Is CAT6 overkill?

[Caveman]

Want to make sure I understand properly:

CAT 6 can handle gigabit (1000Mbit) data...?

Current sources from local cable and DSL providers have theorhetical max of 10megabits??

Possibility of local providers going to 100 Megabit service 3-5 years from now?

What is the minimum speed required to stream movies to local PCs on a home network?

 

[jlazzaro]

Cat5e is rated to handle 1000Mb, though if you wiring your house or the like, future proof it and jump for Cat6. It's not that more expensive, and you know your wiring will be sufficient for years to come.

for streaming, it all depend on quality. technically speaking you could stream over a 10mb network. i would recommend at least 100mb though, or if your going for HD quality streams and want the best of the best, go 1000mb.

note: your going to need hardware that supports this as well, gigabit nic cards and a gigabit switch that preferably supports jumbo frames.

 

[James Bond]

Originally posted by: jlazzaro
Cat5e is rated to handle 1000Mb, though if you wiring your house or the like, future proof it and jump for Cat6. It's not that more expensive, and you know your wiring will be sufficient for years to come.

for streaming, it all depend on quality. technically speaking you could stream over a 10mb network. i would recommend at least 100mb though, or if your going for HD quality streams and want the best of the best, go 1000mb.

note: your going to need hardware that supports this as well, gigabit nic cards and a gigabit switch that preferably supports jumbo frames.

I think Cat5e would last him years to come. I doubt he needs anything more than 100mb/sec, so I think that having gig cabling would do him just fine for the future.

Is cat6 rated at 10,000MB/sec, or is that cat7?

 

[spyordie007]

Cat6 is rated to provide much better performance than Cat5e, however it's still only designed for a max of 1Gbps (at full length). I think some implementations will still support 10Gbps over Cat6 but they don't get as long of distances due to signal loss. For "full" 10Gbps support you'd need to look at Cat6a (which AFAIK is still draft).

Depending on the video quality you could probably get away with Cat3 (10Mbps), video streams (at least those designed to be transmitted over network medium) are usually at a lower bitrate.

When I wired my house in 2004 I did Cat5e, were I to do it again I would do Cat6. The cost differences are minimal when comparing the extra signal quality you can get out of Cat6.

My 2 cents,

Erik

 

[Sunner]

I actually bought some Cat5e cables not too long ago, they cost about what I expected for 5e.
Once they arrived, I noticed that I had accidentally bought Cat6, I just didn't look very closely due to the price.

Don't know what it's like in the US, but around here, there's virtually no price difference at all, unless you go to some crappy mega-computer-mart that markets Cat6 as the Monster Cables of the computer world.

 

[Gerbil333]

I'm using all Cat6 cables except for one Cat5e wire to one machine. Incidentally, that machine also produces the slowest file transfers, but the comparison is hardly fair because it's the slowest machine and has the cheapest NIC. I bought my cables from DeepSurplus. Here's a quick comparison:

25ft Cat5e patch cable: $3.04
25ft Cat6 patch cable: $4.11

Bulk 1000ft Cat5e: $122.25
Bulk 1000ft Cat6: $175.00

You might as well future-proof your network with prices so similar.

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: Tizyler

I think Cat5e would last him years to come. I doubt he needs anything more than 100mb/sec, so I think that having gig cabling would do him just fine for the future.

Is cat6 rated at 10,000MB/sec, or is that cat7?

Cat3 - 10 Mb/s
Cat5 - 1 Gb/s
Cat5e - 1 Gb/s (recommended over Cat5 for 1 Gb/s)
Cat6 - 10 Gb/s (max cable length 100 feet)
Cat6a - 10 Gb/s (max cable length expected to be 300 feet)

 

[programmer]

Might as well go with Cat6. Just make sure you get Cat6-rated cable-ends, keystone jacks, patch panel (if needed), etc. Oh, and use solid-core wire in the walls/floors/ceilings (only patch panels should use stranded wire for flexibility). And get plenum wire if needed too.

A couple years ago we were getting our basement finished and I ran standard solid-core Cat5e cables all over the place. I just recently got around to installing a patch panel and the keystone jacks. It was a learning experience, but quite a bit easier than I thought it would be. Great thing is it all works and now I don't need wireless (and its issues) unless I want to use the laptop away from an Ethernet port.