum.

I don't know about same guts, for one thing the metal-cased versions have a larger buffer. On the other hand, often it's the case that newer generations of networking gear have faster (or cooler running) core chips, potentially making them longer-lived in these low-end passively cooled switches.

I have the 5 port metal version, and found it ran fairly hot. I cut out part of the side panel and put a notebook fan in it, undervolted via resistor and tapped into the power right behind the DC input jack. Having to do it again I'd probably have just replaced all the electrolytic capacitors, too, as when I'd opened it originally they were all pretty warm->hot so I wouldn't expect them to last over the long haul.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: mindless1

Originally posted by: cmetz
I can't speak to the new models, but the previous generation 8505T/8508T were great values for the money, good cheap little switches that supported jumbo frames and Just Worked. These appear to be the same guts in a cheaper plastic package that can't rack mount. That's not good for me, but good for most people in this forum.

I don't know about same guts, for one thing the metal-cased versions have a larger buffer. On the other hand, often it's the case that newer generations of networking gear have faster (or cooler running) core chips, potentially making them longer-lived in these low-end passively cooled switches.

I have the 5 port metal version, and found it ran fairly hot. I cut out part of the side panel and put a notebook fan in it, undervolted via resistor and tapped into the power right behind the DC input jack. Having to do it again I'd probably have just replaced all the electrolytic capacitors, too, as when I'd opened it originally they were all pretty warm->hot so I wouldn't expect them to last over the long haul.

McGuyver?

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
McGuyver?

LOL

Old-school hacker that got bored with newer boards/CPUs/Video/etc and just buys gear for the sake of voiding warranties these days.

 

[Smackattack]

Did anyone actually see any performance gain from the jumbo frames support? I have one of the older model of these. Changed the framesize on both my systems (onboard marvell and an installed gig dlink) and ran tests with a couple of gigs of images and a couple gig iso image. Transfer times were the same regardless of framesize.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: Smackattack
Did anyone actually see any performance gain from the jumbo frames support? I have one of the older model of these. Changed the framesize on both my systems (onboard marvell and an installed gig dlink) and ran tests with a couple of gigs of images and a couple gig iso image. Transfer times were the same regardless of framesize.

Often the performance gain can be from reduction in CPU utilization, though it might also depend where your bottleneck is, as many typical PC hard drive configs cannot keep up with GbE even if not bottlenecked by the PCI bus, but from your description I suspect both your source and destination have the PCI bus limitation too.

 

[MonkeyK]

The metal cases have the ports on the front too, which I greatly prefer.

 

[Smackattack]

Originally posted by: mindless1

Originally posted by: Smackattack
Did anyone actually see any performance gain from the jumbo frames support? I have one of the older model of these. Changed the framesize on both my systems (onboard marvell and an installed gig dlink) and ran tests with a couple of gigs of images and a couple gig iso image. Transfer times were the same regardless of framesize.

Often the performance gain can be from reduction in CPU utilization, though it might also depend where your bottleneck is, as many typical PC hard drive configs cannot keep up with GbE even if not bottlenecked by the PCI bus, but from your description I suspect both your source and destination have the PCI bus limitation too.

PCI bus limitation on the dlink add on card? you wont see this for onboard NICs will you. As far as my hard drives, the onboard system is fast with a 74gig raptor. The slightly older box with teh addon dlink is running onboard raid0.

 

[mindless1]

Discrete GbE chips (so-called integrated) on a motherboard are no different than if they were on a card in a slot, unless the board chipset provides an alternate port for them). If you have a Marvell chip sitting on a board, that's on the PCI bus.

Raptors are only relatively fast compared to other drives, at seeking. For this purpose their performance is offset by the need for the lower density platters. 1 Raptor alone will not saturate GbE, and may easily be as slow as any common 200GB HDD, even slower if you're pulling these multi-GB-sized files from the inner tracks of the platters, but you mention no lan data rates, which are the primary details.

 

[V00D00]

I'm in for one! Thanks!