Safety of using SFP Transceivers
-
@louis2 Not sure what Mikrotik has to do with this conversation, but yes I know that all 10G SFP+ RJ45 modules run hot. That's why I dropped $150 for what I thought would be the coolest-running of the bunch, since it was a new design, rated at 1.5W vs >2W for most of the cheap-o Amazon stuff like 10Gtek, Hi-Fiber etc.
Also, the 6100 is fanless, and actually has a pretty neat and clever thermal design with that giant metal plate/heatsink as its base...
-
I have been down this road as well. Tried various SFP+ to RJ45 transceivers, including a more expensive lower power consumption one (around 1.8W as I recall). It's interesting to see that module power consumption has been able to be reduced further down to 1.5W since the last time I looked into these. In my case, I ultimately decided just to purchase a 10Gbit RJ45 expansion card since I had an expansion slot available on the firewall and didn't want to worry about any heat or compatibility issues. I used to have fiber inside the rack as well, but have since switched to all DAC cables as the runs are short enough (less parts needed and saves a few more Watts this way without compromising performance).
-
We run quite a few 10G RJ45 SFP in various Juniper & Cisco & Allied Telesys switches in our work lab with no heat issues. Most of them are between 30-40 DegC in a room with 22 ambient.
It's definitely the SFP cages in lower end switches.
You can get refurbished Juniper QFX-5100 or similar on eBay for << £400 these days, and will have no more heat issues.
