We are now in the middle of our 2.5GbE switch round-up series. As such, we have the QNAP QSW-1105-5T, a 5-port 2.5GbE switch for review today. This is a simple unmanaged unit, but we wanted to give it the same formal review treatment as well..
Ultimate Fanless 2.5GbE Switch Roundup
You may have seen that we published the Ultimate Cheap Fanless 2.5GbE Switch Mega Round-Up. Here is the video for that one where this switch appeared.
We decided to do the round-up first and will be filling in with reviews that we had not published at that point, including this one.
Just to note, we have 5 more switches in the lab for testing already, and another 8 on the list to-do that were not in the switch round-up we published. We are going to add them to the round-up page as we review them.
QNAP QSW-1105-5T Hardware Overview
The front of the switch is very similar to other 5-port switches. There are simply five ports. Above each of the 2.5GbE ports, we have a set of status LEDs associated with each port and a key shown to the right. The DC input is on this front panel which some people prefer since it keeps all ports and cables on the same side of the chassis.
There is also a power LED.
Something that we did not see on this switch is a Kensington lock port. The rear is barren.
On one side of the switch, we get vents along a portion of the chassis.
On the other side of the switch, we get similar vents. This is a metal chassis which is nice. There are no mounting points for rack mounting.
On the bottom of the unit, we get perhaps what will be viewed as the best mounting solution in our roundup with either spots for rubber feet or two mounting points for wall, conference room table, or desk mounting.
Taking off the top involves simply removing a few screws.
Underneath, we get a single larger heatsink to cool the switch.
That heatsink means that it does not have fans making this a quiet unit without moving parts to make noise or fail.
We tested all of these units for PoE. This unit did not have PoE capabilities as we would guess from the internals.
Let us check that out with our performance and power consumption testing.
@Bryan can you see if you get any output on the serial console? It looks like the header is populated on the board and I’m wondering if there is any VLAN possibility by using the serial console.
Loved this switch but had a failure today and with some research realized it is more common than I thought. Amazon reviews talk about the switch being unreliable or failing after a few years. The failure mode is a reboot loop with nothing to be done but RMA. Maybe I’m lucky to have made it 3 years, but have never had a switch fail so quickly with consumer use. With a 2 year warranty and a string of reported failures, I’d be concerned about purchasing again.
Interesting CC. What failed?
Yes, you can do many things via the serial port / 1.1.1.100 on boot.
How did you have it for 3 years when it just come out?
Can this switch pass .1q tagged packets like an L2 dumb switch should? I’ve read in other comments that the QNAPs cannot. A good way to test this would be between two Proxmox hosts running vlans. Can two sets of VMs on two different VLANs talk across this switch?
Btw you can hack into the switch, it is running os which allows to set VLANs (with some tweaking) I set the VLANs but it doesn’t work so really unmanaged. But @nate it does not strip tagged frames so .1q are passed