3Com OfficeConnect vs HP ProCurve switch

ArcticFox · October 1st, 2004, 08:46 PM

Which one is better, bear in mind I do a lot of bulk (700MB+ transfers):

Refurb HP ProCurve:
http://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/t...DKLt&mv_pc=308

Or new 3Com OfficeConnect:
http://www.monarchtechnology.com/item.aspx?sku=128791IM

Price is no issue, they are the same almost and I'm ready to buy ASAP.

Sixpac_XP · October 1st, 2004, 09:26 PM

Either or.... nothing to exciting about either of those switches but will do fine if you have only a handfull of clients on the switch.

If price is no object get a layer 2 switch like a Cisco 2950 (cost more though)...

Personaly.. I would stay away from switches that have been refurb'd. Who knows what the problem was in the first place. Buy a new one out of the box with at least a year warrenty.

John Prophet · October 1st, 2004, 09:27 PM

they look pretty much identical

usually a switch is a switch is a switch etc

neither of them are "managed" switches...so they are probably going to work almost identically

ArcticFox · October 2nd, 2004, 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sixpac_XP

Either or.... nothing to exciting about either of those switches but will do fine if you have only a handfull of clients on the switch.

If price is no object get a layer 2 switch like a Cisco 2950 (cost more though)...

Personaly.. I would stay away from switches that have been refurb'd. Who knows what the problem was in the first place. Buy a new one out of the box with at least a year warrenty.

That was my original concern with the HP. Looks like I'll go with the 3Com then.

mazdarx7-64 · October 5th, 2004, 11:24 PM

I have done work with several different porcurve switches, all managed switches though, and love them. They are great and easy to setup. I would worry about the refurb though, if they were both new i'd go with the procurve. IMO.

ArcticFox · October 6th, 2004, 01:13 PM

Well at any rate, the 3Com is on it's way here already along with a crossover adaptor, I hope it will last and perform well.

This is the dongle I ordered also:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/s...sp?T1=120+6138

Siliconjunkie · October 6th, 2004, 01:24 PM

Betcha $5 that a $15 linksys from walmart would serve you just as well. Unless you just have money burning a hole in your poket.....

700meg is not a particularly large transfer, and the switch really doesnt care.

The big thing that you get when you pay for in L2 switches is wirespeed backplanes, meaning that you can move data at a full 100Mb from all ports at the same time. A cheap 4 port switch may only be able to do 150Mb total at one time instead of 200Mb. So, unless you have many clients on one switch that are going to be near 100% utilization regularly and at the same time as others, there will be no net gain.

ArcticFox · October 6th, 2004, 02:02 PM

Well I won't buy a Linksys for one thing, and two....

One of the main reasons I got it was for LAN potties. Usually when we get together there is the usual cool-file-swapping routine where everyone is throwing around cool stuff (patches, vidz, etc), and with the 200mbps total per-port on the 3Com versus the setup like you mentioned above, I figured it should help. No saying how much the 802.11p scheduling will improve performance since usually when I'm streaming something there isn't much going on in the background.

It's just nice to have the extra headroom in case we needed it. Oh, and there's the whole thing where it's got 8 ports versus the 4 on my router, and 5 on my switch (not sure of the status on that one, it was acting up a bit). I'm also building another PC with a Celeron 1.7 (no laughing) so that would need to go somewhere.

Siliconjunkie · October 9th, 2004, 12:07 AM

Quote:

200mbps total per-port on the 3Com versus the setup like you mentioned above

Both are 100mb full duplex. No magic in the 3Com.

Quote:

No saying how much the 802.11p scheduling will improve performance since usually when I'm streaming something there isn't much going on in the background.

ArcticFox · October 10th, 2004, 01:41 AM

OK well...update. The switch is here and has since replaced my router which was acting up a lot. (crashing the connection mainly, a lot), so I ordered a D-Link DI-604 router.

Um, thank you for all the help....? It works wonderfully, no crashes or anything, and the construction/packaging inspires confidence.

Was it overkill? Maybe, but some people ask me why I don't have problems with my equipment versus theirs. It's because I go for quality, even if it's expensive. I need something that will last, and that was one of my first concerns, NOT speed.