I have just dustily emerged from under the floor of my new abode where I have been routing various audio, hdmi and Cat5e cables.

My first go at terminating my own cables/patch panels/installing wall sockets and – surprisingly – the network is running sweetly.

Currently using an old gigabit wifi router with DNS switched off as a temporary switch, but ultimately I will need more ports – so which 8 port switch should I go for?

Have been looking at these, though would happily go with other recommendations.
8 port gigabit unmanaged
8 port gigabit managed
8 port with 4 ports PoE

I don’t need PoE (I cabled up phones as landline slave sockets and don’t think I’ll use VOIP) but wonder if its worth having for the extra cost in case I want to build, say, a PoE driven raspberrry pi security camera come Aliens style sentry gun for the garage?

Think I am settled on gigabit, even if it isn’t completely necessary, but I cannot make my mind up as to whether it should be managed/unmanaged or whether to get Power over Ethernet?

What would folk recommend for a home network as the best balance of features against cost and fit and forget against flexibility? Prices, standards and features are incredibly variable. It’s almost as bad as bikes…

Cheapest gigabit that’s not going to fall apart… oh and one that runs silently. For home use you don’t need managed.
I’ve used Netgear for years and not had a problem other than from a lightning strike.

PoE is nice for wireless access points, IP cameras, or even other little switches where you didn’t put enough ports. But you can always use PoE injectors later if necessary.

I’d go for some more ports (you always need more ports) and have also had good experiences with unmanaged Netgear kit at home.

For home use you don’t need managed.

Totally. You’ll pay for something you’re unlikely to use. I’ve had a TP-Link switch in for about 8 years and had one failure (switch it off and on again, fixed) so would look at heir gigabit switches if I was replacing it (unlikely as I’m pretty much all wireless now)

Thanks for the advice folks – unmanaged gigabit it is then.

PoE doesn’t look like it’s worth the extra for now, especially seeing as you can retrofit. More ports would be great, but the price more than doubles to go to 16. An 8 port switch and the current hub would 10 ports, which leaves me a couple of spare ports to play with.