MikroTik CRS305 Switch Overview: Why We Love and Replace Them

In our MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN we talk about what earned this switch the ultra-rare STH Editor's Choice award. This is one of the lowest cost 10GbE switches on the market and it has a great feature set along with silent operation. We also discuss why we have an interesting relationship with the switches.

We buy the CRS305 and love them when they are in-use. At the same time, we almost always replace them with other switches and end up going right back to using the MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+-IN again.

Other articles mentioned in this video:

[adamwojciechowski]

we are ISP in Poland (almost 12.000 HP) this swichs are on core of our networks and work as signal repeater. So recive 20 Gbit from location A and send 20 Gbit to location B. As a power supply we use 12v or 24v battery pack and this swich can work on double 12v9ah about 19 h

[spaghetticode]

I feel like its such a simple, and affordable piece, that its great piece for any beginner

[sargeNL]

Completely agree, I use this switch in my homelab and have outgrown it just now but since I had a second one I now use two of them till my new switch arrives.
I bought the second unit just to take along to customers to deploy when moving data and demonstrate the benefits of upgrading the infrastructure.

These switches allowed us to introduce 10G at the core of our customer networks and build out from there, when we eventually replace them with larger models the small units just move to the edge of the network.

[BRKK]

Just bought one for my home setup ;)

Also love that your showing so much enthusiasm in your vids

[IntermitTech]

The CRS305 and CRS309 are really awesome. I've been using a CRS309 for a year now and I literally have all cable options (Fiber, RJ45, DAC) and it's been doing it flawlessly! I love that it doesn't make any noise either and performance is just perfect.

[victorcoss]

I use the Ethernet port as an uplink, works just fine and fully saturates 1Gbps.

[sarhtaq]

We use a few of them as 10G media covertions between SM and MM fiber, perhaps with a single backup NAS placed at that spot as well.
Great for starting migrating from older 100Mb / 1Gb setups, while trying to convince the higherups to get a full remake of all backbone lines.

[RylTheValstrax]

Wow, that basically mirrors my experience with this switch as well. I have a couple of them, and they're basically being recycled around the 'edge' of my homelab-turned-SMB-homeoffice (connecting workstations to my main switch), while their original usecases were replaced by larger switches as I upgraded more and more of my systems to 10G and needed more ports than they could provide.

[SigEpBlue]

9:14 Couldn't agree more. For as long as these have been around, and how much they offer for the price, it's strange that there aren't a zillion knockoffs on Amazon, or elsewhere.

[chroma]

This switch works great for me at home. My workstation and NAS are really the only computers doing any beefy transfers

[crashk]

Yes, these are very useful for quick deployment networks. My favorite use case is where you have a POE capable ethernet card in client machine setup in 19" racks, the switch gets powered by both the node/machine's PSU and also gets backup power directly from the backup batteries in the self contained rack, so it stays up even if the machine powers down. 10gb fiber gets run switch to switch. Basically click LC connectors station to station and the network comes up a node at a time as an in field deployment, it's fantastic. Great for temporary situations where using one large centrally positioned switch isn't logistically (physically) possible.

[MarkRose]

Thanks for pointing out the CRS309-1G-8S+in. But I must say, on a device with Cloud in its name, a DB9 connector is so anachronistic.

I'm still waiting for a decently priced 8 port switch with full 2.5/5 support on all ports.

[steveboesch]

Great video, I love mine, I was looking for the post on the main site for this and didn't see it, so I'm commenting here.

[PhilippDitfurth]

For me, the CRS305 works as an add-on instead of a stand-in: I'm currently using the CSS610-8G-2S+IN very happily, with my NAS on 10G and a MacBook on 2.5G (due to cheaper adapters). I did order a Mac Studio last week though and didn't want to compromise my Macbook-Connection, so in comes the CRS 305. After watching this Video, I also ordered a 1m DAC to connect them - the original plan was to use the 1G Port to connect to the Internet and the Rest of the Network, but yeah. And I think a DAC just looks nice, too. :D

[rightwingsafetysquad]

This kind of switch is great because the only 2 things I really want 10G for are my desktop workstation and NAS/home server. Everything else is just fine with Gigabit (or less).

[davidsomething]

I have a 4port CRS305 and an 8port CRS309. I use them as aggregation switches in my home. I split the CRS309 with LAG between 2 Aruba 24 port 2930f that have 4 X SFP+ ports. So I have a resilient core switch for routing and resilient 10Gb connections for 2 ESXi servers and a 10Gb NAS. I would also recommend considering more ports to start with. I have quickly run out of ports on the CRS305 and I could easily fill 2 CRS309s in a future planned lab upgrade.

[LeonardTavast]

I have no use for 10G SFP as a regular consumer but I'm amazed this product exist. It's small, cheap, flexible and even has the ability to be grounded.

I can imagine this being used as a backbone to reduce the amount of CAT6 used in an office. Just get one optical SFP cable between this an a local switch with 1G ports instead of connecting all users directly to a central hub. Such a consolidation would cut both cost and work for installation in a small office.

[augurseer]

this switch has been around the block a few times and i still love it. Want to get one. Tom Lawrence has reviewed it, Chris from Cross Talk and Craft Computing. now lets see what Patrick has to say!!

[rich]

Love it when the model name of a switch looks more like a SKU number :D

[mishasawangwan]

this is such an awesome switch. got 3 of these as well as a CRS309. very robust unit and rock solid reliable. they only go down when i turn the power off. all are running off of poe and i’m utilizing all ports.