Which brand of 30m Ethernet (Cat 8) do I buy?

FrankFalcon

Hi all

We are renovating our big, old house and at the moment we have door casings and skirts removed.  Next year we are having a new conservatory/extension built which is as far away from the router as can be.  Whilst all this work is going on I wanted to run a network cable behind the skirts/door arcs etc and into the new conservatory/extension area.  So, in my mind, now is the perfect time to install a network cable.  So, I googled Network Cables and they vary wildly in price and have different specifications etc such as these ones that came up when I searched ...Primewire 30m Cat 8 Lan Ethernet Cable, Black At.8 S/ftp 30 Metres.  Another is... Cat 8 Ethernet Cable 30m, HiiPeak Cat8 Internet Cable 40Gbps 2000Mhz High-Speed and again Cat 8 Ethernet Cable Network 30m Cable Shielded High Speed 40Gbps 2000Mhz 26AWG.  With all these technical terms I am confused about what I need.  I know that I can only go up to 30 Metres (at the advertised speed) which is just about right but am baffled at which cable to buy.  I would like as much forward compatibility as possible.  I am aware of the BT Whole Home system, but in this case, I'd rather have a cable so that when the extension is built I can then also include a repeater at the end of the cable to give us wifi at the end of the garden too.

Any advice or suggestions please on which 30M Cat 8 Ethernet cable I should buy?

Thank you.

mclaren32

I’m not familiar with Cat 8 but unless you have a specific need for a very high speed link then it’s likely to be overkill.

Cat 6 will give you a gigabit connection which is going to be more than enough for most needs including streaming HD and sharing very large files quickly.

victor2

I suppose Cat 8 would be as futureproof as possible, but we had an extension built some years ago, when cat 5e was still acceptable and cat 6 was the latest available then. Went for Cat 5e and it's still in use driving the Smart TV, with more than enough performance. Who knows what the future holds, but wireless technology will no doubt improve in leaps and bounds to a point where physical cables are pretty much a rarity.

If I were making the decision today, I'd probably look at Cat 7 at the most.

Neil_Jones

Cat8 has a theoretical maximum speed of 40Gbps and is most effective at less than 30m.  If you need longer than that you can use it (up to 100m, same for any network cable), but it will  still support 10Gbps.  Either way its more than enough (in fact could be argued total overkill) for most domestic installations at this time.

Cat 6 (or Cat 7 if you can get it cheaply at the same price at Cat 6) would be a better investment.

Don't get too fixed up on the brand - you're more likely paying for some pretty box that will go straight into the recycling as soon as you open it.  Some cheap generic stuff in a plastic bag is the way to go.  Always buy more cable length than you need - you can hide the excess.

bengalknights

just go to your local mayflex branch and pick it up off the shelf otherwise connectix (cable monkey) if you just want to order online,

2bFrank

Cat 8 is an absolute pain to work with, its efficiently is reduced by each corner and you can only have a short run (30m is prob the max) before its speed is reduced. You have to terminate it really well to keep its speed.

I deal with high bandwidth traffic with work, in a server environment, and I would only use CAT 8 for an entry for a rack of servers, where optics are not feasible (If you are looking at the future, optics is the way to go, but the switches and cables are extremely expensive and overkill).

At home I have cat6 wired everywhere it supports 1gbps and the price is reasonable enough. If I had a new house and wanted to future proof, id look at optics or stick to cat6, mainly for my own sanity more than anything.

Good luck if you do decide to go CAT8, my best advice is buy the best terminations you can, nearly all cables are the same, but the terminations can be a pain if you get the cheap ones as the cables never go in right and become extremely difficult to terminate correctly. Alternatively, get CAT8 in the walls to wall plates, then you can get cheaper cat6 for the plate to the device and upgrade these in the future easily.

FrankFalcon

Thank you for your comments all.  Cat 7 it is.

[Deleted User]

FrankFalcon said:

Thank you for your comments all.  Cat 7 it is.

Really?

Cat 6 does 10Gbit up to 55 metres, 6a up to 100 metres - that is 1.2 Gigabyte per second - please tell me when you expect to exceed that bandwidth in your conservatory?

I've not yet heard what you need that capacity for in your conservatory?

Cat 5e will do 1Gbit/s up to 100 metres and is also capable of 2.5Gbit/s which I do use at home with my NAS but if you are asking questions like this then you are not the kind of user that needs 2.5Gbit/s

I know you said future proofing but what will be installed in the conservatory that will need that bandwidth? Even 8K would only need about 0.1 - 0.3 Gbit/s from a streaming service.

fremen

I install network cable for a living and for your case i would never install cat 8 there is absolutley no reason for it,if it was me i would install cat 6

getmore4less

Cable is cheap.

Do two runs if you want a bit of future proof 
You can dedicate one to the wireless and hardwire any higher bandwidth static items like a streaming TV.

Also have 2 wall plates in different locations giving more flexibility.

Arfa__

Just been doing ethernet in my house. Gone for cat6a in the end. This one: https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cat6a-cable/90010-cat6a-uftp-lszh-b2ca-solid-cable.html  - about £170 for 305m. so about £50-70 more than cat6 cable.

cat6 will do 10Gigabit up to 50m. cat6a will do 10Gig on great distances.

The variations in cable type will be on foil shielding: U/UTP, U/FTP, F/FTP etc. U = unshielded, F = foil shielding. Letter before the slash refers to shielding around all the 4 pairs, latter after the slash refers to shielding around each twisted pair. The above is U/FTP, thus foil shielding on each twisted pair. Prob a bit overkill for short runs in a house, unless you have sections running parallel to mains cables.

If you do go cat6a, do note you'll ideally need cat6a sockets and patch panel etc. Not much in it for the sockets, but the patch panel will be twice, I paid £55 from the same site above. Basically, the cat6a kit is designed to ground the foil shielding and a spot more faff to wire up.

Just note, 10Gigabit is probably a bit overkill for home network today. A network card that speed will be about £60-100 second hand at best, £200+ new. A network switch that speed will start at around £200-300 for 4 ports, and rise rapidly for more ports. You ain't gonna get anything near that speed to internet, so it'll only help you for transferring data between computers within your house. So, by all means, shove the cable in now to future proof as it ain't much more cash, but do understand it'll cost ya to fully utilise it.