Buffalo Releases LXW-10G2/2G4 Switch: Two 10 GbE + Four 2.5 GbE Ports
by Anton Shilov on November 13, 2019 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Networking
- 10G Ethernet
- Buffalo
- Switch
- Ethernet
- 2.5 GbE
One of the big reasons for why faster-than-GbE networks have not gained traction in the consumer space is due to a lack of appropriate network switches. 10 GbE switches are generally aimed at businesses, and they are priced accordingly. Fortunately, the situation is beginning to change. Buffalo Japan has introduced its new six-port switch featuring two 10 GbE ports and four 2.5 GbE ports that is designed for home use.
Buffalo’s LXW-10G2/2G4 Giga Switch is aimed at homes with a high-speed optical Internet connectivity as well as multiple computers or NAS with 2.5 GbE or 10 GbE network adapters and/or Gigabit-class Wi-Fi. The switch can automatically prioritize 10 GbE connectivity and also supports loop detection to optimize a network’s configuration and performance. Besides the switch, Buffalo also offers its WXR-5950AX12 10G Wi-Fi router as well as LUA-U3-A2G 2.5 GbE USB adapter for PCs.
Buffalo’s LXW-10G2/2G4 switch will be available starting from mid-December exclusively in Japan, but nothing stops the company to start sales of the product elsewhere. The price of the switch will be approximately ¥34,000 including taxes ($312 with VAT, $283 w/o VAT), which is quite expensive even by Japanese standards. Though at least for the time being, it's a rather unique offering in the consumer switch space; similar switches with a mix of ports have generally combined 10 GbE with pure GbE, so the use of 2.5 GbE ports makes for an interesting development.
Related Reading:
- Realtek 2.5 GbE PCIe Cards Now For Sale
- Intel Quietly Mentions 2.5 GbE Ethernet Controllers
- Netgear Expands Insight-Supported Network Switch Lineup
- GIGABYTE’s GC-AQC107 10G Ethernet PCIe Card Launched and Listed
- Aquantia Multi-Gig: Single Chip USB 3.0 to 5G/2.5G Dongles Coming Soon
- ASUS Launches XG-C100C 10 GBase-T Adapter: Aquantia AQC107, $99
Source: Buffalo Japan (via PC Watch, Hermitage Akihabara)
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abufrejoval - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
I have paid €1000 per NIC and per switch port for 10Gbit some years ago and €500 for 100Gbit on the corporate side of things early last year, so with €50 per port, most 2.5 and 5Gbit NICs are rather similar and the 10Gbit Aquantia still more expensive.Gbit Ethernet is ridiculously cheap these days, yet again I remember paying three digits for 10 and 100Mbit *hubs*: It's obviously a matter of perspective and impatience.
Please note, that I am recommending the NetGear XS508M which is only 8 ports and near silent without any hacking, not the Buffalo 12port I got first (I guess I should have kept the anecdote shorter).
Valantar - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
To translate: your perspective stems from a realm entirely unrelated to the needs and resources of >99% of most consumers. I understand that the current cheapness of GbE is due to its age, but that's hardly an argument for a >10x price delta. The XS508M is still 4000NOK (~400 €, including 25% VAT), which is at least twice what an 8-port unmanaged switch ought to cost. Of course it's also a full 8x10Gbps, which is on the high end of usefulness - cut that down to 4x 10GbE + 4x 2.5GbE and you'd have an equally useful switch that would hopefully cost half or less. Still, it's past time these nGbE switches start coming down in price. Adoption will never happen unless switches are relatively affordable, and with current storage media and the proliferation of networked storage the use cases for these are plentiful.p1esk - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
How fast are the latest wireless routers? I mean what is the fastest speed you can get from one laptop to another in the same room, assuming both have fast ssds, and doing a large sequential file transfer?khanikun - Monday, November 18, 2019 - link
Garbage usually. 5 ghz routers usually make claims of hitting like 2.1 gbps and such, but obviously that's some crazy fake lab crap. Not the real world. None of them can hit 1 gbps. I think most live in the 500-750 mbps range.You can easily max out the speeds, even if you could reach their magical 2.1 gbps speed.
Kougar - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
Crazy price. The MS510TX has been available at $210 for half of the year. One copper + fiber 10G, dual 5G, dual 2.5G, and quad gigabit for a total of 10 ports.yetanotherhuman - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
This is WAY too expensive. It's not even close to being a unique or interesting switch. I keep going on about it, but there's a better product that's been on the market for a long time: Netgear MS510TX - 2x 10Gb (one copper, one SFP), 2x 5Gb, 2x 2.5Gb and 4x 1Gb. The ONLY downside is that it isn't fanless :( But it's only $269 on Amazon.com right now...It's still the best I've found. A fanless model with beefy heatsinks inside and maybe another 10Gb copper port would be basically perfect.
Foeketijn - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
That's about the same price as the Buffalo BS-MP2008 Which has 8x 10Gb. Why bother with 2,5Gb.Valantar - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
This looks fantastic, just reduce the price by 50-66% and we'd be good.dontlistentome - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Copper 10G sucks power. For 99.99% of homes, and 99% of 'enthusiast' homes 2.5G is plenty and with the new adapters coming along (Intel, Realtek and others) can be done close to the power budget of gigabit.Unless you're throwing hundreds of gigs between all SSD NAS boxes, 2.5G will max out spinning rust (300+MB/s) - and if you do have all SSD NAS boxes, SFP+ based 10G is a far better idea. Miktotek will sell you fanless 4 and 8 port 10G switches for not much over £100/£200 respectively.
James5mith - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
MicroTik has a 12 port 10Gbase-T switch for $500. 8 ports multi-GbE (1/2.5/5/10), 4 ports 10GbE (1/10).Better deal by far.