I currently have a 24port gig with no ability to upgrade or , and I am finding I am out of space.
In my home rack I have a mix and match of stuff that will run 10g and 2.5g and SFP. (NAS + Servers + gaming Desktop/Workstation) I do A LOT of Data for my projects, and would like to get all the faster things moving at these speeds.
Maybe running all the fast stuff on a small fast switch might be okay, and just run everything off the current switch?
How about
Moving down the price ladder…
16x 10G SFP+ $500
8x 10G RJ45 unmanaged $359
Say when 
It depends on budget and where you are keeping the switch…
Quiet 10baset solutions are rare, and you want 10baset in order not to get yourself in trouble when needing a transceiver that can link at 2.5 or 5gbit
The FS S5860-24XB-U has 24c 10basent ports, 4xsfp+ and 2x25gbps and has a 700w Poe budget, but costs 3k usD…
The crs312 is the best price/performance if you don’t need more than 12 ports
The QSW-M1204-4C has similar features probably somewhat quieter than the mikrotik
If you can stand buying used, a brocade 6610 will give you 24-48 gbit ports, 8 10gbit and 2x40gbit for 200usd, but will draw 100w and sound like a jet engine… The 7250 will cost double, draw 50 watts and be quieter…, You will need to find a transceiver that can link at 2.5gbit though…
It really depends from power, budget, noise and how many transceivers you would end up needing…
Id go with the Mikrotik CRS312-4C+8XG-RM linked earlier if you need 8 or less multigig ports:
(using quote box to get rid of the huge wall of link pictures this forum auto inserts when a link is posted)
MikroTik Routers and Wireless - Products: CRS312-4C+8XG-RM
I like the fact that one has the 2.5/5g capability as well as 10g on most of the RJ45 ports, and has the ability to use 10g SFP+ on 4 ports as well so you get that capability too for some servers. The price is good too.Another option would be this if you need 24 ports of 2.5/5/10g RJ45s:
Switch EnterpriseXG 24 - Ubiquiti StoreOr 24 ports of only SFP+ but where you can add RJ45 trainsceivers if you dont mind another few hundred dollars in cost for changing a few ports to that:
Switch Hi-Capacity Aggregation - Ubiquiti StoreOr this if you only need a few ports:
Switch Aggregation - Ubiquiti Store
select 10g + 100m:
10 Gbps SFP+ Direct Attach Cable - Ubiquiti StoreLastly, throwing this out there simply because the price is actually similar to 10g gear, you could instead go with this new 100g switch instead and just skip way up the totem pole:
MikroTik Routers and Wireless - Products: CRS504-4XQ-IN
And instead of trying to interface at 100gb, you can use a breakout cable to change 2-3 of those 100g QSFP28 ports into 25g SFP28. This would get you up to 16 25gb ports on a switch under $800, heck of a deal if you can make it work for you.Then you can put these NICs in your servers, workstation, and maybe NAS:
MikroTik Routers and Wireless - Products: CCR2004-1G-2XS-PCIe
That gets you a nice and cheap, very high performance 25g NIC.
These are now the better 25gb NIC options:
MCX512A-ADAT (the more common ACAT is PCIE 3)
MCX631102AN-ADAT
MCX621202AC-ADAT (crypto enabled)
E810-XXVAM2 / E810-XXVDA2And you could even go all out and your most data heavy server could run one of these and make use of the 100g connection:
Amazon.com: Chelsio T62100-CR T6 Dual Port 40G/50G/100GbE Adapter : Electronics
Who ever thought we would see 100g speed drop so drastically in just a couple of years since it became mainstream in the datacenter? That dual 100g NIC for $550 is just crazy. (edit, on sale for $430 now! Holy crap)
And not to hijack here, but does anyone have a better way to remove the link preview function in posts other than placing the links in an already formatted section like a quote?
Not sure if this is the place to post this but after reading your post (EniGmA1987), it got me thinking.
I’m not very competent when it comes to network infrastructure. I need to state that up front.
However, I recently lost my Netgear GS108 and I’m wondering about the path to upgrade. I have several high speed PCs including a large PLEX server, I use for my extended family and the network seems to be the bottleneck. Especially for backups (I have over 100TB of data on the server).
One of my sons suggested going to fiber. Since I already have a few 10GbE NICs and can upgrade to fiber NICs for around $50 each it might be worth it. The walls are down for renovation so now’s the time to make a change. You mention the falling cost of 100G switches, but is fiber off the table or am I looking at unreasonable overkill? I’m not sure I have the skill set to terminate fiber cable so that might also be an issue.
Shoot, if the walls are off now is the time to do network renovations!
You have 2 or 3 options:
run conduit through all the studs (1" preferable) so that you can replace wires at will and upgrade whenever you want to. This is expensive, but the best way to go for both you and future homeowners. You can run cat6 in the conduits now, upgrade to cat8 or 9 or whatever new standard down the line, or run fiber lines through them, even run video or audio between rooms if you wanted. Lots of options when you have conduit, but cost is high and time to do it is quite a while. Once conduit is in you are set, never have to worry about network upgrades again.
run new cat8 or cat6a wire between all your rooms without conduit. I’d do cat8 just because you can use it for any copper upgrade for probably 20 years down the line. I would also do 2 cables per location, in case 1 breaks you don’t have to open the walls up or lose access to that room. These get stapled to the studs, just make sure they use the correct staples that are rounded and that they dont use very much driving force. The staple should not puncture or kink the cable jacket at all, just hold it in place. The lowest setting on the staple gun is usually good.
run a mix of cat6a or cat8 copper wire and run fiber wires with LC connectors between select rooms such as where your main PC goes and the networking rack area, server locations, maybe a loft if you have one, and the garage or basement. The fiber wire will use an SFP transceiver, and to get a bandwidth upgrade all you do is upgrade that transceiver. You can get all the way to 200gbps networking right now on a standard OS2 single-mode fiber line with an LC connector on each end. This might get even higher, as we have 400gb and 800gb standards but I believe currently they dont use standard fiber lines, that will likely change in the future though. But honestly even the capability to expand up to 200gb network with those cheap wires is plenty. That would be decades and decades down the line before we have enough bandwidth-hogging things to ever saturate such a connection.
As you can see, there is a big price difference between cat6a and cat8. Honestly, you don’t need cat8, it is just rated for 40gb copper networking which doesn’t even really exist. It would be more of if you plan to not be taking the walls down ever again then the cat8 would be good for whatever you want for 20+ years of standard copper Ethernet networks. If you might take the walls down again or you don’t care that much about futureproofing the network past 10gb then just run the cat6a and save a lot of money. You will most likely need 2 spools of 1000’ to do the runs through your house and especially for 2 cables per run.
Just a suggestion, you could also consider running wires to a few select areas in the home on the wall up near the ceiling. Use these to mount access points up high and out of the way to get really good coverage in that area of the house. Run 2-4 of these so you can load up on access points. Either 2 and pick high traffic areas to provide good coverage (possibly one near the kitchen+living room and then near bedrooms), or 4 and have them out more towards the corners of the house to provide large coverage both inside and outside the house.
Run conduit period!
I could not have asked for a better primer, thank you.
26 years ago we downsized to a smaller house when the kids went away to school and the military so the house is a rather small split level with a basement (2000sqf). The servers are all in the basement (my office), so the only wireless access points can be in the attic above the rooms where wireless might be needed. Since I’m having some electrical work being done as well I can use Infinitevalence’s suggestion and run metal conduit up there. I had been tempted to use plastic but it looks like there will be plenty of extra left over. Currently I have a mesh wireless (EERO 6 PRO) that covers the entire house and it’s located in the basement with a satellite in the kitchen.
Because of the small size of the house I had planned on using CAT8 (hadn’t thought about running two lines). After looking at the site you recommended (FS.COM) I see that the OM4 fiber is almost as cheap as the CAT8. With all things being equal I’m tempted to go with the fiber, it would cost me less than $500 for the entire house but since we won’t get FTTH for another 5-6 years I guess I’ll go with the CAT-8. Thanks again.
Don’t forget when running the copper network cable to have one go from the basement to the kitchen so that you can plug in your wireless mesh AP/satellite. Having a wired backhaul available will really help its stability. 
You could just get a few fiber cables now such as to go from your basement to top floor/attic and basement to living room. Running them alongside your copper Ethernet wires is really simple as you just tape the wires together to pull them through. Then the fiber will be waiting there for you later on instead of having to go through the hassle of pulling it through later. I mean, two fiber cables will cost you what, like $80? Seems worth putting the 2-3 main ones you’d actually use in now while you are doing it anyway.
They look like this but only in a wall plate instead of a patch panel:
