Stranded or solid cat5 cable?

Tomsk · 23 Jun 2006 at 20:07

Stranded or solid Cat5 cable - which is better, and why?

TIA

Burbleflop · 23 Jun 2006 at 20:11

Solid is meant for structured cabling installations where the cable will be installed then left alone.

Stranded is meant for patch cables where the cable has to be flexible to bend around patch panels and the like.

Tomsk · 23 Jun 2006 at 20:14

Thanks.

So it's probably better to buy a reel of stranded then, as it will be used in a variety of situations.

Burbleflop · 23 Jun 2006 at 20:16

The downside of using stranded in a structured cabling environment is that the stranded cable doesn't grip in the connectors on the back of the RJ45 sockets as well as solid does. If you'll be doing that, make sure you leave some slack and use cable ties so that any stress on the cable isn't going to pull the individual wires out.

Tomsk · 23 Jun 2006 at 21:05

Every cable will be terminated with plugs at both ends. It's just that some of the cables I'll be making won't need to be moved once they're installed. I'm just buying one reel of cable, so I figure it's probably better and cheaper to get one 305m reel of stranded, rather multiple reels and have loads left over. I estimate I'll need approx. 250m of cable.