which switch to use?

[tablesalt]

I'm curious to know what brand of switch most users would recomend. I'm putting together a LAN for a friend who is setting up a gaming room so that people may come and pay by the hour to plan games on the LAN/Internet. It will be composed of 2 Win2K servers and 18 machines running XP Pro. The PC's each have an Intel Pro100 NIC in them and the servers both have dual 3com's on the mainboard. What type of switch should I use. I've been looking at 3com Super Stack III's and Intels. I want to use a 48 port for expandability. Any suggestions? Thanks for the help.

[EvilCabbage]

[quote]Originally posted by tablesalt:
<strong>It will be composed of 2 Win2K servers and 18 machines running XP Pro. </strong><hr></blockquote>

First up, using XP is a shocking mistake, but I'll let you make that one.

3-Com switches are OK. Personal preferance, would be for a Netgear switch, good price, great quality, nice little units.

[CodeDragon]

[quote]Originally posted by EvilCabbage:
<strong>

First up, using XP is a shocking mistake, but I'll let you make that one.

3-Com switches are OK. Personal preferance, would be for a Netgear switch, good price, great quality, nice little units.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Have to agree with Da Cabbage on both counts. I've found 3Com to be a leetle flaky in the past.
XP = D'Oh! Waiting to happen.

CD :p

[tablesalt]

Sorry guys, have to disagree with you on the part about not going to XP. I've been using it since beta1, including betas of Whistler Advanced Server, its by far the most stable OS that the guys in Redmond have ever dished out. It may require a bit more power to run then ME (oh the pain), or 2K, but these machines are Athlon XP 1800+ based, no issues here. Thanks for the advice on the switches, I'll look into the netgear.