Overview

As part of the new setup for our home network, I wired in a few cameras, added multiple Ubiquiti UniFi access points and switches. In our old house we used a lot fewer PoE devices, so I got away with using some cheap TP-Link or Netgear PoE switches from Amazon for around £30-40. These generally only had about 5 PoE ports.

Since I needed a lot more, I decided to start looking for larger, rack mount PoE switches. I knew Ubiuqiti UniFi stuff would be out of my price range, but I wasn’t expecting the jump from something 5 port to 8 port to then 16 ports to be so huge!

I ended up checking out old enterprise network gear and settled on a Netgear Prosafe GS728TP I found on eBay for around £70 delivered which I thought was a great price for a managed 24 port PoE switch.

It’s been working great but the fans are definitely loud. Since it’s in our “garage” (data center) it’s not too bad but they really do sound like they could be on their last legs, so I started to take a look into replacement.

Replacement Kits on eBay

I started looking into if I could find replacement fans on eBay. I found a few listings that were for my model, but they were super expensive - £70+! This just seemed nuts for a tiny fan that probably costs a couple of dollars!

Doing a bit of sleuthing, I tried to look at the pictures in the eBay listings to see if I could see the fan models to buy them elsewhere. However the listing creators had blurred out the text in the images! Cheeky.

I did notice however, one of the fans in the replacement eBay item has the code, “f4509f” written on it that didn’t get blurred.

Looking this up on Google shows a result:

Good source for quiet replacement fans for enterprise network switches? | ServeTheHome Forums

The post recommends:

Search Ebay for:
Sunon MagLev Fan MB40201VX
Sunon MagLev KDE1204PKV3

Also, someone posted:

Lately, I purchased 40mm fan from Aliexpress.com
US $14.19 29% OFF|Sunon Maglev HA40201V4 0000 C99 4CM 404020MM 4020 DC 12V 0.6W Super Silence Fan-in Fans & Cooling from Computer & Office on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group
Sunon Maglev HA40201V4-0000-C99 4CM 404020MM 4020 DC 12V 0.6W Super Silence Fan
Purchased 3 set of 2 x fan , total with coupon = $34 ( 6 fans ) or about $6 each

I have yet to purchase a replacemnent yet, but I shall keep this post up-to-date when I do!