YuanLey YS50-0800 Management
As you would expect from such a basic and cheap switch, this is an unmanaged switch. So there is not a management interface or other frills to show. It is plug-and-play.
YuanLey YS50-0800 Performance
While we have transitioned most of our network testing to Keysight CyPerf and IxNetwork using two sets of dedicated hardware platforms, 5GbE is a bit hard for us to test. We have three NOVUS cards for our two XGS2 chassis, but we do not have a multi-gig capable card. On the CyPerf side, we now have more 400GbE ports than multi-gig capable ports, so an unmanaged switch is challenging to physically test. So, we are just using our old iPerf3 setup.
iPerf 3 does not reveal any issues. YuanLey’s switch has no trouble pushing nearly 40Gb in aggregate throughput.
YuanLey YS50-0800 Power Consumption and Noise
With recent developments in networking hardware, the price and power consumption of these devices has come down. Case in point: the YS50-0800 is able to idle at just 7.3 Watts as measured from the wall.
And for better or worse, the gap between idle and load is quite low. Powering up a single port adds just one more Watt to the total, bringing it to 8.3 Watts.
And as noted earlier, this is a purely passively cooled switch. So there are no fans or other moving components to generate noise: it is as silent as a switch can get.
Key Lessons Learned
Alongside the NICGIGA FS2463S, YuanLey’s YS50-0800 is now the second 5GbE switch we have pulled apart that uses this same white label design – and where there is two of them, there is likely even more out in the market.
As with the NICGIGA, the use of a Realtek 10GbE switch chip is an interesting mystery. With so few native 5Gb switch chips on the market, switch designers are apparently finding it worthwhile (and economical) to just use a 10Gb chip for what is otherwise a 5Gb product.
Unfortunately for anyone hoping to snag a 10GbE switch on a budget, while the switch chip is rated for 10Gb operation, the rest of the switch is not. A quick run of our Fluke LinkIQ-Duo shows that the switch is only capable of supporting speeds up to 5GbE.
But for whatever the reason, this means that the YS50-0800 is going to end up serving a specific niche in the networking market. At $180 it is cheaper than an equivalent 8 port 10GbE switch ($250), though not massively so. As a result, it resides in a small slice of the market for setups that either truly do not need/benefit from 10GbE, or do not have the wiring to support it. Which is perfectly fine, though it means the YS50-0800 will always be playing second-fiddle to its 10GbE counterpart.
Final Words
At $180, YuanLey’s YS50-0800 switch is a very competent offering for the 5GbE switching market. Though the basic nature of the switch means that it does not get to excel at anything, it is not left lacking either. It is exactly what it says on the tin: an 8 port, 5GbE unmanaged and fully passive switch. And it works marvelously (or I suppose Realtek-ously?) at that task.
The one bit that YuanLey has to watch out for is that because they are based on a white label design, they do not have anything else hardware-wise to give them a competitive edge. So for many buyers it will come down to whoever is offering the same (or similar) switch at the lowest price – which may not always be YuanLey.
Where To Buy
Here is an Amazon Affiliate link to what we purchased.
So far I have 3 YuanLey switches. the 8 port 10GbE, the 8 port 2.5Gbe POE w/10Gb SFP, and finally the 4 port 2.5Gb w/2 10Gb SFP ports.
The first 2 have worked great, but the last one (YS25-0402), the 2 SFP ports overheat big time when populated at 10Gbe and the whole switch chassis to gets to hot too touch and it declines in throughput.
Let’s take a 10 Gbit SoC and make it into a 5 Gbit switch. Pretty sure the cost difference between 5Gbit PHY and 10 is no more then 15 euro.
So it makes little sense to me.