HP ProCurve Switch 2524 J4813A - First Impressions
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Before we begin, it should be known that the listed price range of this HP ProCurve Switch 2524 is between US$344.00 and US$499.00. The J4813A that you can see in the title of this review is the part number. In the United Kingdom this switch can be held for around £280.95 including VAT. Now let's see the contents of the package.
First of all, the product comes with a standard rack mounting kit. This is important because the device is stackable and rack-mountable. The lifetime warranty we already discussed on the previous page; it is impressive, since manufacturers tend to avoid offering product-based long-term warranties (let along lifetime) when it comes to business products. ProCurve devices are exceptions, and they are confident.
The packaging is neat. The product comes in a simple brown box on which the logo of the company division can be found. The overall weight of the sales box is perhaps around three kilograms or so. The switch weights exactly 2.72 kg.
Once unpacked you will notice that it contains the necessary documentation, printed user manual for the ProCurve 2300 and 2500 series (the manual is similar), and ultimately some warranty-related brownish paper. The CD is filled with digital user guides and manuals in numerous languages, and the additional software suite.
(Image Courtesy of Gunner's HP Fan Boy Page)
The material of the enclosure is top notch. It is worth mentioning that the EADS Space Transportation has recently selected the ProCurve 2524, this switch, to be used within the International Space Station, the IIS, aboard the Columbus module research laboratory. You can read more about this story at our eWEEK publication.
In short, this means that the product we are reviewing right now was picked as the very first network switch to be used aboard a space station in the space. EADS has done extensive tests and measurements to choose from a large selection of switches from other manufacturers-including Cisco, 3Com, D-Link, NetGear, Avaya, etc.
"We focused on vendors that could provide a small box with few electronic components [to minimize] potential radiation problems," said Schmidhuber. "In radiation tests we did in Switzerland, we found that HP was the best of those we had [evaluated]. And some of the other switches could not be programmed or adjusted as HP's could."
Next: Brief Overview and Specifications >>
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