Which is better, 1 large or 2 small switches?

Question

network hardware

Hello.

I bought a simple gigabit switch for 5 ports to connect it to a router, but now I realized that I needed to take 8 ports, as there will be more outlets.

Tell me, please, now it’s better to buy a new one for 8 ports, and sell the one for 5 ports, or is it better to buy 1 more switch for 5 ports, and it will be fine?

Heard that 1 switch will work faster, or is the difference minimal and imperceptible?

Answer 1

1 large failure probability less

Answer 2

When building a large network with a star topology, there is a rule that there should be no more than three switches between the center of the star (router, server) and any end of any of its beams, otherwise the ping time on this beam may become too long. It is clear that one large switch introduces a ping delay two to three times less than a chain of two or three small ones.
This rule is not absolute, I broke it, and nothing, the network did not fall apart, continued to work. Moreover, this rule does not make sense for a small home network, which is unlikely to be highly branched.
And yet, for the general reasons listed in other answers here, one multi-port switch is always better than many small-port ones .

Answer 3

The question does not have a clear answer, you need to look at the configuration and the location of the equipment.
In the general case, at home, without special skills and space for placement, it is easier to have one device.
If the place and electrification allow, there are no contraindications for placing two devices, if there are no specific requirements for performance (usually they are not, if they are, the problem is almost always solved by combining the end nodes by devices).

Answer 4

One big switch is better than two small ones. The small one is also really not worth throwing away - it can be useful for further expansion.

Answer 5

For the most part, it doesn't make much of a difference. Unless two switches will occupy two sockets and two ports. And so if groups of devices that constantly communicate with each other are plugged into different switches, there will even be load distribution.

Answer 6

If you have computers in your local area that are constantly exchanging files with each other at a speed of 1 Gbps, then it is better to take one switch with a normal processor.
If the load in the local area is small, then you can buy something simpler, and plug in devices for which gigabit is not so important.

Answer 7

I see no reason to take a vommirort and this one in the furnace, because two five ports are 10 ports minus 2 for connecting with a patch cord. Well, or take an eight-port plus this five-port one with a margin, so to speak, for the future. Look at the money. In terms of speed, I have a mikrotik hapac2 + gigabit old 8 port tplink, I didn’t see the difference in speed and ping between hosts through mikrotik and mikrotik + tplink, I drove it for the sake of interest.