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Cat5E or Cat6?

J

jakepallbin

Junior Member
We're trying to decide if we should use Cat5E or Cat6 in our small office. We are not heavy bandwidth/network users, but we woud like to consider what our future needs might be. Under what applications or usage would Cat6 be more appropriate than Cat5E? Thanks, Jake
 
Hi there, welcome to the AT forums. 🙂

Cat5e is rated for gigabit ethernet. Cat5e afaik has not been rated for anything beyond GigE. Cat6 is also rated for gigabit ethernet. It is a higher quality cable, more bandwidth, and thicker physically so in terms of future growth Cat6 definitely has more headroom/options than Cat5e.

Cat5e walljacks, patch panels, and punchdown blocks are cheaper than Cat6 rated ones and for a smaller office GigE should be more than sufficient for quitte some time as long as you aren't in need of a LOT of bandwidth. If there isn't a "large" cost difference for wiring the place up I'd go for the Cat6 but if the difference is signifigant 5e is what we're running and it has worked great for quite a while.

Gaidin
 
Originally posted by: spidey07
cat 6. the cost difference is so minimal it shouldn't really be a thought.
Click to expand...

Cat 6. When I bid out for our new data center, there was no difference in cost between cat 5 and cat 6.
 
Installing today CAT5e, in an office envioroment is like saying: ?My computing needs are not so High, let me buy new PentiumII-300 computers, and equip them with 802.11b Wireless".😉

:sun:
 
Originally posted by: JackMDS
Installing today CAT5e, in an office envioroment is like saying: ?My computing needs are not so High, let me buy new PentiumII-300 computers, and equip them with 802.11b Wireless".😉

:sun:
Click to expand...

pretty close.

Cabling is supposed to last 10 years. Build it for 10 years. Cat5 (and in a way cat5e) have been around for 10 years...they are about at the end of their life.
 
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