Network switch for my lab - Netgear GS724T-300
The last hardware upgrade on my vSphere lab was the SSD, but in addition to that I've been in need of a descent switch for a while. What I wanted, was a Cisco 2960-S. Not only are they good, but they're also my top-of-rack standard switch in my vSphere deployments. However, in spite of diligently trolling Ebay looking for a deal, I decided to opt for a Netgear GS724T-300 for the home lab... which is a 24-port gigabit managed switch, supporting 802.1q VLAN tagging, link aggregation, etc. Most of all, it's affordable at $219. While not of any consequence in my environment, they're silent, which doesn't hurt.