Final Thoughts and Pricing
Pricing
The Buffalo BS-MP2008 8-Port Multi-Gigabit Ethernet Switch (link) can be yours for £443.98 or $505.64 through Amazon. The bigger 12-Port model has a price of £685.90 and $752.24 at the time of this review.
Conclusion
It was a pleasure testing Buffalo’s BS-MP2008 switch today. It was the first Buffalo product which I officially got to review, and at the same time, it isn’t your everyday product. Yes, switches aren’t new, and neither are 10 Gbps switches, but getting one at an affordable price, that’s new.
The BS-MP2008 is built in a metal chassis and doesn’t feature a lot of design aspects. It isn’t 19″ sized, but it comes with brackets for setup in such racks. It can also be placed on the desktop or be wall mounted. With green-ethernet functions, it should also be economical. Although I’m sure that quite a few will want to run it at full performance at all times.
One thing everyone is wondering about is the noise output. It isn’t as loud and annoying as my server room-type switches, but it isn’t silent either. It reminds more of a mechanical drive working hard in an open chassis than a vacuum cleaner or turbine. So, if you plan to run it in an area where noise can be an issue, you might want to replace the fans with something better. However, modding is as always at your own risk. So, keep that in mind.
Features and Performance
There aren’t as many features available as some other more expensive switches, but that’s okay. The vital features are all covered and included. That includes IGMP, QoS, port trunking, and VLAN setup. Fewer features also mean less to learn and easier management by novice users. Most SOHO and SMB setups will easily be satisfied with what the BS-MP2008 has to offer.
The performance is barely different from other switches I’ve tested. In fact, I’ve rerun all tests on all compared switches at the same time – just to verify earlier results. The difference between the various switches is negligible which means that you can focus on features and price instead.
Pros
- Affordable 10GbE for everyone! Low asking price
- Eight 10Gbps capable ports
- VLAN, Link Aggregation, and QoS features
- Traffic Management and IGMP Snooping
- Versatile placement
Cons
- Noise level too high for close-proximity placement
“Buffalo makes 10GbE switching affordable for everyone. The BS-MP2008 offers solid performance and vital features for just £55 per port.”
Thank You, Buffalo, for providing us with this review sample
“These kind of fans aren’t silent, but they aren’t as loud as other’s I’ve heard. Still, it might be worth upgrading them with something like Noctua’s NF-A4x20.”
I can tell you for a FACT that the Noctuas do NOT work in this switch, so don’t waste $30 on a pair of them. After the switch is up and running, it drops the fan header voltage back to only 7v (down from 12v during start-up), and the Noctuas won’t even try to spin at that voltage. Just for fun, I tried out some 80mm fans after modifying the 3 pin header to work in the BS-MP2008. Turns out that if the fan isn’t spinning fast enough, the DIAG light on the front of the switch flashes all the time. So picking an aftermarket replacement isn’t as easy as the author of this article makes it out to be.
Regarding the original fans, the BS-MP2008 uses a pair of Deltas that are horribly out of balance, which gives them a weird sound when running, even at the lower speed caused by running them at 7v. If you fire one up loose in your hand, it literally bounces around, that’s how bad they are. I’m sure there is a quiet, smooth running Sunon MagLev fan out there that will work in this unit, but it’s proving elusive to find.
Nice article. It would be nice to know what “silent” fans do work well.
You can off-course also replace the fan with a higher quality, less noise one, using another 12-volt connection. It should be fairly straightforward, if you like modding stuff.
I also replaced the fans in my noisy Ubiquity 48-PoE switch with the Noctuas. But fortunately you can use the existing 12v connections in the Ubiquity, no modding required.