Looking for a 2*10Gbe + n*1Gbe Switch

[Scheimong]

I work for a small design firm with around 10 people. Recently we have reached a capacity large enough to warrant buying a dedicated file server for organisation purposes, so we are looking to buy a file server along with a network overhaul. Therefore I'm aiming to buy a network switch with 2x10Gbe ports and plenty of 1Gbe ports. For the two 10Gbe ports I would strongly prefer copper to fibre.

 

Some searching around brought me to Netgear GS110EMX - a switch with 2x10Gbe (electrical) + 8x1Gbe. Problem is we already have 10 desktop computers and will probably further expand in the future. So ideally I would like a switch with 2x10Gbe and 16x1Gbe ports. That would perfectly fit my needs for now, but I am struggling to find a switch that offers that. So I'm coming here to see what recommendations people have.

 

Budget-wise, anything under 1K USD is acceptable, but obviously lower is better. I do not want to compromise too much on quality and brandname though.

[FloRolf]

For 1k you can get a Netgear XS716 which is 16 port and all are 10g.

Otherwise just daisy-chain two of the 10port switches? 

[brwainer]

How about the Mikrotik CRS326-24G-2S+RM, https://mikrotik.com/product/CRS326-24G-2SplusRM ($200 MSRP, 24 gugabit ports, 2 SFP+) and to convert the SFP+ to copper ports, use two of the S+RJ10 https://mikrotik.com/product/SplusRJ10r2 ($65 MSRP)

 

If you just want a dumb switch, then you can use this as-is with no changes needing to be made. However this is capable of pretty much every normal “managed switch” feature (note that while you can set up routing on this, this is NOT a “layer 3” switch, so anything other than plain switching has to use the CPU which is very slow).

 

Mikrotik has a learning curve if you want to do anything other than have a dumb switch, but the value can’t be beaten.

[Windows7ge]

I can recommend something like the EdgeSwitch 48 Lite. It comes with a WebUI for all your network management. You can find it cheaper at other retailers. Unfortunately the cost goes up fast with copper 10Gbit Ethernet. SFP+ is cheaper but you can convert it to copper with transceivers like these or these.

[dalekphalm]

What kind of design does your firm do? The reason I ask is whether or not 10Gig is even required - I assume you want a 10Gig backbone between the File Server and the core switch?

 

You could also look at stacking switches - they'll be able to be configured with 10GigE, and you can use the stacking cable to attach multiple switches together - most Stacking switches have internal bandwidth of 40 or 80 Gbps. Lots also support "virtual stacking" - which you basically just chain them up with multiple ethernet ports and it aggregates the bandwidth between switches.

 

But there are plenty of 16+ port Gig switches that have (or can add) 10GigE ports on them.

[Michael Ducharme]

I second @brwainer's recommendation. Another option if you want PoE to power IP phones etc. is the CRS328: https://mikrotik.com/product/crs328_24p_4s_rm