Self build - wiring a new network. Advice please.

[LankyWill]

Wire pure copper cat6 shielded then you have a future proof system. I did it my my parents place and its finished its defiantly a pleasing thought. Throw in speaker system and a coax/bt to the garage.

 

[hightower]

Hightower I bow to your superior knowledge on the subject, but when I've been browsing on AV forums, the advice on there was to use Cat6. I can't point you to specific threads, but I just googled Cat5 v Cat6 and this is one of the first hits;
What Is The Difference Between Cat 5, Cat 5e, and Cat 6 Cable?

Superior? Not so sure about that haha.

But there's honestly no need to be installing cat6 in a domestic setting unless you're running a server farm or something. For the added cost (quite substantial) the domestic user will see little in the way of benefit. Cat5e is going nowhere fast, and I've not heard of anything in the pipeline that would possibly warrant cat6 at least in a domestic setting. You can only stream as fast as your Internet connection allows, and the normal home user won't be sending data over the home network with demand for speeds greater than offered by cat5e.

 

[hightower]

Wire pure copper cat6 shielded then you have a future proof system. I did it my my parents place and its finished its defiantly a pleasing thought. Throw in speaker system and a coax/bt to the garage.

Completely future proof, until cat 7 is the new standard. The op asked for thoughts on networking in terms of value for money, and I don't believe this option is value for money.

Rcbos are the dream in a domestic electrical setting, and I'm sure everyone recommends their use highly. But when somebody says they want a solution that fits their needs and wallet, and all you can say is 'you need rcbos', well I'm not sure that's the best way to win customers.

Unless the op has strong needs for higher data transfer rates there is really no need to install cat6. As I say I work in IT on a medium to large network, and it hasn't even entered my head to use cat6 yet. It's simply not value for money in regards to our needs.

 

[Midwest]

Superior? Not so sure about that haha.

But there's honestly no need to be installing cat6 in a domestic setting unless you're running a server farm or something. For the added cost (quite substantial) the domestic user will see little in the way of benefit.

Places I just googled have Cat6 at 26p per metre more?

 

[hightower]

Places I just googled have Cat6 at 26p per metre more?

Yeah that probably sounds right. Not mega bucks more, until you realise you need cat6 terminations too, and when I last installed they were twice the price of cat5e modules.

Not double now on a quick look at screwfix.

http://m.screwfix.com/p/philex-rj45-cat5e-module-outlet-kit-double/34584

http://m.screwfix.com/p/philex-cat-6-rj45-twin-outlet-kit/96906?filtered=true


But let's say the op wires 100m to 10 points (using an outlet at each end), so 26 quid extra for the cable at your prices, plus 30 quid extra for the cat6 outlets.

On an install that might cost 100 quid in materials to do cat5e, a 50% increase for no realistic benefit is a lot of money.

 

[hightower]

Funny old story, we did an install for a bit of a geek once. He was adamant he wanted cat6 so that's what we installed. It was like Microsoft hq by the time we'd done, but he didn't want to spend a penny more on the electrical install (new fusebox at same time) than he had too - fit the cheapest carp available. Strange that ain't it, the networking had to be the best of the best, but he wasn't interested in spending money on a system that might actually cause harm.

 

[LankyWill]

Cat5e is cheap, by pure copper if you can

 

[janner43]

I did a lot of reading around before I posted and I know there is debate about cat6 or cat5e.

I'll likely go cat5e I suspect. But if there is a good price on cat6 then...

I see CPC have what looks like an offer on cable at the moment - but my earlier post took a while to get approved so I think it missed its place in the conversation, so to speak.

Would this be a good buy...
PP7106 - PRO POWER - Multipair Unscreened Cable, 25 AWG, 0.2 mm², 1 x 0.5mm², 328 ft, 100 m | CPC UK

 

[shanky887614]

get 10gb cat6 for future proof or run conduit so you can network them all later.

nvme ssd's are running at 2500MB/s now so wont be long till your internal network can saturate the bandwith

thats just m.2 ssd.


10gb switches are expensive atm and are a couple years out till there affordable but combing that with the massive price drop in ssd's its worth looking.

 

[hightower]

I did a lot of reading around before I posted and I know there is debate about cat6 or cat5e.

I'll likely go cat5e I suspect. But if there is a good price on cat6 then...

I see CPC have what looks like an offer on cable at the moment - but my earlier post took a while to get approved so I think it missed its place in the conversation, so to speak.

Would this be a good buy...
PP7106 - PRO POWER - Multipair Unscreened Cable, 25 AWG, 0.2 mm², 1 x 0.5mm², 328 ft, 100 m | CPC UK

Hi mate, we buy 305m for about 40 I think so that looks a pretty good price

 

[hightower]

get 10gb cat6 for future proof or run conduit so you can network them all later.

nvme ssd's are running at 2500MB/s now so wont be long till your internal network can saturate the bandwith

thats just m.2 ssd.


10gb switches are expensive atm and are a couple years out till there affordable but combing that with the massive price drop in ssd's its worth looking.

But what's going to take up that bandwidth? BT are streaming 4k video now over a standard fibre connection (20meg or better). So streaming 10 4k videos at a time from a local nas isn't going to use the bandwidth capabilities of cat 5e.

There's honestly nothing in a domestic setting that needs cat6 or will anytime in the next 20 years.

 

[shanky887614]

But what's going to take up that bandwidth? BT are streaming 4k video now over a standard fibre connection (20meg or better). So streaming 10 4k videos at a time from a local nas isn't going to use the bandwidth capabilities of cat 5e.

There's honestly nothing in a domestic setting that needs cat6 or will anytime in the next 20 years.

i dont agree with that, 20 years ago we were using 20gb hard drives and floppy disks!!!!

anyway 4k isnt really 4k if you compare it to 480,720 and 1080


technically if you go by the naming convention used for 4k all1080 screens are really 2k

 

[hightower]

i dont agree with that, 20 years ago we were using 20gb hard drives and floppy disks!!!!

We were still using them 10 years ago mate. Cat6 has been around for years, it's designed for media/data heavy applications. Yep I agree technology takes off at an unbelievable rate but cat5e is typically used at not even a fraction of its limitation. You can't compare the growth of local storage to networking.

It's a bit like recommending a 15 way consumer unit for an install of 4 circuits. Yeah there's the possibility of needing some room for expansion but not 11 spare ways worth.

Honestly, our network at work is classed as extremely data heavy, if I showed you usage, network never breaches 1% even in peak times.

 

[amlu]

unless you want to run a server farm you wont need any more than standard cat5 100 mbits/s.
stay away from CCA cable, get proper copper one.

 

[shanky887614]

We were still using them 10 years ago mate. Cat6 has been around for years, it's designed for media/data heavy applications. Yep I agree technology takes off at an unbelievable rate but cat5e is typically used at not even a fraction of its limitation. You can't compare the growth of local storage to networking.

It's a bit like recommending a 15 way consumer unit for an install of 4 circuits. Yeah there's the possibility of needing some room for expansion but not 11 spare ways worth.

Honestly, our network at work is classed as extremely data heavy, if I showed you usage, network never breaches 1% even in peak times.

they have had bms for 30 years and still use the same systems today

why do they need to upgrade?