Which cat-5e?

I'll be running cat-5e throughout the house (work said no wireless). Is any one brand better than the other, and who has the best prices?

Thanks,
Nick

Brand really does not matter much (I don't have any favorites). They are all built to the same standards anyway.

Just be sure that the cable you use is the stuff you want:

"Plenum" = Fire retardant, more expensive.. usually required if the cable is going into walls/through floors. Check with your municipality/provincial(state) regulations

"Hard" = Has a hard shell, and very tough wires.. I suggest this for use in walls... it's very easy to feed, but lacks maneuverability.

"Soft" = Has a soft shell, and soft wires... great for making sharp turns, or any patching that needs to be done at the patch panel or desktop drop.

You said nothing about cost restraints.. If there is gigabit in your future, it may be worth using CAT6 cable now, rather than rip out old cable later.

Welcome to the forums!

Actually, I wouldn't buy cat 6 unless there was VERY little cost difference. Everyone in the industry that I've talked to says that CAT 5 will run gigabit over copper just fine. I get my wire for about $45/1000' at comready.com. I see that they have a roll for $37 + ship. Maybe that will work for you. I am on my second box of the stuff and it works fine. I've not had a bad run yet.

If you need to stay within code and need Plenum, that will cost about $120/1000'.

For my parent's new house, me and my bros ran 4000' feet (it's a rather large house) of cat5e from elementsource.com: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/elementsources/bcatfoncol5e.html

This is the cheapest place we've been able to find it anywhere.

DaBigJ said:

For my parent's new house, me and my bros ran 4000' feet (it's a rather large house) of cat5e from elementsource.com: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/elementsources/bcatfoncol5e.html

This is the cheapest place we've been able to find it anywhere.

Click to expand...

Judging from the picture, element source sells the same brand as comready. Comready is just $1 more. Just a matter of shipping costs.

whats the difference between cat5 and cat6?

Perre said:

whats the difference between cat5 and cat6?

Click to expand...

Cat5 doesn't support gigabit
Cat5e "supports" gigabit
Cat6 was built for gigabit

Cat 6 thus has higher quality, less signal loss, etc.

and dont forget that Cat 6 will have less cross talk, and will work better at max lenghs when in the same conduit with powercables, and it is cheaper then STP Cat 5e (at least in Olympia)

dagamore said:

and dont forget that Cat 6 will have less cross talk, and will work better at max lenghs when in the same conduit with powercables...

Click to expand...

Hopefully you're not running data lines in the same conduit as power cables.

I'll give it to you guys about the cat6, I've not felt the need to get it though.

I'm using cat5 cables for gigabit once in a while (at home I only use 100mbit). Whats the difference between cat5 and cat5e?

would a cat5 "work" with gigabit and/or are there any danger with using it?

thanx

Perre said:

I'm using cat5 cables for gigabit once in a while (at home I only use 100mbit). Whats the difference between cat5 and cat5e?

would a cat5 "work" with gigabit and/or are there any danger with using it?

thanx

Click to expand...

I've never tried it, but apparently, Cat5 isn't supposed to work with gigabit. Cat5e is supposed to work, but if you want good speeds, or any type of shielding against EMI, Cat6 is the way to go.

I could be wrong about what kind of cable I'm using, but I'm using the same old cables I've used for a couple of years (somtimes newer)

So I hear there's only a quality difference between cat5 and cat5e?

All that I really know is that Cat5 and Cat5e are set standards. The difference between them are small when you look at them on the surface. Cat5e can handle faster data throughput than Cat5. It has to do with the twists that are put into the pairs.

Unless there has been a change recently, Cat6 is not a 'set' standard. That is to say that company "A" and company "B" could make Cat6 wire to different specs. Until Cat6 is ratified, both companies could say that they are Cat6.

What I can say about Cat6, at least the spools that I've seen, is that the wires are molded together so that they retain thier twists better. I can see a benefit with this but not a benefit that I'm willing to pay for. If someone can point me to some Cat6 that costs about the same as Cat5e, I would talk a different story.

http://www.berktek.com/products/pdf/GUARDmark 5_03.pdf


This is an example of some STP cat6.

As you can see, there is a spacer in the middle of the cable, which helps maintain cable geometry, ie pairs dont get moved around, mashed, seperated, distorted; all of which can destroy a cables ability to properly transmit data at high speeds/frequencies. This probably doesnt really provide 100% protection against improper installation such as extreme bends, pinches, twists and kinks, but im sure helps a bit. Each category has specific standards on how cabling should be installed, so do some research on that too so you have some idea of the radius's you can bend the cable, and so on.

If you never plan to run gigabit, 5e should be fine. Homedepot sells General Cable 5e and that stuff is good enough. In Boise here they sell it for around 50 per 1000' spools.

No need to go bonkers unless you enjoy going overkill, which I do, so I used Berk-Tek Enhanced 5e 350MHz, which is around $130+ a spool /1000 ft. But then again i got it free from a contractor buddy.

I would see if there is a Graybar near you as they sell cabling and what not, and can probably order or have in stock some of the more expensive brands.

The most important thing, no matter which brand you get, is to properly terminate each drop. It doesnt matter how good or expensive your cable is, if you do a poor job on termination your work is down the toilet.

Check here:

http://www.levitonvoicedata.com/learning/default.asp

for information on LAN wiring and cabling standards.

Edit: Another site: http://195.207.121.122/nexans/html_us/ncs/pdf/installation/Installation Guides/TPICE3.pdf

I purchased my CAT-5e from Home Depot. Plenum Rated. Best price for what I needed.

CAT-6 has a solid core that helps to eliminate crosstalk, but its best application is VOIP installations that require one pair to carry 12VDC. CAT-5e is fine for 10-100-1000 installations, data only.

N_D