5/8 port gigabit switches with jumbo frames $36/$56 AR + tax @ buy.com

bzo

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Jun 26, 2001
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Looks like SMC has a new line to replace the 8505T/8508T switches. These are less expensive, but according to the tech specs on the SMC site, these still have jumbo frames support to 9k. Having jumbo frame support will greatly increase throughput and reduce cpu utilization. There are cheaper gigabit switches out there, but as far as I know, none with jumbo frame support.

SMCGS5 $51.26 - $5 coupon - $10 rebate = $36.26 w/ free ship
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10411013&loc=101&hdwt=0&sp=1

SMCGS8 $71.11 - $5 coupon - $10 rebate = $56.11 w/ free ship
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10411014&loc=101&hdwt=0&sp=1

There are $5 coupons for buy.com out there for anyone to use but I don't think the info can be posted here.
 

trikster2

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Oct 28, 2000
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Nice find. Can't beat the price but I like the older chasis better. The older model was all metal (you could stand on it) and the 5 port switch even came with 19" rack mounting brackets.

I wonder if these are the same switching sheep in cheaper plastic clothing?

 

bzo

Member
Jun 26, 2001
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I posted this on FW as well and one thing someone brought up is that it looks like they decreased the buffer size on this new model. So, the old model is probably better. As I said over there though, it's still fine by me, because in my basically one user network, I shouldn't be able to tell much difference.
 

uOpt

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Oct 19, 2004
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No way I'm gonna buy this. Has SMC been sold and is used for brand name only now?

Where's the deal for a linksys SD2008?
 

Rogue

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Jan 28, 2000
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Originally posted by: dabuddha
Not trying to sound stupid but what are jumbo frames? :eek:

Normally data packets are sent in chunks of 1500 bytes, Jumbo frames permit packets of much larger sizes, so there's less packets and less fragmentation on the wire.
 

Long

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Dec 24, 1999
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Good explanation. Just to expand further gigabit ethernet switches with jumbo frame feature support sending frames of up to 9,000 bytes each versus the traditional 1,500 bytes. What's the significance? With every frame sent there's an overhead incurred for error checking and acknowledgement. So, by using larger frames you're getting more actual data across the wire by reducing the overhead. An analogy would be trying to put out a fire with a tea cup (traditional 1500 byte frame) versus using a bucket (jumbo frame). A bucket is better since you're able to carry more water with the same number of trips.
 

Smackattack

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Jun 10, 2000
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I asked over on fw, maybe there are some aces here.

I got one of these switches about 6 months ago. One system i have 2 hard drives in raid 0, and i installed a dlink nic that supports jumbo frames. the other system has an onboard marvel (im not sure of the model, im not at home) but it does support jumbo frames and it has a sata raptor hard drive. I use good quality cables, but they are cat5e but that shouldnt be a problem.

Ive tested at framesize of 1500 and 9000 and 9014. Ive transferred 4 gig image files, and groups of files up to 20 gigs, and i dont see any difference in transfer times. Am i missing a setting or something to make this fly?
 

bzo

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Jun 26, 2001
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I've been looking into getting those generic "Creative I/O" gigabit nics that have the VIA chips. Looks like about $15 each shipped. Also, looks like you can get the Intel ones for about $25 - probably a better card.
 

Netopia

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,793
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Originally posted by: Smackattack
I asked over on fw, maybe there are some aces here.

I got one of these switches about 6 months ago. One system i have 2 hard drives in raid 0, and i installed a dlink nic that supports jumbo frames. the other system has an onboard marvel (im not sure of the model, im not at home) but it does support jumbo frames and it has a sata raptor hard drive. I use good quality cables, but they are cat5e but that shouldnt be a problem.

Ive tested at framesize of 1500 and 9000 and 9014. Ive transferred 4 gig image files, and groups of files up to 20 gigs, and i dont see any difference in transfer times. Am i missing a setting or something to make this fly?


If yours is the only transfer going on and you are using big files, I doubt you'll see any big improvement... and I don't really know a lot about jumbo frames! You always get higher throughput with larger files than with lots of little ones to start with because of less overhead.

Joe

 

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
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Originally posted by: bzo
I've been looking into getting those generic "Creative I/O" gigabit nics that have the VIA chips. Looks like about $15 each shipped. Also, looks like you can get the Intel ones for about $25 - probably a better card.

Intel is the only way to go for 1000mbit cards. I have a gigabit network with a SMC switch and Intel cards and i've benchmarked at around 540mbit, and see real usage around 240mbit. :)
 

V00D00

Golden Member
May 25, 2003
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wouldn't mind this for network attached storage. I saw a linksys unit that accepts usb 2.0 hard drives. With a hot deal on one of those NAS units this would be super hot to couple with a cheap deal off ebay and a hot deal on a hard drive.