MikroTik CRS326-24G-2S+RM review

The CRS326-24G-2S+RM is a rack-mount managed switch. It has 24 copper ports at 10/100/1000, two SFP+ ports and a serial console port. It suits a homelab or small office that wants plenty of gigabit ports, a pair of fast uplinks and real VLAN control, without fan noise.

All 24 copper ports run at 1GbE at most. The speed comes from the two SFP cages, which the manufacturer says support 1.25Gb SFP and 10Gb SFP+ modules. That makes them suited to a link to a server, a NAS or an upstream switch, rather than to 10Gb for every device.

The manufacturer lists a non-blocking Layer 2 capacity of 86,855.7 Mbps at 1518-byte packets, and 88,000 Mbps at Layer 1. Those figures are for switching between ports. Routing is a separate matter, covered below.

The listed specifications include no PoE. Access points, cameras or phones will need injectors or their own power supplies.

The switch dual-boots SwOS and RouterOS. The manufacturer lists configurable VLANs, port mirroring, MAC filtering and bandwidth limitation. With that feature set, it suits segmenting a network into VLANs, copying traffic from a port for inspection, and capping traffic on chosen ports.

The specifications also list a serial console RJ45 port.

Anyone who needs a specific feature should check the manufacturer's documentation for SwOS and RouterOS before buying.

Cooling is passive, so there are no fans. Owners praise it as quiet and fanless. That matters if the switch sits in a living space, a cupboard or an office.

The manufacturer's maximum power consumption is 24 W. That is the ceiling it lists, not a typical draw, and the spec sheet gives no idle figure.

Owners complain that routing is slow. The switching capacity figures describe Layer 2 forwarding between ports, so they don't contradict this. The switch is best treated as a switch. If the plan is to run inter-VLAN routing or act as the main router, the owner reports suggest checking real-world routing speeds first.

A separate router, with this switch handling Layer 2 and VLAN tagging, matches what the specifications are strongest at.

The manufacturer includes free software updates for the life of the product, or a minimum of 5 years from the date of purchase. The warranty is 1 year. The spec sheet gives no release date and no update history, so there is no record here of how often firmware has been issued.

Owners praise the value for money. The savings come with trade-offs: no PoE listed, 1GbE copper ports and slow routing.

It suits a rack in a homelab or small office that needs many gigabit ports, VLANs and one or two 10Gb links. It is a weaker match for anyone who needs PoE, 2.5GbE or 10GbE copper ports, or fast routing on the switch itself.