Home > Consumer Reviews > Cisco SD2008 8-port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch

Signifiant changes have occurred over the life of this switch. Version 1 had an internal fan and was quite noisy, albeit cool running. Version 2 & 2.1 eliminated the fan. However capacitor C251, sitting next to an internal heatsink is prone to failure after 6 - 8 months, resulting in dropped packets and link connections. Version 3.0 has solved this problem with a complete re-layout of the printed circuit board (PCB), with a redesign of the power/voltage regulation. The new version, still fanless, runs MUCH cooler than version 2.1.

Bought this switch and received the 2.1 version which is black. It is fanless or at least if it does have fans I don't hear them. Tested it and performance is good getting almost 1Gbit under all conditions (hard disks and other hardware being the limiting factor). Also tested it with jumbo frames and worked OK. Overall good buy, great speed with jumbo frame support at a nice price.

Edit: After almost a year, now the swith will no longer negotiate gigabit and only works OK at 100Mbit. This seems to be a widespread problem with version 2.1. And Linksys seems to be slow replacing or repairing these units under their lifetime warranty. Would suggest getting another switch.

I have bought both the old version of the Linksys SD2008 about 2 years ago when first released and everyone is right - Loud, and unacceptable when sitting on a desk next to you. I am lucky that I built a server and placed it and all networking items in basement so it did not bother me. I did hear it when I went into basement thought. The fan started really getting loud about 3 months ago and it just died in the past week but switch is still going strong. I wanted to see it the Version 2.1 was any better than the 1.0 that I currently have. I have not switched over yet because I am waiting for other new parts but I did plug in new switch and well what do you know. TADA. No fan sounds. I dont think the newer version even have a fan in it. Its slightly better looking than original because front bezel is black instead of grey. I like that fact that the plugs are in the back compared to Netgears switches which plug into the front(which can make an unsightly mess with a lot of plugs) I have used Linksys products for many years now. With Cisco, they seem to get better every year. Give the newer 2.1 switch a try. You won't be dissappointed.

I bought one of these for home use to replace my old 10baseT hub. I plugged in the Linksys switch and, my god is it loud. It has two internal fans in its tiny case, spinning at high RPMs. It's as loud as a server or a ten year old PC.

Despite its tiny size, this box is not suitable for home or any other quiet environment. A machine room, sure, on a desk or in your music studio? Absolutely not.

I'm sending mine back and getting a fanless Netgear switch instead.

--Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

An 8-port Gigabit switch for only $82?!? I thought this was definitely worth a test drive. There is no fan inside this unit, so the reviewers that complained about fan noise must be talking about a different model (the label on the bottom of my unit says "SD2008 Version 2.1"). The Gb ports appear to run at a full speed. The 100/1000 auto speed sensing worked fine except in one situation (see below); I couldn't test at 10Mb because I don't have any 10Mb devices anymore. It's a small package with mounting holes on the back. I mounted mine on the wall near where all my cat 5 cables terminate. All in all I found this switch trivial to deploy and a great performer.

The only problem I encountered was with some older building wiring that only uses 2 pairs. That's good for running 10/100Mb, but 1Gb requires 4 pairs. I could connect a 100Mb device to the SD2008 just fine using 2 pairs, but when I tried to connect a gigabit laptop the link never activated. At least with some other switches in this situation, the laptop interface drops down to 100Mb and all is fine. I don't know the details of the IEEE auto speed negotiation specification well enough to know what's suppose to happen in this case, and so I don't know if this is really a problem I can blame on the SD2008. In my particular situation I just switched to a wireless link that's available and bypassed the problem altogether. Of course I could also have upgraded the wiring to 4 pairs as the standard calls for, but it was a long wiring run and the wireless link was already available.