cat6 worth it?

[R!zz0]

Hey everyone, building a new home and i was wondering if there's a difference between cat5e vs cat6? I know cat6 is heavyer guage than cat5e, but is it worth the extra $800 from the builder?

[pheoxs]

Cat6 can do 10gbit upto ~120 feet which would be nice for future proofing but in all honesty its doubtful we'd ever get near those speeds, most boards only support 1gbit at the moment and our home internet connections will be ages before we even get 1gbit everywhere.

If its not going to break the bank it'd be nice to have, but if you don't plan on being there for a long time and/or are trying to fit within a budget I'd probably use it elsewhere. From a functional aspect its doubtful you'd ever even notice the difference between the two.

[ercchry]

Some hdmi extenders require it... so depends what your plan is for a/v... central rack? Or just boxes at each tv?

[jacky4566]

$800!!! A whole fricken box is only $200. I would try to negotiate on that a bit.

Its not only the gauge of wire but how its twisted and how each pair insulated from the others.

However yes. Upgrade to CAT6. You will have much less problems with noise and your future proofed for other applications.

I just want to point out that the 10GBaseT specification does not address Cat 6 at all. However yes, you can use it for limited range 10GB.

[sabad66]

Yup get Cat6. No point limiting yourself if you're already spending the money.

Imagine how pissed you would be if in 4 years you want to wire something but the solution only works with cat6

[Xtrema]

6a for 10Gbps has 100m range if you are worried about that. 3x the range of cat6.

Right now the only reason for 6 is future proofing for 4k HDMI over cat6. I don't thing 10gbps Ethernet will be in consumer electronics any time soon.

[Buster]

I did a lot of research on this as I recently had drops pulled in my house. The short answer is that it is a waste of money.

Cat6 is essentially a dead spec. You will never be able to use what it offers. The hardware side of the Cat6 spec never took off, so you basically have nothing to plug into it that will work differently than Cat5e.

Cat6a is indeed a bump, but much harder to run, and MUCH harder to terminate, so your costs go way up. This is pure profit seeking by the developer, and you're basically flushing that $800 down the toilet.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Holy shit that's expensive. $800 for the DIFFERENCE? Can you supply your own cable? $800 buys you about 7,000 feet of good quality in-wall rated Cat-6 cable. I can't imagine how badly you're getting bent over for product cost if I am understanding that correctly.

[R!zz0]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
I can't imagine how badly you're getting bent over for product cost if I am understanding that correctly.

That's the only thing we're thinking of upgrading that's pricey. I even told my wife that $800 is too pricey, so i thought i would come and ask the experts here

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by R!zz0


That's the only thing we're thinking of upgrading that's pricey. I even told my wife that $800 is too pricey, so i thought i would come and ask the experts here

I see. Well why not do the upgrade AND save a ton of money by buying your own? They may not allow that I guess, but worth a shot. Or find a fair installer instead.

I don't know how much cable you need but like I said $800 buys you about 7,000 ft of Cat 6. If $800 was just for the upgrade, I would be looking into all of the product costs and challenging them on it because you are probably getting taken for a ride everywhere.

[Buster]

Originally posted by R!zz0


That's the only thing we're thinking of upgrading that's pricey. I even told my wife that $800 is too pricey, so i thought i would come and ask the experts here

Again, it's not an upgrade. At any price.

[revelations]

There are numerous differences between, what could generically be called a "Cat 6" cable. The price difference between "low quality" Cat 6 and premium is a part of this (but not 800$ probably).

http://www.howtogeek.com/70494/what-...-should-i-use/

[R!zz0]

I'll ask if i can get my own installer, if not, than i'll just stick with cat5e.

Thanks guys

[Tik-Tok]

I can tell you already, the answer is no.

[R!zz0]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
I can tell you already, the answer is no.

[thetransporter]

built in 2000, we used really thick cat something cable, gigabit speeds no problem. i would have to say it always depends on the quality of the cable.