For over 20 year, CAT 5 cable has been the reigning champion of network cables. This cable will provide basic connectivity and a working computer network. Cat 6 Became widely popular shortly there after in the Late 2000’s. In the last 10 years, other CAT cables have entered the market under a variety of names. Some of those cables have come and gone like a bad an out-fashion pair of paints. What really is the best cable for your next computer network upgrade? Does the extra cost of the newer cables provide any further benefits? What part does so called “Future Proofing” play in your network?
From the outset we should mention, there is much confusion and personal feelings on this topic, which only makes this question harder to answer. Charlotte Data Cabling has installed all these cables and ran tests on each to help prove which is the best option.
Ultimately, Cat5e Cat6, Cat 6A, Cat 7, and Cat 8 will have an RJ-45 end which means they will all physically plug into the same hardware. However, the Jacks and module plug on the end of a patch cable, will be different for most of these cable types. Therefore, you won’t need to change things on your network to accommodate the change in cables that are run in walls, meaning that you can keep all the same hardware like Ethernet jack on your computer, routers, and switches. From a physical layer perspective, they will appear to be virtually interchangeable. However, each has its proper place and application depending on the intended use for the cable.
Consider the Price Differences
The first most notable difference from one to the other is Price. For budgeting purposes, and for the sake of this discussion, plan on CAT 5E being the cheapest.
CAT 6 being 40% more then CAT 5e
CAT 6A being 60% more than CAT 6.
CAT 7 being about 100% more than CAT 6A.
CAT 8 Being about100% more than Cat 7.
For the Sake of this conversation, let’s assume your project with Cat 5e install were to be quoted at $10,000, then the same job with Cat 6A might be $16,000. Understandable, cost itself might be the #1 limiting factor when choosing a cable type for many clients.
However, when price is not the only factor, consider the following Technical differences.
What is your targets Network Speed?
When Cat 5e first came out in the early 2000’s, it gave the first glimpse of the 1gb networks as a possibility, although it was not typical to find hardware reasonably priced that would support those speeds. In the last couple of decades, hardware costs have increasingly come down, allowing Gigabit networking to become easier to afford.
Cat 6 Cables came out only a few years after cat5e. This cable gave the ability to have a 10 Gigabit network. For much of the 2000’s Cat5e was run to the workstations and Cat6 was run as a backbone from router to switches. However, the 10 Gigabit network on cat 6 cables is limited to 164′ including patch cables. After that distance its ultimate speed is the same as cat 5e – 1 Gigabit. Beyond the speed / distance factor Cat 6 has a tighter twist in the cables, which helps prevent cross talk which can cripple a network. Those tighter twist, then, allows for two way communication on each pair of wires, where Cat 5e does not allow this same feature, because it would generate higher Cross talk, then resulting in further rebroadcasting of packets.
Cat 6A will do 10Gbps for the full 328′ of ethernet. Where as Cat 6 will do that 10Gbps for only half that distance. Cat 6A also tightens the twist on the pairs, and on some brands of the cable, may even have a foil lining on each pair, thought this is not constant among the brands.
Cat 7 Cable is a little hard to justify because theortically its just a bit better then Cat 6A though in practice, its basiclly the same thing just rebranded.
Cat 8 increase speeds dramatically for very short distances. Its reported that it will do about 40 Gbps over about 100′. Cat 8 was being marketed as a copper replacement for fiber. However, in practical real-world situations, this is just simply not the case.
Speed of your hardware is important
With all this talk of the technical specs of the cables, it is important to mention, none of this really means anything if your hardware can’t support these kind of speeds. For example: If all your devices only have 1 Gbps Ethernet cards, then anything past Cat 6 does not mean anything at all. In fact, while 40 Gbps (Cat 8 cable) hardware is theoretically possible, and models have been produced, many of the available routers, switches, and network cards are virtually impossible to purchase. Intel does make several models of PCI Cards with dual 40 Gbps Network cards that could be placed in a server, currently in 2022-2023 models, there does not seem to be anything on the market for 40 Gbps Switches / Routers.
Recap what this means, Cat 8 Cable still only functions at the 40 Gbps in less then 100′, the hardware is virtually impossible to find, leaving only Network cards as solutions. This means that realistically, outside of connecting a few servers with NIC Cards that are likely in the same server rack, Cat 8 really is not a practical option for infrastructure cabling.
Really, if we were going to suggest a solution to wire a couple of servers in the same rack together, we would suggest Fiber anyway, rather than Cat 8 cable.
Then consider Cat 7 is basically Cat 6A, with little technically different on the spec sheet, meaning that in real world applications, they are exactly the same thing, just Cat 7 cost much more money. This means Cat 7 is not really an option at this point in time either.
If you are looking for a 10Gbps network that is around 100′ apart (again going back to servers in the same rack) then Cat 6A would make some sense. Really though, because of this 100′ limitation on the 10Gbps, Cat 6 or cat 5 cable really makes the most sense.
Between Cat 6 and Cat 5, the difference has to do, not with the reported speeds of the cables, but with 1) the gauge of the wires, or thickness, 2) the protection against cross talk or interference on the cable. Cat 6 will always test far beyond Cat 5. In the real world application, if you are running anything with POE (think about Wireless Access Points, IP Phones, Network Switches, etc.), you will want the thicker AWG (gauge) of the Cat 6 cable at 23 AWG to help carry the wattage needed for the POE.
Starting with NEC 2017, National Electrical Code started to specify rating on cables that carry the potential of POE, with a new term Power Limited Cabling. We will talk about this change in a different post, but in highlight, you will want to stay with a Cat 6 23 Awg cable rather than either Cat 5 or Cat 6 with a 25 Awg wire size. This will allow you to comply with the future of POE and any potential NEC inspections.
In Summery – The point of the article
In most cases, unless your running Cat cable for POTTS (that is to say, plain old telephone connections) we would suggest CAT 6 cable for a number of reasons. On a law of averages, 90% of our installations are CAT 6 for anything computer network, and CAT 5 should we need an old phone system or POTTS line. But even still, if there is any possibly that you would use those lines in the future for a computer network, we suggest you invest now in the CAT 6 cable.
While cost is a factor, the most expensive cable, is the cable that needs to be removed and replaced with a higher rating later on.
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