You probably noticed throughout the overview that the case is very porous. There are also mounting points in the event you wanted to put this switch under a desk, in a closet, on a wall or similar. Underneath the unit we have rubber feet installed. On a device in this price/ performance range, if it had a single DC input or was simply PoE only, it would be everything we expect. Technically, that means that this switch has three power inputs or one more than our 32-port Dell Z9100-ON 100GbE switch that costs over $10,000. Moving to the rear of the unit, we find what may be one of the most unique features.

We wish these were next to the SFP+ connections so it is easier to tie ports to LEDs, but at this price point this is an acceptable solution. On the side of the switch, you can see the various LEDs and a reset button.

If you want something MikroTik branded, they have very inexpensive options based on what kind of fiber run you are doing. MikroTik, thankfully, does not make this low-cost switch picky on optics. We have used Cisco, Juniper, Arista, Mellanox, and Intel coded optics and DACs without issue. In a switch like this, you are most likely going to use either SFP+ optical transceivers or SFP+ DACs. The CRS305-1G-4S+IN is such a low power device that you can power it from a PoE input minimizing the number of cables you need to run to it. This generally goes to our management network plus it has a special feature: it is a PoE input. The 1GbE port on the left we normally use for 1GbE networking. Here is the front, or the “business end” of the MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN. MikroTik CRS305 In VMware On Arm At TechCon 2019 These switches are small and low power which makes them great whenever you need a small switch but do not have the power/ space for something larger. The silver box covered in wires is a CRS305-1G-4S+IN running a demo with Mellanox Bluefield SmartNICs running VMware on Arm. If you look to the left of the VMware ESXi on Arm demo booth below the Ricola and coffee cup.

Here is an example from Arm TechCon 2019 last week. MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN Overviewīefore we get into the overview, you have probably seen the MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN and perhaps not even known it. In this article, we have an analysis of why. In this video, Patrick goes into some of the color commentaries about why we replace these low-cost models often. We are releasing a video on the MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN as an update to this review. At $500 we could not give the switch the same recommendation, but at this price level, it is a great tool. In our review, we are going to show you why this four-port SFP+ 10GbE switch (plus single 1GbE) is a must-have at only around $125-$149 new. What represents is perhaps the best value in 10GbE networking for a home or small office environment. It is not from a big name networking vendor. One of them is a MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN. There are few products which we wholeheartedly recommend.

Mikrotik 10g switch