The affordability of 2.5Gbe as an alternative to traditional gigabit ethernet LAN is getting better than it was at launch commercial in 2019. When hardware started embracing 2.5Gbe connections, it was priced at an arguably fair 2.5x times that of a normal 1Gb connection. However, it soon became apparent that due to demand in network use alongside data growing more rapidly in both home and business, that 1Gbe was fast becoming unsuitable for most businesses. Therefore in more recent times, the cost of 2.5Gbe has begun to arrive at simply the same as or just a pinch above that of accepted 1Gbe hardware. In fact, many hardware manufacturers consider 1Gbe dead in the water and have embraced 2.5Gbe connections as standard at no additional increase (in the NAS community, the heavy hitters on this are QNAP and Asustor).

TL-SG105-M2 | 5-Port 2.5G Desktop Switch - TP-Link

my need for faster than gigabit transfers is not a need but a helpful curiosity. the video editing server is just running media encoder with a watch folder so when i finish a premiere project i save it there and it renders and exports it without clogging up time on my main rig. faster than gigabit networking would basically only help if i had to transfer large files to one system or another. ENERGY EFFICIENT: Designed to optimize power usage lowering its cost to operate. Most models are compliant with IEEE802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet mode. The cheapest 2.5GbE switch with link aggregation and 10GbE support is Netgear MS510TXPP with POE (Available in UK and USA ) . NetGear 1GbE+10GbE Smart Managed Pro Switch MS510TXPP-100EUS 9-Port RJ45 (4x 1G, 2x 2.5G, 2x 5G, 1x 10G) , 1x Shared SFP+, 8x PoE+ (138W) When it comes to seeing the true value of an upgraded network environment, then a NAS that features greater than gigabit connectivity is a great way to show this. Whether you are feeding this NAS into a 2.5Gbe/10Gbe network switch shared environment, or directly interfacing (i.e network connection PC-to-NAS), greater than 1Gbe speeds will be abundantly clear. There are quite a large number of 2.5Gbe NAS systems available in the server market right now, but I have narrowed it down to three below based on how you want to interact with your data:The first consideration must be how many ports you need. This will be dictated by the number of devices you want to connect. You can buy switches with as few as four or eight ports, and these smaller devices are ideal for the smallest businesses or for a home office. It was easy to set up; the 2.5GbE NICs were automatically detected and installed without any issues, and the NICs, switch, and cables just plugged in. It was fast; I achieved 2.37 Gbps transfer rate. But was it cheap? Once again, very much an ‘optional extra’, upgrading the router/modem in your network towards 2.5Gbe will only really be beneficial if your internet service is greater than 1Gbps. Never the less, there are some great 2.5Gbe, 5Gbe and 10Gbe routers out there, some of which even include WiFi 6 too. Here are the best 2.5Gbe routers right now in 2021: So, yes, 10GbE will most certainly provide you with more bandwidth to play with, but it will cost you more – both for the switch, but also to upgrade each of the client devices on the network .This can slightly mitigated in a few ways (opting for 10GBASE-T and reusing some hardware, gradually upgrading the key clients, choosing comb style switches that featured mixed ports, etc) but 2.5GbE is a more affordable alternative that allows you to upgrade some systems enough for them to saturate 250MB/s bandwidth and not overspend on 10GbE for systems/networks that were never going to take advantage of the 1,000MB/s on offer.

TP-Link Unmanaged 8-Port 2.5G Multi-Gigabit Desktop Switch

Pros – 10G + 2.5G arriving at the same/cheaper price than many 2.5G-only switches right now. Unique and Attractive Design. Unmanaged BUT the Turbo Mode adds Priority of Sevice features. Fanless + Ridged Metal design assists heat dissipation. LED and lighting are quite cool looking arrives in both Copper and Fibre, which is useful for diverse setups, but leads to a coin toss of more expensive 10G Copper base hardware vs 10G Fibre cables/transceiver high price point and complexity. 2.5GbE uses all the same hardware in place as traditional 1GbE and allows for improved sustainability and less waste Link aggregation will combine 2 or more Ethernet ports into a one logical link between two network devices like computers or NAS. This will mean doubled or quadrupled bandwidth to use for super fast data transfer. What we care about is which switch is smart enough to be able to manage link aggregation and also which one is the cheapest. Link aggregation or NIC Teaming is also called by other names like:

ADVANCED CONFIGURATION & CONTROL: Management software with easy-to-use GUI interface offers refined control for secure setup, access, and SNMP (NMS 300) management. On many switches, every port runs at the same speed. But there are a growing number of devices that offer multiple speeds on different ports. If you are only connecting a small set of devices, you will only need one speed – and it’s quite commonplace now to get 1 Gigabit speeds (1000 Mbps) even on small switches.