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Thread: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

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    Formerly known as Andehh Andeh13's Avatar
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    CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    I am about to undertake a general re-wire of my home network, due to having half the ceilings down and this being a very nice opportunity.

    The network will only be used for the likes of Smart TV/HDMi over twin/single Cat cable, Fire TV, and streaming up to 4K content between devices from my NAS/Netflix on the fire TVs. Nothing too strenuous or complex. All my router/network kit is general consumer grade.

    I was leaning towards Cat5e cable, but blackbox has Cat6 cable for only about £15 more, and I imagine it is worth going for.

    Can anyone comment on risks, benefits or pitfalls I might come across swapping to Cat6? It will not be the greatest of installs as I have a few walls to route in & up, joists & routing alongside several other cables.

    Nothing else will be Cat6 at this stage, but in 5 years time....?

    Thanks

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    DILLIGAF GoNz0's Avatar
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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    Fancy doing it all over again in 5 years then go for 5e.

    That's the only question you should need to ask yourself m8.

    Bit of a no brainier tbh m8, I think you already know that

    If they had cat6 when I did this place I would have used it. People said I was mad using Cat5e back then!

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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    Cat 6 is harder to install, less forgiving in terms of bend radius, and in practice will give you no increase in performance, particularly in a domestic situation.

    If you want the tech details, this is a simple explanation

    http://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cmdocs/...20or-Cat6A.pdf

    The only real world difference in performance is that cat6 is certified to operate at 250 MHz, where as cat 5e is not, but over the lengths in most domestic situations cat5e will offer comparable performance.

    If you really feel inclined, go for 6a but be prepared to spend shed loads on the interfaces to realise the performance.

    If you really want to, install cat 6, but be careful how you handle it, bend it, and support it, otherwise you will degrade the performance anyway.
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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    I'd probably think will I use 10Gb ethernet? if so I'd go with Cat6 ( But then some places on the internet say for the small distances 5e can hold 10Gb Ethernet )

    But looking at GoNz0's post I'd agree, would I want to rewire in 5 years for the sake of £15 now.

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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    Quote Originally Posted by Andehh View Post

    Nothing else will be Cat6 at this stage, but in 5 years time....?
    It will probably be cat 7 or 8 and you will feel the need to do it again.

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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    Quote Originally Posted by PaulM1 View Post
    It will probably be cat 7 or 8 and you will feel the need to do it again.
    Cat6 and Cat6e can go up to 10Gbit, 55m and 100m respectively. I really can't envisage needing anything faster than 10Gbit for a home network.

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    DILLIGAF GoNz0's Avatar
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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    Quote Originally Posted by MrComputerSaint View Post
    I really can't envisage needing anything faster than
    A sentence that should never be quoted about technology.

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    off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

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    Formerly known as Andehh Andeh13's Avatar
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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    Thanks for the suggestions guys. cat6 is only £30 more over 300m so price isnt an issue for me - £65 vs £95

    I was set on cat5e, but receiving samples of both cat5 and cat6 I find the cat6 much easier to terminate due to thicker cables (less fiddly) and the better colour differentiation when checking them.

    I see it as cat6 installed poorly will still compete with cat5e installed poorly, but if I do manage to do it carefully & properly I am future proof beyond the 5-8 years we expect to stay here?

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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    Quote Originally Posted by MrComputerSaint View Post
    Cat6 and Cat6e can go up to 10Gbit, 55m and 100m respectively. I really can't envisage needing anything faster than 10Gbit for a home network.
    10GBase-T switches need to come a *long* way in both cost and silence before I think too many people will be using them. Don't get me wrong, I'd love 10Gb for my lab, but I'd need to splash out on a soundproofed cabinet first.

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    DILLIGAF GoNz0's Avatar
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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    Quote Originally Posted by Andehh View Post
    Thanks for the suggestions guys. cat6 is only £30 more over 300m so price isnt an issue for me - £65 vs £95

    I was set on cat5e, but receiving samples of both cat5 and cat6 I find the cat6 much easier to terminate due to thicker cables (less fiddly) and the better colour differentiation when checking them.

    I see it as cat6 installed poorly will still compete with cat5e installed poorly, but if I do manage to do it carefully & properly I am future proof beyond the 5-8 years we expect to stay here?
    get a cheap cable tester to make sure you have terminated correctly, Nothing worse than wondering why it is at 10mb over 1gb because it's defaulted to a 4 pair setup!

    Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
    off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    And pay attention to the minimum bend radius and not deforming the cable when stapling to the supporting infrastructure. A cheap cable tester will tell you about core connection, but won't tell you anything about the transmission characteristics.
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    Formerly known as Andehh Andeh13's Avatar
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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    Thanks guys, already have a cable tester which I have been using whilst I practise. The fact the cat6 was easier to terminate made me a lot happier. I will be running approx 10-12 so that's a lot of terminating to do!

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    Re: CAT 5e or CAT 6?

    Hi

    I've just done the same. Have a read of this tread I asked about. Some good advice in there and it's worked for me.

    http://forums.hexus.net/networking-b...ing-house.html

    This is the cable I used.

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3808033376...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

    It was easy to thread through the walls as is it thick and stiff cable and didn't get damaged. Bit hard to wire into the sockets at first but there is a way of doing it. Although all guidance on how to wire a RJ45 socket was for when the wire was on a table in front of you, not in limited space and needing to fit in a socket for the end result. Leave spare cable under the floor so if it doesn't work first time, you can pull a bit more through.

    Take care

    Alex

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