Cat5e vs Cat6a vs Cat7

jellybeard999 · 25 May 2017 at 21:44

I'll shortly be renovating and wiring a house.

In my current house, I installed cat5e throughout and found this straightforward and get 1gbps connections across the board, so I must have done something right!

Is it still the case that a cat5e installation is recommended as it's easier to terminate than cat6 and a diy cat6 installation is unlikely to be up to scratch so that it offers nothing additional?

How does cat7 figure into this, as from my google searches, that seems to crop up recently.

Thoughts?

thezappa · 25 May 2017 at 21:52

Not that i know a huge amount about network cabling but would the cost of Cat6 or certainly Cat7 outweigh any benefit of having it? I mean in what scenarios would you need more than a 1Gbps connection; multiple users streaming 4k content around the house maybe?
Cue someone wading in saying there are millions of reason to do it but hey, I'm just thinking from a regular Joe pov.
Whats the cost difference? Could you pull Cat6 through at a later date when it comes down in price, assuming you have appropriate trunking in place?

rexehuk · 25 May 2017 at 22:22

I'm going through the same situation at the moment doing a full rewire.

I was going for cat6a but couldn't find faceplates compatible with the standard that I wanted. Found 50m for about £36.

Pretty much now settled on just using cat5e, mainly because can't see need for 10Gbit interconnected Lan and would have to up my network cards anyway to take advantage of it.

Oh and by the way, there is cat6 and cat6a... Two entirely different standards.

jellybeard999 · 25 May 2017 at 22:43

rexehuk said:
Pretty much now settled on just using cat5e, mainly because can't see need for 10Gbit interconnected Lan and would have to up my network cards anyway to take advantage of it.

This is my thinking at the moment too.

The cable isn't much more, it's the properly terminating the cable that's difficult from what i've read.

Zefan · 25 May 2017 at 23:14

This has been covered on here quite a few times recently. Just go for 5e or 6 if you really think you'll be wanting to throw your money at 10Gb devices in the next few years. 6a is for 10Gb at 100m max and is much harder to work with than 6, which is for 55m max, so unless you have a massive house you're never going to need 6a over 6.

As for 7... Just pretend it doesn't exist. It pretty much doesn't, not for any even remotely viable domestic application. Even industry seldom seems to use it. I'd sooner use fibre and converters than Cat 7!

jellybeard999 · 26 May 2017 at 08:04

I did a search for cat6, but most of the threads were a couple of years old...

Is cat6 no different to cat5e in terms of termination, faceplates, patch panels etc? Is it only the cable that's different? The rest is the same?

Armageus · 26 May 2017 at 08:09

jellybeard999 said:
Is cat6 no different to cat5e in terms of termination, faceplates, patch panels etc? Is it only the cable that's different? The rest is the same?

There are specific keystone jacks and patch panels for Cat 6 as the wires are a slightly different gauge to cat5e.

Solus · 26 May 2017 at 08:10

I don't know what's technically the same, but in my experience I tried to crimp a cat5e connector on to cat6 cable and it didn't work. I crimped a cat6 cable on to cat5e and it worked.

Ensure all terminations are for cat6, I don't know the exact difference, I think it may be where the cabling lines up.

Gaijin · 26 May 2017 at 10:02

I personally wouldn't go beyond SSTP or S/FTP Cat 6. Cat 6a is much more difficult to work with and doesn't really offer any benefit in a home environment.

Bickaxe · 26 May 2017 at 11:11

Having priced up the cost to do our house, there was about £80 difference in cat5e or cat6a (This was in October).
Went with cat5e as no need for anything else and its easier to work with.
300m roll was only £60 (irc) for the LSZH flavour. Got loads left over so will do my mates when he gets round to it.

Kiyoshi · 26 May 2017 at 11:12

I may live to regret it but I ran Cat5e mostly, a few runs of Cat6 which I had lying around. The Cat5e was just easier to work with, cheaper, and still gives me the speeds I want. I figured I'd have either moved house, or be dead, by the time Cat5e wasn't fast enough.

jellybeard999 · 26 May 2017 at 12:50

So the additional issues are related to Cat6a?

Beyond buying specific cat6 patch panels, faceplates etc, it's no different in terms of installation than cat5e?

Bickaxe · 26 May 2017 at 13:45

With the exception of the wiring order when you terminate the end at a face plate or RJ45 (looks like the colours switch in places on some pictures but can't say for sure), its a little more punishing on your fingers.
Can't see any home user needing it though.

Kiyoshi · 26 May 2017 at 14:36

The bend radius is worse.

bulletv1 · 26 May 2017 at 15:19

When i did mine 2 years ago i went for Cat6. Wasn't much more expensive than 5e and plan to live in the house for the foreseeable future so thought a little bit of future proofing would be good. Fingers killed after making all the patch cables and terminating all the ends though.

If you go down the Cat6 route get some 2 piece plugs. Makes it soo much easier.

bremen1874 · 26 May 2017 at 15:26

You made your own patch cables?

Never a good idea, especially on anything above Cat5e. By the time you factor in the cost of the plugs the saving is minuscule and the off the shelf item will almost certainly be of better quality.

bulletv1 · 26 May 2017 at 15:32

bremen1874 said:
You made your own patch cables?

Never a good idea, especially on anything above Cat5e. By the time you factor in the cost of the plugs the saving is minuscule and the off the shelf item will almost certainly be of better quality.

Well i did to start off with. I just used the spare bits. Once i had my server and pc and other things that connect to my network sorted i ordered some patch cables in a variety of colours depending on device function.

welshdragon · 26 May 2017 at 16:37

Cat 6 is cheap enough and I wired my entire house with it two years ago. Having ports in every room and some redundant runs has been fantastic

MassiveJim · 27 May 2017 at 10:30

I wired my house with CAT6, but I only found out about the bend radius issue after the electrician had ran all the cabling for me.

1 thing I will say is choose your patch panel location wisely, I made a mistake with mine by having it run into the bedroom my office was in and now that bedroom needs to become a nursery so I am having to move the patch panel and there is no way to re-run all of the cables

tom_nieto · 27 May 2017 at 18:53

I got lucky with copper clad aluminium Cat 6 cable and I can get 1080p HDMI signal across it. I think the consensus is that decent solid copper core Cat6 will suffice especially if you plan a load of redundant runs in as well. Certainly for video over ethernet having 2 runs I think has saved me because of the slightly cheap cable (or terminating it like a boss

). I'll be running solid core cat 6 up to the loft in any case.