Non-blocking switches: Worth the extra cost?

[DonIsHere]

Is a non-blocking switch a lot better than a switch without non-blocking?

The Netgear FS750T 48-port switch without non-blocking is $478 at CDW.

BUT, the Netgear FSM750S 48-port switch WITH non-blocking is $848 at CDW.

Is the added cost of a non-blocking switch worth it in my office of 30 computers and 2 servers?

 

[Goosemaster]

nah.

Unless you have quite a few hubs and switches (with many clients) behind this, non-blocking should be overkill. It signifies that it can handle every port at full speed simultaneously...=$$$

Basically, unless you are going to be sending 4.8GBps over the directly connected ethernet clients and the full 2Gbps on the uplink ports, don't waste your money.

 

[cmetz]

DonIsHere, you don't need fully non-blocking for your environment.

Both Netgear data sheets have a faint smell of marketing BS, but if the cheaper switch's data sheet is to be believed, it has exactly as much switching bandwidth as it should need to handle full bandwidth on every port. In practice, you need a tad more bandwidth in your backplane for various reasons to be fully non-blocking, but this is not the 2:1 kind of factor that is a more serious design consideration for enterprise environments.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: cmetz
DonIsHere, you don't need fully non-blocking for your environment.

Both Netgear data sheets have a faint smell of marketing BS, but if the cheaper switch's data sheet is to be believed, it has exactly as much switching bandwidth as it should need to handle full bandwidth on every port. In practice, you need a tad more bandwidth in your backplane for various reasons to be fully non-blocking, but this is not the 2:1 kind of factor that is a more serious design consideration for enterprise environments.

How close to the core is non-blocking offered?