Which Switch?

[Diego Julian Remolina]

Hi everybody,

I was wondering  if you can give me hand deciding about which switches to buy.  I have two candidates right now.

1.  3com Superstack 3 25 Ports Switch. 24 ports are 10/100 and 1 Port is 1000 cooper.  I plan to get two of these so that I have more than 24 ports.
    PROS:  3Com is a well known company => I assume good quality.  3com specifications do not tell me anything about Bandwith (Poor 3com info even on their website about their products).  I can connect the two switches through the 1 GBIT port and have 48 10/100 ports for Nodes and Master Node. This is a cheap unmanaged switch $650.
    CONS:  No further expandability (We will not use more than the 48 ports for sure).

2.  Netgear FS518T 16 port Switch + 2 Gigabit ports. The plan is to get two of these also since I do not need more than 32 ports.
     PROS: I can have the master node with 1 Gigabit and also connect the two switches through the 1 GBit port uplink.  If I ever need I can add a new switch using the reamining 1Gigabit uplink to a third switch.
     CONS: I found a review that says this switch has lousy performance, I have never used Netgear before. 32 Ports total as opossed to 48 in 3com.

The two models use RJ45 Gigabit so the network cards are cheap and so the cables(Around $100 for Linksys, D-Link or Netgear and $150 to $185 for an Intel or 3com Gigabit card).  The total price of the investment is going to be under $1500 in either case (This is my budget constraint an the reason because I cannot get better 3com switches with expansion ports in the back for 2 Fiber Gigabit modules  : (  .

I could not find any reviews or info about 3com performance.  The review for the netgear I found is located at http://davidcoulson.net/writing/pcp/170/review-netgear.pdf

I definitely want to have at Least 2 Gigabit Ports either for connection between switches or 1 for the master node. I accept any suggestions and comments from your experience.

Thank you for your help.

Diego Remolina
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