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Thread: Bulk Cat5 cable

  1. #1
    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    Bulk Cat5 cable

    I've been looking about for cable as I could (potentially) be wireing up a house in a few months.

    Had a look on the usual sites, Screwfix, RS, CPC, and from a link in another thread, Cablemonkey.co.uk.

    However I've also seen this on Scan: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/305m-...id-Pair-(Green)

    Any idea why this is as much as half the price of those other places, that specialise in bulk cable?

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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    Link doesn't work :

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/305m-...id-Pair-(Green)


    that is very cheap - maybe because it's green?

    And weirdly my link doesn't work either! Search for '24awg' and it shows up .....

  3. #3
    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    Damned brackets!

    Linky now worky

    I really don't care if it is green, it will be inside walls and floors

  4. #4
    DILLIGAF GoNz0's Avatar
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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    better off buying shileded cable if its going in walls and near other cables, saves you doing the job twice, that just seems to be poundshop special cable tbh.

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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    But even when you compare it to other unshielded cable, it is much cheaper.

    What do you recomend then GoNzO?

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    DILLIGAF GoNz0's Avatar
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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    cat6 tbh as its already shielded and gets you set for gb ethernet, also easier to thread through walls as its stiffer.

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    Senior Member watercooled's Avatar
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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    You can get UTP and FTP Cat6 just like Cat5(e). GbE is specified to run on Cat5 or above, so 6 isn't automatically a necessity and people often use Cat5e because it's easier to route but YMMV. Provided the cable meets spec and isn't some cheapo aluminium cable it should work fine and since it's from Scan I wouldn't worry about that - since it's bare just check the conductors are bright copper. I think you only need to bother with FTP if you're pulling it past fluorescent lamps or other high-voltage electrical equipment or over longer distances, I've not heard of anyone having problems with standard UTP in a home installation but I won't argue if someone can honestly say they have. Make sure the outlets are made for the wire gauge you're going to use and try to keep the pairs twisted as much as possible to improve signal quality. I'm also assuming it's that price because of the colour, the cable below it looks identical apart from it's grey but costs over £50.

  8. #8
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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    Quote Originally Posted by watercooled View Post
    I'm also assuming it's that price because of the colour, the cable below it looks identical apart from it's grey but costs over £50.
    Indeed, they may have just got a trcuk load at a very good price

    And that's what I thought about Cat5e as well. Cat6 is only required if you want to got for 4gig or 10gig over shorter disntances, or if your instalation environment is harsher than normal. I'll probably order a couple of boxes of this if the property sale/purchase goes through

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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    cat6 is an absolute bandit to use due to the radius of the curves you need to use to not kink the cable and sheilded cable is just plain nonsense in a home installation. I've ran 100m plus lengths of UTP cat5e in a factory environment over and under power cables and along side fluorescent lights and not had a problem.

    For home use cat5e UTP is absolutely ideal. Just run twice as many runs as you need right now just in case you need them in the future - 305m of cable goes a long way in a house!

  10. #10
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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    it's a big house

    I know all about runining more than you think you will need, I always advocate that whenever these threads come up. Probably looking at 40+ runs from a central point with patch pannel and a 24port switch.

    At that price compaired to everywhere else I'm actually tempted to buy a couple of them now just in case they disappear, I know a couple of other people that are thinking of getting me to wire up their places as well, so I think it will always be used.

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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    Cat5e UTP will be fine. It is flexible, easily terminated, and unless you are in a really electrically noisy environment the shielding doesn't add much except cost and slightly more complex termination. I buy mine from RS. While cheap cable will probably be fine on short runs, on longer runs the performance may suffer, and how much is it going to cost in time and effort to rip it out again if it doesn't perform as expected.

    Cat 6 does have a place, but its properties make it more suitable for industrial types of installation where it can be fastened to cable plates, or installed in ducting during first fit or refurvbishment (or in existing cable runs). STP also has a place, but as I said in electrically noisy environments or adajacent to mains supplying large inductive loads whee switch off spikes can lead to high bandwidth RF noise, or in high RF environemts (transmitter halls and the like). And on long runs it will outperform cat5e.

    That said, on the basis that if you can get quality stp cable for not much more than utp, you may consider it worth while, but you will also need to fit sheilded RJ45 sockets (more expensive).
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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    The other thing is, if you use STP make sure the shielding really is terminated. Else you've just slapped a nice big aerial next to your cable, ready to pick up any noise that's flying around.

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    Re: Bulk Cat5 cable

    Quote Originally Posted by caliston View Post
    The other thing is, if you use STP make sure the shielding really is terminated. Else you've just slapped a nice big aerial next to your cable, ready to pick up any noise that's flying around.
    Indeed - and not just terminated at the socket, but also ensure that all the earth bonding to the sheildng is good.
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