MikroTik is throwing haymakers now. At STH, the MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN has been one of our favorite switches for many years. Cheap, low power, and useful is a great combination. That switch, however, is a SFP+ switch. Sometimes, you need 10Gbase-T instead for your 10GbE network, and that is where the MikroTik CRS304-4XG-IN comes in at only $199.
MikroTik CRS304-4XG-IN 4-port 10Gbase-T Switch Launched
This switch looks like it has a little bit of funkiness to it. The larger size seems to be providing room for a large heatsink so that this can be a passively cooled switch instead of requiring a fan.
Adding to the funk, is this has four 10Gbase-T ports, but also four ways to power the switch. There are two DC jacks that support 12-57V as well as a DC terminal that supports the same voltage ranges. MikroTik is also making the switch to be powered over PoE so if you get the MikroTik CRS320-8P-8B-4S+RM we reviewed you should be able to power this switch since its maximum power consumption is rated at only 21W.
Inside, this switch is different than we initially thought. We first thought MikroTik may have stuck some PHYs on the CRS305 along with heatsinks for them.
Instead, the new CRS304 switch is based on the Marvell 98DX2528. The CRS305 was based on the 98DX3236. That means we are also going from a 32-bit single core to a 64-bit dual core Arm processor.
Final Words
This could be a winner. At $199 with the MikroTik feature set, it could be fun. Of course, we love larger switches, but not everyone needs a big switch. The MikroTik CRS304-4XG-IN seems to fill the need for those who just have a few 10Gbase-T devices and need to set up a quick network.
The big question, is when can we order one (or more) of them?
I’ll buy onr just to see if it’s capable to handle 1gps pppoe, as router :)
I really dispair. We’re getting FTTP deployed most countries that I’ve visited in Europe, yet we have no reasonably priced 10G-BaseT kit to cater for it in the home. An 8 port switch should not still be costing 200+ on Aliexpress. Where are our €£$30/40 8 port unmanaged switches like that which we had for gigabit? It has been more than a decade that 10Gb has been out in business and even that equipment second hand is really expensive still and most of it is SFP+ which then becomes prohibitive because of the adapter costs compared to picking up some Cat7/8 cabling.
I bought one and have it for a couple of days.
Runs cool-ish ~53c, pulls ~8w from the DC jack.
In Europe availability does not seems to be a problem.
You say 12-57v, but the block diagram picture shows 24-57v. Which is correct?
@Richard, I 100% agree. Here in Switzerland, the competition in the fibre space is intense and almost all operators offer 10Gb and Init7 even offer 25Gb for ~75USD a month!
Despite this, I’m still running 1Gb Internet[0] as the amount of fanless 10Gb gear remains very low and/or very expensive.
[0] First world problems…
Blue4130> 12-57V is correct : https://mikrotik.com/product/crs304_4xg_in
It’s the same between 2,5 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s, i’am waiting that notebook and computer replace the 1 Gb/s by a 2,5 Gb/s. There are still missing switchs with 48 or 24 ports in 2,5 Gb/s at affordable price
Korev: the banana pi r4 works just fine with 10G init7. Aside of that, precious little fanless 10G routers, much less affordable ones (maybe the RB5009 but that’s not proper 10G).
Glad they did 18 years after the 10GbE standard was introduced! I’m always puzzled that they release devices based on whatever chips they can source, without much consideration for a consistent lineup or a well-balanced mix of ports. I’m hoping to see more options in future releases with 10GbE ports and 2 to 4 SFP+ or SFP28 slots. And I guess I can wait a few more months for that to finally happen…
@Korev: CRS309 has a chip that can do NAT at wirespeed and its fanless. According to routeros doc, you will want to get something with a Marvell 98DX8xxx, 98DX4xxx switch chips, or 98DX325x, anything else won’t do.
No comment in this quick short article regarding the case material. I doubt that it is metal because extrusions of that complexity are expensive and the product price belies that. Thus I suppose this is a plastic case device, and plastic is no heat sink. Just sayin.
If only they kept one SFP+ port for uplink, then it would a nice way to expand a CRS-309 (with this) into 10Gbe domain without power hungry transceivers…
@plasticman: The black part of the case with fins is metal. They have a video presentation on their site that confirms it.
Mikrotik is a mixed bag for me.
I have the CRS-305 SFP switch and that guy has been a champ.
The CRS-309 8 port 10G switch/router however only lasted a few years and then bit the dust and wont reset, basically a brick now.
I tried their 802.11ax/LTE router and that was a piece of junk. I was so pissed at it and I couldn’t return it (like 90% of Mikrotik products). I tried to hire a “Mikrotik Authorized Consultant” and even they wouldn’t touch it or wanted twice what it was worth to look. I ate the money and simply gave it away.
This in a 12 port or 16 port version could be a nice upgrade to the CRS312-4C8XG-RM for people running home labs. Love to see these smaller sizes for SFF stretched cluster labs however. Fairly future proof if you dont mind giving up some redundancy for portability.
It looks like Neobits has it in stock:
https://www.neobits.com/mikrotik_crs304_4xg_in_cloud_router_switch_304_4xg_in_p26901251.html
Jerry, we are hopefully going to finish filming the video this week. Our review is coming.
I order two of these to replace the Mokerlink.
The Mokerlink worked fine, but was just too loud for my environment.
In order to get 8 10 GbE ports I need two of the MicroTik units, but given that I ordered from two separate vendors (neobits and wav online) and have not seen any shipping updates, I have no idea how long it will take to get these in.
If you could find a way to include the WisdPI 5 GbE USB network dongles with your review, that would be a huge bonus!
wavonline didn’t actually have any of the units in stock and no ETA on when they will have any.
The neobits unit is shipped and should arrive tomorrow.
I have a whole story about getting the WisdPi working with Intel NUCs (11th generation) on Proxmox.
I was successful, but it took quite an effort.
I will be writing it up later.
Just watched the video. Nice job.
One warning on this device:
Although the Switch supports both routerOS and swOS, I could not get it to boot swOS on the network with a IP address (neither static nor DHCP worked).
Router OS is way overkill for this device, as you showed in your video. It would’ve been nice to use the simpler swOS.
Does it support link aggregation? It will be nice to aggregate 2 10G ports