Cat 6e or Cat 7 networking

pablo21

Anyone any experience with setting up Cat 6e or Cat 7 networks? I want to setup a home network thats future proof with loads of bandwidth. I'm going to setup a media centre based entertainment system with media extenders routed over cat 6e. I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!

Sponge Bob

and Cat 6a as well.

They will all do between 1gb and 10gb , 6a and 7 will do 10gb more reliably .

dkane

Most gigabit switches use the 1000Base-T standard which will run fine on Cat5e. Don't think there is any need to go over cat6. For a home network I would suggest that cat5e would do everything you need. Not too many consumer grade devices operating at over 1 gigabit

L31mr0d

can you even buy cat 7 cables now? If you want to future proof then go with Cat 6a, but check that its backwards compatible. Cat 6a should be good for at least the next 10 years.

Sure 1000BASE-T is still barely adopted outside of businesses that require a good network backbone, and that only requires cat 5a. You'll only need cat 7 (uber expensive) if you are running cables longer than 100 meters, which you won't unless you live in the playboy mansion.

pablo21

I dont live in the playboy mansion but I am trying to build it at the moment. You can get cat7, you just need to pay and wait. Whats your definition of uber expensive? 600 metres of cat6e is only €300 plus the Vat? Surely a grand and a bit max would sort my new pad out with cat7 for the next 10 years? Future-proofing! The cable may be cheaper in a year of two but how much to route around my house then?

L31mr0d

well if you have the dough then go with cat 7. You might never see the benefits of it over cat 6e, but better safe than sorry right? All i'm saying is right now, you could route cat 6 through your house and it will support a gigabit network and some, then in a few years when you are changing your switch/nic's over to 10Gbit or whatever just reroute some cat 7 through the house.

To me its all about the bottom line. Would it be cheaper to spend the extra money on cat 7 and route it now? Or would it be cheaper to route cat 6 now, then in a few years when cat 7 cables have dropped considerably in price, to reroute them again? Also by that time we could have cat 8 or 9 coming out and you might choose to invest in those. Future proofing in the tech world is a myth, as standards and protocols change like the wind. You could invest in cat 7 now, then in a few years it could be obsolete and replaced by a better standard and you'll have to reroute again anyway.

Capt'n Midnight

Pay for ducting with gentle curves that you can pull cable through later.

If you are only using it for data then you can get low halogen cat 5e for about €50 per 305m. When you are running it also run some builders twine through so you can pull better cable when you need it easily. If you want to run video / audio then cat 5e should be OK too, while Cat 6 can go to 350MHz, CT100 type satellite cable can easily do several Ghz , and you can pick up 100m of similar cable with copper foil for about €50 in B&Q - don't forget to run two cables to each point for future proofing.

If you want to future proof try optical fiber.

Pocky

L31mr0d wrote: »

can you even buy cat 7 cables now?

Not really as it is not standard. But there is a multimedia standard that is kind of "Cat7". So you are looking at a multimedia cable

L31mr0d wrote: »

If you want to future proof then go with Cat 6a, but check that its backwards compatible. Cat 6a should be good for at least the next 10 years.

And than you rip the cables out of your house No, the higher grade cable is good if you want flexibility, option to change, using native signal, etc.

L31mr0d wrote: »

Sure 1000BASE-T is still barely adopted outside of businesses that require a good network backbone, and that only requires cat 5a. You'll only need cat 7 (uber expensive) if you are running cables longer than 100 meters, which you won't unless you live in the playboy mansion.

I don't think that data is the issue for domestic use but more sound and vision.

Look at www.Kerpen-HomeNet.com

BigEejit

bit of an old one to drag up .... I had a look at that german website ... hehe "Multimedia bis 2,3 GHz über Twisted Pair" ... mmmm über

Networking a house with cat5e is much easier than with cat6 .... you really have to watch your minimum bend radius with cat6. Also the backbox needs to be deeper for cat6 and if you dont terminate right you might as well have cat5 in there. Other than that, cat5e is a lot cheaper...

Pocky

Other site is www.HomeNetSupport.eu

You also have to watch the bending radius on Cat5 and Cat6.

Advantage of the higher grade cable is the higher bandwidth, higher capacity and flexibility where you can use native signals without the need to convert or condition it electronically so that it "fits" the lower grade cable.

PS: threat might be old but still up to date for others

Capt'n Midnight

BigEejit wrote: »

Also the backbox needs to be deeper for cat6 and if you dont terminate right you might as well have cat5 in there. Other than that, cat5e is a lot cheaper...

for digital drives are probably the limiting factor.

analog TV has a bandwidth of less than 8MHz and you are probably better off with co-ax if you to pipe satelilte or cable TV around the house

not sure if you can put HDMI over CAT5e