The 2424M strikes an excellent balance of performance, manageability, scalability and price. The boring but necessary console menus were easy to navigate through, as on many other HP network devices. Best of all, an embedded Web server made it possible to manage the 2424M. Some of the other switches had embedded Web servers, but the ProCurve's interface was easier and more reliable. The 3Com SuperStack II Switch 3300 looked good on paper because of its extensive connectivity uplink options, stacking matrix option and future support for Layer 3 switching. But lackluster performance on some of the lab's tests plus a shortfall in manageability put the switch in the No. 4 position in our roundup.
Most switches have either a dedicated memory size per port or a shared memory pool.
Both approaches have advantages, depending on the type and amount of network traffic. The SuperStack II 3300 combines the approaches with 32K dedicated memory per port as well as a 2.5M shared memory pool. This should ensure at least average performance in all situations, but our measurements revealed poor throughput and many lost packets. Perhaps in a stacked switching configuration the 3300 switch would perform better. But on a standalone basis, it was at best average.