Apr 18

Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch Review
Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch Review

NETGEAR is known for excellent routers, Wi-Fi access points and switches. Nearly quadruple the transfer speed for your home or office network of attached devices with the Nighthawk S8000 Gaming and Streaming Switch, with link aggregation.

Disclosure: I am a NETGEAR Ambassador. I received the S8000 Ethernet switch at no cost for review. I have not been compensated for the review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Photos are courtesy of NETGEAR.


NETGEAR S8000 Gaming Switch Unboxing

Transferring small files over Wi-Fi is one thing and 802.11ac at 5GHz goes a long way to bring near Gigabit cordless transfer technology possible. However, most of our devices are a few years old and do not have the 802.11ac wireless chips in them to take full advantage of the newest Wi-Fi standard. That is where wired networking products like the NETGEAR S8000 switch can make a huge difference.

NETGEAR Nighthawk S8000 Switch Features

  • Eight Gigabit Ethernet Ports With Full Duplex
  • Link Aggregation Producing Nearly 4Gbps Transfer Rate
  • Futuristic Design
  • Multiple Optimized Network Settings For the Switch
  • Quality of Service (QoS)
  • Easy to use Web Based Interface Optimized for Mobile

Most laptops and desktops, either PC or Mac, have an Ethernet port that is Gigabit ready. However, most of us have an Ethernet hub which could be older than our Wi-Fi router.

Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch Gigabit Ports
Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch Gigabit Ports

Hubs typically have four to eight ports and can transfer at a speed of 10 to 100 megabits per second. Those of us that are lucky enough to have purchased a switch many years ago, is probably capable of handling a speed of 200 megabits per second.

This is where the NETGEAR switch can supercharge a wired network. Change up a wireless network to a wired network that is optimized for speed. A wired connection produces the best streaming and gaming experience possible.

Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch Front
Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch

Reliability is key when playing games that require twitch level reactions to win. Low latency connections on a local area network and to the Internet are required for multi-user and VR gaming. Some cable models with the DOCSIS 3.1 standard can handle more than 1Gbps.

Streaming 4K content over the Internet via NETGEAR’s switch offers a buffer-free solution and is yet another top use case for this network hardware. The company configured pre-optimized settings for all of the above.

Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Web Dashboard
NETGEAR Nighthawk S8000 Web Dashboard

Altering the switch’s settings is as easy as logging into it on either a desktop computer or a smartphone. There are three levels of traffic prioritization presets and a fully customizable modes to meet nearly any need.

Even with all of the customization options, NETGEAR knows that some users want to be able to take their gear out of the box and plug it in without having to configure anything. The Nighthawk S8000 has users covered for that too.

Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Optimized Video Streaming
Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Optimized Video Streaming

Previously, the best Ethernet switch I used was Gigabit Ethernet enabled. NETGEAR’s switch gets users connected up to 4x faster.

When backing up tens of gigabytes of data, I usually plug my MacBook Pro into my wired network. It now makes sense to do large backups with the Nighthawk switch’s link aggregation and port trunking features.

With link aggregation, the up to 4Gbps of transfer rate can move a 10GB back at about >470MBp/s. I routinely back up more than 10GB at a time with all of the content created every week. My files transfer to the NAS cluster at a much faster rate now, thus saving hours of waiting.

Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch Side
Netgear Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch

For about $99 from online retailers, the NETGEAR Nighthawk switch offers a cool design, eight ports of quality of service (QoS) management, low latency, port prioritization for extreme performance and a three year warranty.

Rating: 4.5/5

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