I have been monitoring 100GbE port switches on eBay for more than a year. Shopping on eBay is like surfing and trying to catch the big waves, looking for the right moments and being prepared. On eBay, sometimes it is possible to get a good price because data centers or companies start to replace their devices and will make them available for less. However, most of the time, eBay prices are higher than Amazon’s or a local shop’s. So, always keep an eye on prices to become familiar with what a good price is. Same as a surfer who knows how to read waves and what waves are worth chasing.
So, you have to wait for those waves. For instance, when I bought my switches, many data centers and companies were replacing their 100GbE switches with 200/400GbE switches or switches that have an Intel Atom CPU.
Usually, waves have a reason for happening. You have to learn them and be in the information loop. For example, companies and data centers usually replace their components every 4 to 6 years, or there is a new generation of equipment available that would drastically reduce costs by saving power and cooling or a design bug that could brick the equipment as the Atom CPU has.
The switch that I bought has an Intel Atom CPU. More about the bug:
Intel Atom C2000 processors family has a fault that effectively bricks devices. The device won’t boot, and the only option is to replace it. So, those are like ticking bombs in company networks because no one knows when the switch could be suddenly dead. The most affected Atom CPUs began shipping in 2013, and the SKUs are C2308, C2338, C2350, C2358, C2508, C2518, C2530, C2538, C2550, C2558, C2718, C2730, C2738, C2750, and C2758, but there could be more. The good news is that not all C2000 CPUs will fail, but companies can’t cable on that if something fails because of a CPU fault. It could cause a big financial loss if critical systems rely on that.
During the time I was looking for the switch, COVID-19 had no effect on prices.
When I am buying something, I think in the long term. I do not buy components for only 1 year. There is a common saying that IT equipment expires quickly, and new and better products are coming every year. Yes, new items come every year, but if you buy items with the future in mind, you can use them for many years without a problem. Companies always consider implementation costs, so wait when they have been tested many months. Have a vision in your mind of how your final home lab should look like and start buying step by step.
Based on my research and analysis of prices, I realized upgrading to 100GbE would not be much more expensive than upgrading to 10–40GbE. The 10–40GbE NIC prices are close to the 100GbE price range.
My server motherboards have several 10GbE RJ45 ports that I thought would be nice to use. But 10GbE RJ45 prices are insane. Besides 10GbE RJ45 equipment prices being high, the equipment produces a lot of heat and takes a lot of power. If you need a heater at home, then buy a 10GbE RJ45 switch.
SFP+ switches are cheaper, but SFP+ RJ45 transceiver prices are also insane. Just adding a few hundred euros more and I could get a 100GbE upgrade, which would max out my home lab ethernet speed.
My server motherboards and CPU are all PCIe 3.0 and, based on my research, it is the maximum speed I could get. Yes, there are some 200GbE NICs that are PCIe 3.0, but they need 2 x PCIe 3.0 x 16. Meaning all my PCIe 3.0 x 16 slots would be occupied, but I need one slot for my ASUS Hyper M.2 X 16 PCIe 3.0 X 4 Expansion Card V2 that supports 4 NVMe M.2.
Last year the Ubiquiti UniFi USW-Leaf Switch 100GbE was for sale on the EU Early-Access store. I was so happy to see that Ubiquiti planned to offer the 100GbE switch, but the happiness was short-lived. The switch completely disappeared from the Early-Access store and the website. Later, when I saw a review about the switch from serverthehome.com website (https://www.servethehome.com/ubiquiti-unifi-usw-leaf-overview-not-review-48x-25gbe-6x-100gbe-switch/), they did not manage to join the switch with the controller. But it is a common sales strategy for Ubiquiti. They sell hardware first, even if the software is not ready for the market. Even products that have been on the market for many years have many issues. I only recommend Ubiquiti for only home use or home lab use.
Yes, my first plan was to buy that Ubiquiti UniFi USW-Leaf Switch 100GbE, but for some reason, it completely disappeared.
Then there were Intel Omni Path NICs and Switches available for a low price, but googling and researching the Intel Omni Path revealed it is discontinued technology.
Below are examples of 100GbE switch prices. The 10–40GbE switch prices are the same or even higher, and 10–100 GbE NIC prices are very close to each other.
If you need a brand new 100GbE switch, FS has a lower price than anyone else on the market. Both are 2ndgeneration 100Gb QSFP28.
So, I ended up buying a Dell S4112T-ON because it has the exact number of ports my home lab needs, and I saw an excellent deal on eBay. A 3 x QSFP28 port to implement 4 x 10, 4 x 25, 2 x 50, 40, and 100GbE, and 12 x RJ-45 ports to implement 1GbE and 10GbE.
Yes, this has 12 x RJ-45 10GbEs, and I was very excited I could use my motherboard’s NICs, but being honest, seeing how much heat it will produce for little traffic, I don’t like it anymore. More heat means more power consumption as well.
Now you might be confused because I told you before that RJ-45 10GbE is the most expensive to buy, but I ended up with hybrid solution 100GbE QSFP28 and RJ-45 10GbE. Yes, I got what I thought was impossible, and it was perfect, but I didn’t feel that way when I was writing. I just needed to forget those RJ-45 10GbE ports on the motherboard. If I were to buy a new switch, I would go for only the 100GbE QSFP28. The plus side is that they have SFP+/ SFP28 (10/25GbE) ports. Consider that 100GbE QSFP28 is possible to split.
One big decision point is how much power the switch takes. Mine takes 40–55W, a range I consider very good. Based on Dell documents, the max power it can take is 120W, and I can have two different power source options. For Phase 2, I will write more about how to test and what it is like owning a 100GbE network for my home lab.