Why No 10GbE For Home Users?

[static418]

Just note that much of that gear is high power use, and not really meant for the casual home user...

Of course. I just don't have an AMEX black card to put lots of expensive new SAN gear on. I get excited when I can pick up the equipment I used to install in data centers for pennies on the dollar. Plus, my area is both currently rolling AT&T Gigapower and slated for Google Fiber next year. I already move data around my network fast enough that I can't transfer a big file and browse the web at the same time on a simple gigabit link. If the WAN alone will come close to saturating any machine in my house then it's time to move up.
Don't even get me started on how crazy it is that you can get a barely EOL'd blade with 24 threads and 128 gigs of RAM for like 6-700 bucks depending on storage configuration. Hardware is outpacing software so handily that even ~5 year old dusty corporate upgrade cycle fodder is a revolution in home computing if you know how to use it. What a time to not be a "casual home user"

 

[sfx2000]

For those who are interested in what kind of deals are on eBay, here's the link

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Enterprise-Networking-Servers-/175698/i.html

 

[L&LD]

For those who are interested in what kind of deals are on eBay, here's the link

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Enterprise-Networking-Servers-/175698/i.html

eewbay? I'd rather throw money away.

 

[LoneWolf]

eewbay? I'd rather throw money away.

Totally depends on what gear you're buying.

My Cisco SG300-10MPP PoE switch is from there; it was a backup unit for someone. My Netgear GS110TP PoE switch was too; it was a demo unit. Both came in box with all the accessories, and are great performers on my network. I saved a significant amount of money over the new products, because I knew what the gear was, what I was willing to pay, and looked at the seller reputations.

 

[sfx2000]

I think as long as one does due diligence, should be fine - just note that there is gear up on eBay that might have some very low BIN prices, those are ones you might want to avoid - esp. with Cisco gear, as much of the cheap stuff is EOL/EOS, as such, a pretty poor value unless one is looking for a direct replacement.

Also check power - many telco data centers are DC powered, rather than AC (old Bellcore reqt), so make sure that model numbers are appropriate, and that you're getting the right stuff...

 

[LoneWolf]

Good points. Also remember one other thing about Cisco gear.

The Small Business (so in the case of switches, the SG line) does not require a support contract to obtain firmware updates, so for these devices, support is reasonable in a home or small-medium business environment.

Enterprise Cisco gear requires support contracts. This means having to either purchase expensive contracts or find firmware from questionable sources that could expose a network to real security risk. It's also designed for rackmount environments and data centers, meaning it will likely be louder, and possibly have higher power consumption.

Buying from eBay is all about knowing your product, and evaluating your sellers. For those that do due diligence, this means saving money. For those that find that difficult, buying new product will cost you more, but may be your better choice.

 

[KenZ71]

Amazon Warehouse Deals can be pretty good too

 

[System Error Message]

not much in those deals in the UK as they would be way more expensive. Imagine if you would buy those things new they would also be expensive.

The prices just havent drop yet. The price of a 100/10Mb/s new card now and 10 years ago remain close, same with gigabit. The prices didnt drop like any kind of economic rules stated regarding the price of something. Its the same with anything even used cars. The value of a particular car used in good condition can be found online all precalculated by people who do numbers but you wont find anyone selling such for near that price. So the problem is that what the economist calculate to what actually happens are very different and it really is up to everyone how they wish to redefine their prices but it requires everyone to do it from the supply of raw materials all the way to the end user including the cost of living which affects wages through all stages.

For example the prices of routers are still constant and not dropping for the same model and some have estimated that some of them are just way overpriced. Even some retail stores overprice and they often do it in groups. Often the only way to bring the price down is if people even the rich start saying no to overpriced stuff.

Some fun things regarding prices, the price of a CCR1072 isnt far off from an 8 port 10Gb/s switch but it could be cheaper than an 8port SFP+ switch (all managed). So if you are going for full 10Gb/s you may have to consider unconventional things. Even cabling is important because many cables just dont pass their category (i remember this being discussed here before).

So just like routers and GPUs, when 10Gb/s networking comes to the masses it will be more expensive than when 1Gbs came to the masses.

 

[usao]

I see it's been a while since this discussion had any activity.
I was looking on eBay (I know some folks don't like that), but at any rate:
Intel X540-T2 10G Dual RJ45 Ports for < $150, or less than $75 per port.
I believe there is some openswitch software floating around, and I was wondering about the feasability of building a small HP/Dell class server with 4 of these X540 cards to get 8x 10GBE ports of RJ-45. I heardthat RJ-45 as a 5-meter limit or something like that, but that's find for home use.
I would really like to get an iSCSI SAN going using multiple Raid-6 arrays to boost speed.
I have a setup at work using commercial gear, and can get over 5 GByte/sec throughput between flash array and small server.
For home use, I would like to see something around 1GByte/sec. I figured if I can put together 4 small NAS arrays using iSCSI on a 10GBe switch, I might be able to get around that throughput using 2 ports for the host (20GB/sec bonded).
Thoughts/suggestions?
Has anyone tried building one of these "openswitch" configurations?

 

[sfx2000]

I see it's been a while since this discussion had any activity.
I was looking on eBay (I know some folks don't like that), but at any rate:
Intel X540-T2 10G Dual RJ45 Ports for < $150, or less than $75 per port.
I believe there is some openswitch software floating around, and I was wondering about the feasability of building a small HP/Dell class server with 4 of these X540 cards to get 8x 10GBE ports of RJ-45. I heardthat RJ-45 as a 5-meter limit or something like that, but that's find for home use.

Hmmm... linux could do this pretty easily (back in the day, we would bond ports together for capacity/redundancy with RHEL without too much trouble).

 

[sfx2000]

Getting closer...

prices on ports are coming down - $80USD/port for unmanaged switches is realistic...

And the PC mainboard sector is jumping in - 10Gb on the mainboard at a decent pricepoint...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10501/consumer-10gbase-t-options-motherboards-with-10g-builtin

 

[L&LD]

sfx2000, I read that article this morning. Can't say I'd be happy spending $80 per port though. And the motherboard options are not in the affordable for most people sphere either.

This thread was created three years ago, this is slow progress at it's finest.

 

[sfx2000]

prices are coming down quick - as recently as Jan 2016, we were looking at $100+ per port...

 

[L&LD]

sfx2000, good point.

But at that rate, we'll have just as many moons until we can get to a $10 TP-Link 5 port hub's $1/port price.

It'll happen. But it can't happen soon enough.

 

[sfx2000]

Give it some time - we're seeing 10GB ports on the enthusiast boards, and the prices are coming down on switches...

I'm thinking 2017, when Dell/HP/Lenevo start including 10GB onboard their corp PC's that the price/port ratios will be much more favorable...

 

[thiggins]

My money is still on 2.5 or 5GbE for the next step up in consumer gear. Although it may be moot, given that an increasingly large % of home networks have little to no wired clients.

And before you rebut me, realize you guys do NOT have typical home networks.

 

[L&LD]

My money is still on 2.5 or 5GbE for the next step up in consumer gear. Although it may be moot, given that an increasingly large % of home networks have little to no wired clients.

And before you rebut me, realize you guys do NOT have typical home networks.

(last sentence).

On behalf of most of my past customers, which thought until they allowed (me) to upgrade them to 1GbE switched speeds, that 10/100 class was 'more than good enough', I don't see any draw for 2.5GbE or 5GbE products for consumer gear (at least not from the targeted customers). Particularly when those speeds are still below what an fully spec'd out AC Wave2 router would require (today).

Even if manufacturers release routers with those port spec's, they will languish on store shelves (because I, for one won't recommend them).

The real jump is at 10GbE. Myself and everyone I know will wait until we can get there ('when' will depend if we could do it within our budget limits).

 

[thiggins]

Even if manufacturers release routers with those port spec's, they will languish on store shelves (because I, for one won't recommend them).

So you have that much influence on the home networking market, huh?

 

[L&LD]

So you have that much influence on the home networking market, huh?

Yes. (A vote of 'one').

 

[sfx2000]

My money is still on 2.5 or 5GbE for the next step up in consumer gear. Although it may be moot, given that an increasingly large % of home networks have little to no wired clients.

And before you rebut me, realize you guys do NOT have typical home networks.

I think we'll see a mix, and the major stuff won't be driven from the home networks, but from enterprise, once the NIC prices some down - e.g. onboard vs. an add-in card for special cases.

Switch port prices need to come down - even if we go down the path of 2.5/5 Gigabit, someone has to pay for those ports - and 10G has a bit of an advantage here, as it's already in place...

I don't think folks "need" 10G, as gigabit fits most use cases, esp. now that many home networks are more wireless focused..

And yes, my home network is not typical of most home networks (heck, I'm over built for most small enterprise networks) - and internally, my primary router is already doing 2.5G across the interfaces internally, and for what it's worth, many AC1900+ class router/AP's are also doing this, they just don't expose it to the switched ports (or the direct WAN port - the LAN port on the SoC for many is actually higher speed, but that's implementation dependent, and I cannot say who is already doing this (NDA))

WRT 10 gigabit - for the moment - and I'm focused on two areas - latency and capacity - and faster link speeds solve the latency problem, and capacity follows close behind as the switches and the routers now have more time to move packets around...