Fanless, cheap, PoE, and with lots of ports is generally a good formula for switches folks find interesting. This Vimin VM-S251602P was under $240 but came with 16 ports of 2.5GbE, two SFP+ cages for 10GbE, and has a “250W” PoE+ power budget. It is also unmanaged. For some, this is going to be the perfect switch. For others, it is not going to make sense. In our review, we are going to find out why. Also, as an important preview, we have our new, very fancy and very expensive network testing tool showing the impact of the design of this switch on Page 2. Do not miss that, as it is well beyond what anyone else is doing with these.
If you want to buy one, or just check current pricing, here is an Amazon Affiliate link.
Vimin VM-S251602P Hardware Overview
From the front of the switch, this is a 1U switch that can easily be used as a desktop switch as well.
It came with rackmount ears. Unlike some inexpensive switches we have tested, these were the correct width.
They screw on with only four screws on the side.
The main feature is a block of 16-ports of 2.5GbE. These are also PoE ports. Something worth noting is that they do not have PoE indicator lights. That stinks.
There are also two SFP+ ports for 10G connectivity.
Here is a quick look at the side of the switch.
Here is the other:
On the rear, there is not much going on.
We have an AC input and a grounding point.
On the bottom, we get a label, albeit without a ton of safety and regulatory markings.
Inside the switch, we have power and the switch PCB.
Here is the power input.
That goes to the internal power supply. There is a sticker that has a “250W” on this PSU, and nothing higher.
Like many switches, this has a base switch board along with a PoE board on top. Both boards get power inputs.
Pulling the PoE power board out, we can see this is Realtek-controlled.
Here is the bottom side of the PoE board. Those pins provide power to the switch PCB.
Now that we have the PoE+ board out, we can see the switch PCB, which may look familiar if you saw our GigaPlus GP-S25-1602 review.
Two quick differences are the standoffs and the power connectors for the PoE board.
Still, we can see that this is another 4-chip solution, with cemented heatsinks.
Alex, while making the video, made a few great animations of what is going on inside that caused us to make an updated diagram based on the GigaPlus’s board (this Vimin is the same except for the PoE portions.
This is essentially four 30Gbps Realtek switch chips that are connected via 10Gbps links to their neighbors.
At this point, we have some idea of how it will perform, but let us get to that next.
OMFG. You’ve gotta use clickbait titles. Review is OK, but it’s like “We hooked up a $1M network tester to a $240 switch and this happened.”
Being serious, that’s so neat. If you’re not in the industry you probably don’t know what cyperf even is, but what they’re showing is a huge money license. They sell it based on like 10g increments and it aint cheap. I can’t wait to see more reviews with it
Those CyPerf charts be crazy
You’re now needing to have a comparison chart of all that
Interesting, never heard of CyPerf, we always use IXIA for our testing. Will need to check it out as it sounds dirt cheap compared.
The use of this test equipment was recently announced in the QNAP QSW-M3216R-8S8T article. Since the QNAP uses a modern advanced switch chip, I look forward to an update highlighting the significant differences the Prestera chip is expected to reveal.