Your Goto ethernet cable

C

charlano

Audiophyte
Hi, first post here. My ceiling is actually open and I'd like to put 2-3 ethernet cable runs in there. It's mainly to stream music through a NAS or from internet for now. I would like a high bitrate cable that won't be obsolete in a few years. I may enventually stream 4K tv and other high cunsuming bitrate streams and I wouldn't be happy to open the ceiling once again.

So is there any goto brand or category that I should purchase (Cat 5, 5E, 6, 6A, 6E, 7 or other?). Should I also run some fiber optic of some sort? It will be 30ish feet runs.
 
rojo

rojo

Audioholic Samurai
Hi, first post here. My ceiling is actually open and I'd like to put 2-3 ethernet cable runs in there. It's mainly to stream music through a NAS or from internet for now. I would like a high bitrate cable that won't be obsolete in a few years. I may enventually stream 4K tv and other high cunsuming bitrate streams and I wouldn't be happy to open the ceiling once again.

So is there any goto brand or category that I should purchase (Cat 5, 5E, 6, 6A, 6E, 7 or other?). Should I also run some fiber optic of some sort? It will be 30ish feet runs.
For Ethernet cable that won't be obsolete in a few years, the best I can think of is Belden cable.

Do you have speaker wire run for Atmos and DTS-X? If you might potentially add a projector down the road, then power + a Redmere HDMI cable might also be worth running.
 
C

charlano

Audiophyte
I should have specified it's the ceiling BELOW the floor on which my AV system is resting on.

Do you a a though regarding the eth. cable category I should use.
Regards,
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
7 is not official category and same for Cat6E.
Cat 5 is just too old and at minimum I'd use Cat 5E to support full 1gig.
Go as far as your budget allows, 6A is the latest official version and big improvement was to reduce crosstalk noise by 3db - which means more reliable 10gbis over longer runs of cable.

I can foresee very little use of 10gbs in homes for at least next 8-10 years, so going with cheaper Cat5E cable may not be so bad, but if you can afford go with Cat6.

Keep in mind, I'd rather go with high quality Cat5E cable over cheap and bad Cat 6A any day.

Belden is indeed very good (if not the best) manufacturer of cables.
 
jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
Get Belden 5e or 6a. 5e is good for 1GB and 6a is good for 10GB. Both speeds are more than you need for even 4K movies.

Call Blue Jeans Cable and most likely 3 preterminated Cat6a runs will cost you ~$120. They use Belden and will certify the cable.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Get Belden 5e or 6a. 5e is good for 1GB and 6a is good for 10GB. Both speeds are more than you need for even 4K movies.

Call Blue Jeans Cable and most likely 3 preterminated Cat6a runs will cost you ~$120. They use Belden and will certify the cable.
And the one fact that might determine what is needed, but is almost never mentioned, is the download speed from the internet provider and that's not Gigabit, so cable choice is less important than how it's installed, coiled and stashed. If the house was pre-wired and some wire munky pulled too hard, allowed it to break over a crisp wood or steel edge, used a stapler that crushes the cable at every spot, did a bad job of terminating the ends or allowed it to be pinched by boards or something else, cable specs fly out the window.
 
jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
And the one fact that might determine what is needed, but is almost never mentioned, is the download speed from the internet provider and that's not Gigabit, so cable choice is less important than how it's installed, coiled and stashed. If the house was pre-wired and some wire munky pulled too hard, allowed it to break over a crisp wood or steel edge, used a stapler that crushes the cable at every spot, did a bad job of terminating the ends or allowed it to be pinched by boards or something else, cable specs fly out the window.
I always consider that the OP may have some sort of server on premise. Regardless 1GB is good for the foreseeable future. But the price difference is negligible between 5e and 6a.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Without a doubt, it's Blue Jeans Cable. Each cable is tested.
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/data-cables/index.htm
Not to say that BJC is bad, but they don't make cable, AFAIK. If they terminate a cable, they test it. If bulk cable is being tested, it's generally for frequency and even then, it's not ALL of the cable that's tested.

It's not hard to make an ethernet cable, but if someone only needs to make a few, there's no point in buying the crimper, etc. However, Cat5e is fine for most applications, Cat6 is better, for others. If you plan to use HDMI extenders for the video, look into the requirements for 4K/8K, HDR, Full Color gamut befroe making a choice.
 
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