FS N8560-32C 32x 100GbE Power Consumption
Power consumption on this unit is very reasonable. We saw an idle of around 135W. Our peak was closer to 225W. FS says the unit fully loaded with high-power optics can hit up to 300W.
The two 550W PSUs seem adequate to provide redundant power. We tested running on both, on either PSU, and then simulating a power failure on the PSUs using a switched PDU and the unit continued to operate.
Again, we would like to see FS use 80Plus-rated PSUs for those IT organizations that need this information for their sustainability planning.
FS N8560-32C 32x 100GbE Pluggable Value Proposition
While the switch itself costs $6,899 at list, the real savings for this switch over many of its competitors come from the optics and pluggables.
We recently looked at FS QSFP28-100G-SR4 v. QSFP28-100G-IR4 modules and their differences.
FS also has a number of DACs such as the 100GbE QSFP28 DAC and the QSFP28 to 4x SFP28 (100GbE to 4x 25GbE) DACs available, along with cables.
On switches like these, often 30-100% of the switch price on FS switches can be optics. With larger brands, the optics and pluggables can cost several times as much. That is one of the key value propositions of the N8560-48BC.
Final Words
Pricing is a big deal here. At $6,899 it is a bit less expensive than switches from other vendors. At the same time, the real savings come if you are purchasing optics as well and can use FS.com’s lower-priced solutions. Pricing to some may not even be the biggest factor. Many large networking vendors have network switch lead times on products that are six months to a year out. At the time of this writing, FS.com has these in stock.
One item we always urge FS to do is to clean up the reviews on its website. There are reviews on the company’s website that all say verified purchase but all just say the product is great. Breaking into the networking space is hard, but these kinds of vendor website reviews are not helping FS, and that is something our readers reiterate.
Overall, the FS N8560-48BC is a lower-cost option compared to many other new switches on the market. In the future, there are a few hardware upgrades like standardizing on red/ blue handles to indicate airflow direction that would be great. We also would like to see FS.com standardize on a management solution and then bring support for SONiC. That would greatly expand the potential market for these devices. Still, it is nice to see that there are 48x 25GbE and 8x 100GbE switch options available in the market today since finding low-cost and in-stock is still challenging.
Niece Review!
I use a pair of these in a stacked configuration in the Data center. While these are good switches for the price, there are some caveats to be considered.
The SFP28 Ports seem to be QSFP28 internally therefore you can not change the Port speed per port only per group of four ports. E.g. 1-4 can be 10G and 5-8 can be 25G but ne can not mix and match e.g. Port 1 10G and Port 2 25G.
The error messages were not helpful so it was a lot of testing to find out.
Another thing is that switch ports can not negotiate slower than 10G so there is no way in connecting older 1G/SFP switches via fiber, DAC or copper Module.
The user Manual is quite extensive which is quite helpful.
Considering the price, this is actually not that bad. I wont compare this to Brocade enterprise solutions, or Cisco deployments, but for what you get, it isn’t bad at all if used at scale.
Assuming you had a resourceful IT/Networking department, I could see these running quite well in a large business or office environment, or even support the backbone of a major firm.
Good review :.)
Can you make sure the last page actually applies to this switch, you obviously copied some of the text from the N8560-32C review and used it in this review (headers on 3rd page). It appears the text applies to this switch but it isn’t completely clear. I would also like to see a review of the similar model N8550-48B8C that has support for SONiC as well.
The modular build inside with the fan control board is nice.
However, FS should have extended that one to include the power supplies and their connectors. Right now the power supplies plugs directly into the ‘main’ board with the Broadcom & MIPS, that is most expensive to replace. Well done review, thank you.
Those power supplies are actually 80Plus platinum, sisters of the CRPS550 are certified for 80plus platinum while this one isn’t but it still is, just that it isn’t certified.
Indeed this switch is a Ruijenetwork RG-S6510-48VS8CQ, rebranded by FS.
I have just bought one from FS, because the price is low and the delivery time is very short: only 3 days.
On the other hand, the quality of the documentation is poor. So it is preferable to pick original documentation from RuijeNetwork