New House - CAT6a or CAT7?

Associate
Joined
17 Apr 2019
Posts
11
Hi all,

Although this is my first post, I'm not new here, I had an old account but for some reason I can't access it, nor can I reset the password so I've had to create a new one :(

Anyway...

I'm buying a new house (new build) and there is the option to CAT* it. It's got fibre to the house, and other than using the CAT cabling for general internet connection, I also intend to stream/ distribute HDMI over CAT* to TVs throughout the house.

The question is, do I go with CAT6a or CAT7? I've read a number of article's and most point to CAT6a yet some propose CAT7 for future proofing?

Cheers!
 
Associate
Joined
7 Jan 2005
Posts
1,805
Location
London
FYI cat7 isn't necessarily going to be certified as a real networking standard (ever). I've read some articles that it may be leapfrogged for some kind of cat8.

Cat6 is what I'd plan for.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,655
Location
The Darkside
Funny thing is, I wouldn’t let my mate do any networking for me. His cable terminating is awful. Tests very little and loves to lie on the paperwork. Typical sparky getting a networking job.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
Posts
7,177
Decent 5e will do 10Gb on run lengths that cover most residential installs and it’s cheap, if you want to run 6 then feel free, it’s technically superior, but it’s certainly not required and likely won’t be beneficial for many years - by which time the world will likely have moved on (hopefully) to fibre.
 
Associate
Joined
16 Mar 2004
Posts
1,889
Location
Oxford
Decent 5e will do 10Gb on run lengths that cover most residential installs and it’s cheap, if you want to run 6 then feel free, it’s technically superior, but it’s certainly not required and likely won’t be beneficial for many years - by which time the world will likely have moved on (hopefully) to fibre.
Got to agree here, I've got at least two Cat5e sockets in each room:

An excessive yet all used 14 in the study
8 in the family room
6 in the living room
2 in the kitchen
2 in each of the bedrooms
8 in the garage
7 in the attic

A lot I know! When you have UniFi APs, CCTV cameras, consoles, media stuff (Squeezebox, TVs, Sky, BluRay players, etc.) & phones it all adds up, and I refuse to use Wi-Fi for things that will remain seated as it rules out potential failure.

I've thought about upgrading to Cat6 for a while now, everything is in trunking so changing would be easy enough, pull through new cables, replace faceplates and patch pannels and it's done. I could upgrade the basics for a couple of hundred ££ right now, but then to make any real use of it would require much more spending, the Ubiquiti switches aren't cheap and they don't do 10G anyway. Perhaps when the switches and network devices can do 10G I'll swap them out first and see how the 5e copes, if the 5e can achieve 10G I'll leave the rest as it is. As Avalon and I posted in a previous thread, there really isn't much point yet. Now to add some controversy and food for thought, on a new install I probably would do the 6/6e route, I'm not sure how pricing between Cat5e and 6 compares. For my installs I've used all copper Excel 5e part boxes (probably from NHS & schools) which tend to work out a lot cheaper per metre than new boxes.
 
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