We used dozens of those (the 6248s, their blade-installed M6220, and the related M8024 10GbE-only blade switch) at my job before last. Inexpensive new, and quite reliable and fast. They worked quite well, and while they're quite dated at this point, for home or test-lab use, if they are available at a reasonable price they're a great choice.

I can't speak to any other Dell-branded switches beyond those models -- and prior to buying Force10, they resold various OEM switches under their own branding.

I don't know Cisco nearly as well, but I think there are some models in the 3750/3850 series with uplinks; it's just somewhat hard to see finding those as cheaply as the Dells. The uplink-less ones sell very cheaply.

There are much better options with a real budget, but given that he needs more than the 2 ports on the $250-$350 D-Link or Miktrotik option, going up to 4 ports at that budget is going to be seriously used stuff.