Update!
Just when I thought I had narrowed it down to two finalists… a third contender showed up:
The MikroTik CSS610-8P-2S+IN - 8× 1G PoE+ ports (802.3af/at, 140W total) + 2× 10G SFP+, fanless, lightly managed via SwOS Lite and includes rack-mount ears.
It’s managed, Fanless, PoE, dual SFP+ ports, but only 1G LAN ports.
…however, with a $230 price point, that’s difficult to ignore!
It supports everything that I may need at the switch level: access and trunk ports, untagged VLAN assignments, VLAN filtering, multiple tagged VLANs, per-port blocking, PVID control, and even a dedicated management VLAN.
The only real drawback? All RJ45 ports are all 1G. However, my pfSense appliance comes with x4 2.5G ports. So that limitation is less pressing — at least for now as I only have 1 device at home with a 2.5G port. I would just need to swap some patch cables in future if I weant to make use of more from off the firewall.
Also today, while digging, I also came across the Alta S16-POE via Jason’s Lab on YouTube.
It’s another promising option with PoE and seemingly solid build quality, but it only offers SFP (1G) uplinks on the S16-POE. You have to step up in price to their 24-port model, which adds SFP+. Also not fanless but many have said it’s near silent. However, wanted to mention as the S16-POE seems like a solid home lab option.
Stay tuned — the decision just got harder. I’m leaning more toward the MikroTik, though I’ll admit I’m slightly hesitant about the aesthetics. It’s not the sleekest option in the rack, but it’s ticking a lot of the right boxes.
Another option, while a bit pricey, is worth mentioning is the Pro Max 16 PoE + Rack Mount:
