NETGEAR Nighthawk Pro Gaming SX10 Switch Review

Test Systems, Software, & Methodology

Testing the performance of a switch is a relatively easy task. We connect two systems to the switch and send data from one system to another to measure the performance. Our test benches run with 10GbE network cards which makes sure that we’re able to fully test products without bottlenecks.

I will be using PassMark’s PerformanceTest 8.0 and its built-in network test. With this, I can easily specify the transfer protocol, packet sizes, and duration of the test. The results are returned with minimum, average, and maximum values. I will test both TCP and UDP connections with it as well as fixed and variable packet sizes.

Client-side Hardware

• Supermicro C7Z97-OCE
• Intel Xeon E3-1230Lv3
• Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1866MHz DDR3
• Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSD
• Sapphire R7 240 2GB
• be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W
• Noctua NH-D15S
• ASUS XG-C100C 10GBase NIC Adapter

Server-side Hardware

• Supermicro C7Z270-PG
• Intel Core i7-7700K Processor
• Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz (4x8GB)
• Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSD
• be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 (1200W)
• Noctua NH-D15S
• D-Link DXE-820T Dual Port 10GBase NIC Adapter

Software

• PassMark PerformanceTest 8: Advanced Network Test