Linksys Gigabit Switch EG008W

[josedawg]

Where do I begin? This was suppose to be Linksys new gigabit product (full gigabit meaning all 8 ports were 1000/100/10mbps, not that 1 port gigabit, and 8port 100/10mbps they offered before which was crap). After reading the review on Extreme Overclocking about it, I was all set on buying this new piece of hardware, although i had a few questions.

First: during the review, the guy said he tops out at 42MB/s, and as they didnt post the specs of the machine used, i was wondering if the slow speed was bottlenecked by the hard drive's speed.

Second: If the hard drive speed was not the culprit, would it be possible to get better performance using 2 direct linked computers, on cat6 cable with Intel's CSA technology.

Third: WHERE HAS THIS MODEL GONE!?! If you go to the Linksys website now, THEY NO LONGER HAVE IT!!! last week, the switch was there, now it isnt. its been replaced with, in my opinion, an uglier, netgear switch wannabe, gigabit switch (model #SD2008)which CANT stack with previous Linksys products. and also, at a heftier price. the EG008W was debut at $199 retail, this new model is debut at $279!!! what is Linksys trying to do here?

I'd like to see this new SD2008 pit against the now M.I.A. EG008W in performance, to see if it worth the $80 difference in price. I'd also like to know why did Linksys decide to mysteriously make this switch vanish, without a trace or a word.


Note: for those who cant find the link to EG008W at extreme overclocking its Linksys EG008W Gigabit 8-Port Workgroup Switch

 

[wlee]

I would guess that Cisco ( who is buying Linksys ) didn't like it's price point. "Too much value for the money " Can't allow such a cheap box to undercut "bigger" boxes profit margin.

 

[gaidin123]

I would have to agree with wlee. I've been looking at both of these switches since the EG008W was by far the cheapest gigabit switch out there. I've been wondering what the specs don't say about it and have been trying to figure out if there are any real differences between the new gigabit one and the EG008W.

Please post if you find out any useful info. I tried finding specs for the backplane bandwidths and other useful stuff but Linksys' site isn't as useful as it could be...

Gaidin

Edit: It's a little disturbing to me that I can't find any mention of the EG008W *anywhere* on Linksys' site. What do you do if you own one and want to download the users' manual or check on warranty support? Ah, it's still linked here in their press photos area Linky

 

[cmetz]

josedawg, a PC overclocking web site is unlikely to be competent at doing serious network testing. Bet they have neither an IXIA nor a SmartBits.

I have a Hawking 5-port 10/100/1000 mini switch that was $80 shipped, I believe the 8-port version is about $150ish shipped. Linksys is likely to be a bit more expensive because they're now a "brand name." The switch I have, I've tested with real test equipment, and it can move the bits no problem, full line rate on every port. I doubt an 8-port switch will have any trouble either. For a dedicated chip, switching 8Gb/s isn't a big deal anymore. All of these are probably based on one all-in-one chip out of the usual Taiwanese suspects (e.g., ADMTek).

So anyway, a SOHO gigabit switch should not be any bottleneck on bandwidth. It will increase a very slight latency, which with TCP will decrease performance, but all not by much. The main place you lose using a SOHO gigabit switch instead of a crossover cable is that I haven't yet found a SOHO gigabit switch that can handle jumbo frames (>1500 bytes), while most NICs can handle them - using jumbo frames does noticeably increase performance, and you won't be able to use those through a SOHO gigabit switch.

Step back for a moment and look at price to performance. A Netgear GA302T NIC is like $32, a 5-port Hawking switch is like $80. For that price, your network performance (not file transfer performance, but benchmark performance, e.g., netperf) should be able to push up to around 900Mb/s on a near top of the line PC (CSA, et al.). Or you can buy a high-end Cisco/Foundry/Extreme switch for $5000ish, and be able to push up to say 950Mb/s thanks to jumbo frames and better switch performance. These are rough rather than measured exact numbers, but you get the idea - for SOHO purposes, the delta performance just isn't worth the delta cost.

Remember also that in the real world you're going to be bottlenecked elsewhere, like the disk. I have IDE disks in my PC, and disk to disk copies peak at maybe 25MB/s == 200Mb/s. A real file transfer to another box is highly unlikely to push anywhere near a rate where a gigabit network is the bottleneck. Still, for a little bit of money, it's greater than 100Mb/s, roughly double the usable performance.

 

[josedawg]

yeah, i figured cisco would like to keep gigabit technology away from the mainstream for a bit. the good news is, CompUSA still has the 5port switch (i was waiting for the 8port to come out, but i guess that's out of the question now) although you can only buy it on their website and not in stores. the bad news is that the price seems to have taken a $15 hike in the past 3 days. i smell something brewing, and it doesnt smell good.

EG005W Linksys 5port Switch (discontinued, as far as i know)

 

[gaidin123]

Yeah, I have to say that I ordered the 8 port Linksys EG008W from googlegear (I think) after looking around a bit more. It's about $165 on their site. I wanted an 8 port over a 5 and can just uplink my 10/100 switch if I need more ports.

As long as the Linksys can give me greater throughput than I can use today, I'll be happy tomorrow.

Gaidin

 

[cmetz]

josedawg, cisco doesn't make money if you stick with what you've got. Pushing upgrades to gigabit is in their best interests. I strongly doubt there's an elaborate conspiracy to prevent you from getting cheap gigabit - I'm sure they'd rather take money from you than not. Now, would cisco raise the price $15 if they thought they could get it out of you? Absolutely! They're in this to make money, you know...

 

[jonny13]

Here is a link for the lazy to the switch at Googlegear.com. I was also looking at this switch, but I guess by the time I get money for it, it will be gone and the expensive replacement will be in its place.

Jonny

 

[Byte]

I just got the older linksys gigE 5 port switch from amazon. Its pretty fast but the 40mm fan in it is super loud. i hear it over the 2 comps totaling 25 fans in them. So i drilled a big ass hole, put a heatsink on the main chip, stuck a super quiet panaflow, and now its practically silent. I wonder if the new ones have small loud fans in them.

 

[josedawg]

mind doing some benchmarks Byte? maybe answer few of my questions and anyone elses. would be much appreciated

 

[UThomas]

Check Linksys's site again, its there.

 

[Byte]

I'm actully planning to do some benchmarks using Cat5, Cat5e, and Cat6 to see if it would make a difference for me. Unfortunatly i'm will only be using 2 Asus P4P800 which doesn't have CSA and a cheap realtek gigE card. But i don't think i'll ever go near CSAs speeds even with the 15K SCSIs i have. So i'll prob unload data from the RAM.

BTW what do you recommend i use for benchmarking?