Originally Posted by
StuckInYYZ
What kind of budget did you work with? I'd like to redo the computers I have in the house to reduce the load on the wifi network and if I can speed things up for a reasonable price, I'd consider it. But the prices I see even for 2.5 is not cheap.
In general, gigabit out to individual machines is still going to substantially outperform wifi - 10GbE is best for switch-to-switch, or really high-traffic machines like a NAS/server or things in a home lab.
I put this together in 2016, and spent about a little over $1000 total for two managed 20-port switches (D-link DGS-1510-20, not still available new except as remaining stock as best I can tell), each with 18 gigabit ports (16 copper, 2 fiber SFP) and 2 SFP+ 10 GBE (about $750 for both back then), plus a NIC for my server (2-port SFP+ Intel) and about $100 for SFP modules (cheaper now.) 100' fibers were cheaper then, but I bought them locally so I don't remember how much - probably about $50 for both of them
To do it the standard "everything goes back to 1 closet, and a single big managed switch" would have been probably $150+ and maybe another $60+ for a smaller 2nd spool just for the extra copper to do 10-12 runs under the house, plus a patch panel, plus a lot more wear and tear on me.
A good 24+ port managed switch wouldn't have been much cheaper than one of the 16+uplinks, so I'm already at half the cost even before figuring out how to uplink the server properly (port bonding on 1GbE doesn't work all that well.)
It would have been quite a bit cheaper in late 2019, before supply chain shocks.
There are still cheaper options today, although not as many readily available: Microtik is really cheap for 10GbE: a 2-uplink model
https://amzn.to/3oXnJ74 or
https://amzn.to/3avkyeA for a 4-port 10GbE model (you can use the gigabit port as either a dedicated management port or a downlink on the same bridge) or
https://amzn.to/2YDcwxX for an 8-port which would be a good backbone switch. These look interesting as well -
https://amzn.to/3iT51tx for a cheaper uplink model
For fiber connections, you'll need something like this
https://amzn.to/2YKGVKG for either end, or something like
https://amzn.to/3iST8E5 but they only are good for lab. I thought they went to 10M but the longest I can find right now is 7.
10GbE copper switches are much more expensive, last I looked and on a cursory look on Amazon, but I may be missing something.
I use the 2-port version of this NIC:
https://amzn.to/3awgf2q - there are cheaper ones, but the Intel X520 drivers are really stable. Unlike the switches, copper 10GbE NICs are often a little cheaper.