cat5 vs cat6

[thespeakerbox]

Whats the major differences between the two in a home network enviroment? Is it worth the upgrade?

 

[amdskip]

If you are wiring in the walls, put cat 6 in but do understand it is not easy to work with compared to cat 5. Cat 5e will handle gig speeds just fine if it is terminated, etc. correctly.

 

[Raj]

cat 5 supports ethernet speeds of up to 100mbps
cat 5e and cat 6 support speeds of upt o 1000mbps

go with cat5e. though gigabit ethernet is not commonplace yet, its quickly becoming so. You wanna be able to acccomodate for it, and futureproof your house.

hell, get wired for fiber even if its cost effective.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Raj
cat 5 supports ethernet speeds of up to 100mbps
cat 5e and cat 6 support speeds of upt o 1000mbps

go with cat5e. though gigabit ethernet is not commonplace yet, its quickly becoming so. You wanna be able to acccomodate for it, and futureproof your house.

hell, get wired for fiber even if its cost effective.

Raj, even though I'm a big fan of fiber the big push is for 10 gigabit ethernet over copper.

But in all seriousness a home should be fine with cat5e. Cat6 would be nice and what I would put into my home if wiring only because the cost difference is minimal.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: thespeakerbox
Whats the major differences between the two in a home network enviroment? Is it worth the upgrade?

If you suddenly decided out of left side to upgrade your cables, you are wasting your time and money.

Otherwise if work is done, walls are internally exposed and cabling might be a very easy Job, it should be considered.

:sun:

 

[DaCurryman]

To slightly bring this thread back from the dead. I am also trying to decide between Cat5e and Cat6 for my new home. My family is moving and we're remodeling the house, so they're no sheetrock and all the studs/framing is exposed. Basically this is my time to do all the wiring I want within the walls and between rooms/floors. I need to purchase the cable soon before they start putting up the walls.

I know Cat5e is ok enough to do GigE (assuming the cabling is done correctly), but I wanted to know if it would be more beneficial to go with Cat6. I don't know the cost difference since I havent seen Cat6 in any B&M stores like Lowes or Home Depot. Also, I still need to figure out if I need Plenum or Riser wire for the house. Other threads make it sound like running Cat6 is a pain...so I'm a little worried. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[DaCurryman]

Also, if anybody knows of a place (online or B&M for NYC area) that sells cabling for cheap, but with good quality, please let me know. Thanks.

 

[tiap]

Originally posted by: DaCurryman
To slightly bring this thread back from the dead. I am also trying to decide between Cat5e and Cat6 for my new home. My family is moving and we're remodeling the house, so they're no sheetrock and all the studs/framing is exposed. Basically this is my time to do all the wiring I want within the walls and between rooms/floors. I need to purchase the cable soon before they start putting up the walls.

I know Cat5e is ok enough to do GigE (assuming the cabling is done correctly), but I wanted to know if it would be more beneficial to go with Cat6. I don't know the cost difference since I havent seen Cat6 in any B&M stores like Lowes or Home Depot. Also, I still need to figure out if I need Plenum or Riser wire for the house. Other threads make it sound like running Cat6 is a pain...so I'm a little worried. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

If you want to futureproof:
At Lowes or HDepot, get 1/2inch pvc conduit for approx$1.10 per 10 foot lenght. Install that in the walls and you can easily "pull" better or newer or fiber or whatever wheneve. Not as bothersome as it may sound, especially if the rock is off. I already replaced my 15 yer old coax with quad shield for satellite. Did the whole house in a little over an hour. Just takes a little planning.

 

[bigsnyder]

I would suggest Cat6. I don't believe the difference in price is very much. The main
physical difference between the two that I can tell is the windings of the twisted pairs
are tighter. Shielding might also be a factor, but the wire gauge is the same, at least
for the two samples I compared. Because of the tighter windings and possible beefier
shielding, Cat6 cable is a little stiffer, but not much harder to work with IMO.

On another note, do some research about installing. Cat6 has certain parameters that
must be adhered to maintain acceptable performance. Things like length, sharpness
of bends, and various other things. Not all "Cat5" type hardware will function at Cat6
levels, so be careful there. Again, I am no expert, but this are just a few things I have
run across while doing my own projects.

Good Luck!

C Snyder

Correction: I compared another sample of Cat5e to my Cat6, the Cat6 is 23awg as
the Cat5e was 24awg.

 

[DaCurryman]

Thanks guys. I'm fairly certain I will be going with Cat6. My question now is if people know of particular brands that are good for Cat6. I've seens some really cheap ones, but they are for horizontal pulls only and not meant to go between walls or floors. If anyone knows of a reliabile site with good brands and prices, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[DaCurryman]

Originally posted by: tiap
If you want to futureproof:
At Lowes or HDepot, get 1/2inch pvc conduit for approx$1.10 per 10 foot lenght. Install that in the walls and you can easily "pull" better or newer or fiber or whatever wheneve. Not as bothersome as it may sound, especially if the rock is off. I already replaced my 15 yer old coax with quad shield for satellite. Did the whole house in a little over an hour. Just takes a little planning.

tiap....what kind of Coax did you get? What exactly is quad-shield? Is that a type of RG6 cable? I'm also looking to run Coax for cable feeds between the rooms as well.

 

[DaCurryman]

No help on Brand/Pricing? I need to place my order by today at the latest.

 

[spidey07]

as long as its cat 6 you should be fine.

 

[Nebben]

Originally posted by: DaCurryman
Also, if anybody knows of a place (online or B&M for NYC area) that sells cabling for cheap, but with good quality, please let me know. Thanks.

Newegg sells cabling for reasonable prices. The generic stuff, that is. I know there may be some fear of the word 'generic' within your soul, but I had the same fears and I've used their cables for wiring my home network and it works just as well as the incredibly overpriced Belkin cables which are like triple the price.

Some generic stuff is bad, but I have had no problem with this particular variety.

Also, depending on how much cabling you're doing, buying bulk cable and crimping it may or may not be a good route to go. You do need to make sure you know what you're doing and be sure to properly crimp the ends or you may have problems. If this is a one-time thing and/or spending a few extra bucks isn't a big deal just buy premade cables.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Cat6, most brands are fine.

 

[keeleysam]

http://www.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/Vi...axprice=&mfrcode=0&DEPA=0&Order=rating

Pick your favorite color!

 

[Hurricane Andrew]

The only difference I've found with Belkin is the neat little end tabs instead of the generic everyday ones. Strangely though, if all you need is a short run (14 or 25 ft.) you can pick up Belkin for pretty darn cheap at Wal-Mart, especially if you need it in a hurry. For house or office wiring with long runs though, you're best looking elsewhere...

 

[imported_netman]

I would still say don't use cat6.

Even industry wide, there is almost no use for cat6 over Cat5e. In fact normal Cat5 will do GigE just fine, much less Cat5e. Cat6 hasn't become a standard or required for anything, so I would save yourself the cost of cable/materials, and the installation headache.

Don't believe the hype...

 

[skyking]

I'll be running cat6 in the open walls of my sister's house, and Certifying it with a paper trail. If she sells, it will be a nice enhancement, IMO.
They had a fire and part of the repair entailed removing all the sheetrock.
I will put two drops plus one Coax and a phone in each bedroom, and an extra set in the bigger bedrooms.
They really don't know about multimedia home theatre placement, so I will put in flex conduit from boxes to the crawlspace and caulk it off. I can easily make the speaker wires runs after they figure out where they are going. I'll put in 6 boxes in that room.