[c-nsp] 100FX Ports or Media Convertors?

[Justin M. Streiner]

On Thu, 11 Sep 2008, Kevin.X.White at corusgroup.com wrote:

> My question is now, the 3550-FX has gone and I need to replace some units
> the way forward with integrated ports is the 3750 with 24FX + 4 SFP @ ~
> $7000
> A 3650 with 24x Media convertors with dual PSU shelves @ ~ $5000
>
> We have had quite a few 3550 MTRJ 100FX ports partially fail (high RX
> drops) in the past causing all kinds of fun and games with STP
> So even with the extra points of failure the Media convertors are looking
> tempting as failed units can be simply replaced.

I have a few devices and buildings on campus that I feed at 100FX, both 
from 4500s with MTRJ blades and from 3750s with the 100FX SFPs and both 
seem to be pretty reliable.  I haven't seen the 'live' failure rates on 
the 100FX SFPs to be much better or worse than the GE SFPs we use all over 
the place.

My personal choice is to go with the SFPs, rather than something that 
requires additional external pieces of gear, however I've never used the 
3650 + media converters, so I can't speak to their reliability.

jms