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Whats different?

They both offer the same speed don't they?

I'm asking because we have a switch with 4 SFP 1000Mbps ports and we are buying a new server and was wondering if it's worth paying extra to use one or 2 of the SFP ports.

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When you said "1000Mbps CAT6", you mean RJ45? Because you can connect Cat5/Cat5e/Cat6/Cat7 between SFP, or optical. –  Logman May 22 '12 at 22:11
Yeah sorry, RJ45 –  Mint May 22 '12 at 22:37
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1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

If you don't know the difference, you probably will not need them. SFP allows you to use different optical or copper links on your hardware by just inserting the right module. So SFP is more flexible (and can be faster) than a built in 1000BASE-T interface but also more expensive. There is also no speed gain compared to a normal 1000BASE-T adapter if you insert a 1000BASE-T SFP module. So if you don't plan to connect the server through optical links in the near future you will not need SFP and you can stay with standard 1000BASE-T.

You might also want to read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_form-factor_pluggable_transceiver to understand the concepts of SFP.

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Perfect answer, thank you. –  Mint May 24 '12 at 0:06
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