Alot of great suggestions already - so I won't go into alot of detail and description as most of it would just be redundant of what others have been saying...

But I would suggest, if cost isn't a matter, going with Foundry FastIron switches... They have been one of the most reliable fastest switches for some time now - they just cost considerably more then Cisco and most others is their only real downside...

Also - not mentioned Allied Telesyn 'Rapier' switches. They don't have quite as large of throughput as the Foundry - but they bost cost less and hardware wise is the most reliable switch made. (Not even 1 reported hardware failure)

Here's a good article from PC magazine that compares Cisco/Foundry/AlliedTelesyn/SMC and more - for Highend, midrange, and cheapy switches...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,34640,00.asp

RRP