New Home Wiring: Cat6 or Cat5 premade cables

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cdogg44

n3wb
Dec 18, 2016
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I'm fixing to help a friend wire his new home build. He has a combination of ~20 locations to wire. Roughly 10 are pc/tv/wireless AP drops and the other 10 are for IP cameras.

I've had good luck with buying premade cables on Amazon in standard 25/50/75/100ft lengths and this is our plan.

Are Cat 6 cables necessary for IP cameras for future proofing?

Would Cat5 to cameras and Cat6 to everything else be sufficient?
 
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cdogg44 said:
I'm fixing to help a friend wire his new home build. He has a combination of ~20 locations to wire. Roughly 10 are pc/tv/wireless AP drops and the other 10 are for IP cameras.

I've had good luck with buying premade cables on Amazon in standard 25/50/75/100ft lengths and this is our plan.

Are Cat 6 cables necessary for IP cameras for future proofing?

Would Cat5 to cameras and Cat6 to everything else be sufficient?
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Cat6 is overkill for modern security cameras, but I'm a big believer in future-proofing. You never know what home device may exist a decade from now where that extra bandwidth might come in handy.

The price difference between Cat5 and Cat6 isn't that large. Buy the Cat6.
 
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ccssid said:
you never know about the future...go with cat6 everywhere...and in a few places you have not thought of yet
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Exactly. Run two cables or even three cables instead of one. Whatever you don't use now, you may find yourself using one day. Pulling them during the build is easy, and the cost of the extra cable is small.

It's the same philosophy of adding extra power outlets and cable outlets, just in case.
 
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You're talking about buying a bunch of long patch cables? Naaa... don't do that. Won't work as well and you'll likely end of messing up the ends of some anyway (and it's a pain to re-terminate stranded cable). Also not sure that the jacket will meet whatever code if they have some inspection coming. Doing that to avoid terminating isn't worth it.

As others said above, get solid copper (not clad) Cat 6 and do it right. Will be easier to pull too.
 
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Mike A. said:
You're talking about buying a bunch of long patch cables? Naaa... don't do that. Won't work as well and you'll likely end of messing up the ends of some anyway (and it's a pain to re-terminate stranded cable). Also not sure that the jacket will meet whatever code if they have some inspection coming. Doing that to avoid terminating isn't worth it.

As others said above, get solid copper (not clad) Cat 6 and do it right. Will be easier to pull too.
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Yes, I missed that in the original post. This is excellent advice. A crimp kit with a cable tester is less than $40 on Amazon. Buy good solid copper cable in bulk. You can even get plenum rated bulk CAT6 cable for a little extra cost. In the long run you'll save money, as you won't have to buy cables longer than you need, and you'll get a far more reliable cable out of it.
 
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I would do Cat 5e personally for camera runs. Yes, Cat 6 is future proofing and a great idea for backbones and office runs but 5e will do 1 Gbps speeds and 8MP/4K cameras aren't pushing much more than 10 Mbps. How much future proofing do you need?

Cat 5e will be easier to work with and terminate as well. As others have said, buy it by the box and terminate it yourself rather than dealing with patch cables.
 
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cdogg44 said:
I'm fixing to help a friend wire his new home build. He has a combination of ~20 locations to wire. Roughly 10 are pc/tv/wireless AP drops and the other 10 are for IP cameras.

I've had good luck with buying premade cables on Amazon in standard 25/50/75/100ft lengths and this is our plan.

Are Cat 6 cables necessary for IP cameras for future proofing?

Would Cat5 to cameras and Cat6 to everything else be sufficient?
Click to expand...

Welcome @cdogg44

Use the N+1+ rule ..
( N = number of drops you think you need, add one or more extra drops )

Run bulk cable.

Use quality solid copper AWG 23 ( or 24 ) cat6 cable

Remember the 1/R square rule .. ( keep the runs away from electrical wires .. electrical motors / ballasts .. normally I try to keep the cables about 1 foot+ away .. )

Recommend the following video for some ideas ..
 
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I'd avoid pre-made cables simply because you're going to have nightmares routing them. Instead of drilling a small hole of maybe 6-7mm, you're going to be drilling a hole at least 20mm and probably larger. Add into that if routing through walls etc, the plug is going to get stuck everywhere and probably damaged or strained along the way, and you have a recipe for disaster for the cables, maybe water ingress to your home as you're going to be left with huge holes to fill around what is a small cable once the plug is pulled through, and whole load of other problems.

Keep it simple. Buy bulk cable. Cat 5e crimping tools can be found on Amazon for less than $15. Cable strippers designed for poe for around $2-3. Cat5e plugs cost a few cents each as do the boots to fit over them and they can be bought in bags of varying sizes. Cable testers are cheap or buy a good one depending on your means eg Klein are higher end. Alternatively as mentioned above, some vendors are selling complete install kits of cable testers, crimper,stripping tool and plugs and boots for around $40. (always read the reviews and make sure there are ideally a lot to avoid review cheating).

BTW 5e cables are easier to terminate than Cat 6 and Cat 6e tools are more expensive. Where as I don't want to go against the grain here, I agree with techTech, Cat 5e is probably more than enough. I struggled to decide between the two for a while as I hate putting stuff in that's not the latest spec, but he's right, how much bandwidth do you need domestically? If each camera currently uses 10mbs and you have 20 cameras (quite extreme for home use) that's 200mb bandwidth required. Even if the next gen cameras become say 25mp (ie ex 4K's number of pixels - highly unlikely) and run 30 mbs even more unlikely due to compression, that's still only 600mbs over 20 cameras and well within the capabilities of Cat 5e. I predict by the time we need over 1Gbs we'll have virtual 3d cameras along with plasma cannons to defend our homes. Seriously though, unless you plan a huge install of 30+ cameras, it's unlikely you'll need more bandwidth in the forseeable future. Cat 5e is harder to work with, harder to terminate and all the tools cost a lot more. The choice is your though. Many do choose Cat 6 for peace of mind. Just be aware it will make the job harder and more costly and the tool cost is higher.
 
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Cat5e for cameras cat 6 for everything else and the only thing I would like to add to what others have stated is I'd recommend using feed through crimps and the associated crimping tool. Better easier quicker all round termination

Cat 6 crimps are backwards compatible with cat 5e so just buy a bag of them. They will do all runs
 
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I swear people come in here and state some obviously stupid idea, to get a reaction out of the people.
Yeah I'm thinkin I'll pull cable and staple it to the wall to avoid the attic.
 
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Yeah Klein are good. You don't need to go expensive though.

I bought this one. It seems to work (I tested it on a spare plug).

I paid £8.99 for this!


61Voikkz4OL._AC_SL1200_.jpg


Obviously not as good as the Klein.

However, the point is there's something for every budget and use whether that's occassioanl or daily driver.
 
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At least you didn't nail thru the cable. :)
The OP was about a new home build. Not sure if its new constuction or just a newly purchased existing structure.
Yeah. if your renting, you can't tear stuff up. Every form of refuge has it's challenges.
If there is a problem with connectivity after you reef on premade stranded wire in a soft jacket, You'll have to pull another cable.
Solid core will take more punishment being pulled across obstacles and so forth.
I speak only as a former infrastructure cable installer for GE Health Care. Can't cut corners in the Cardiac monitoring industry.
 
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CCTVCam said:
Yeah Klein are good. You don't need to go expensive though.

I bought this one. It seems to work (I tested it on a spare plug).

I paid £8.99 for this!


61Voikkz4OL._AC_SL1200_.jpg


Obviously not as good as the Klein.

However, the point is there's something for every budget and use whether that's occassioanl or daily driver.
Click to expand...

Is that a passthrough one? If so that's a bargain!

CCTVCam said:

Trunking

D-Line Cable Management, Where Time Safety and Appearance Matter
www.d-line-it.com www.d-line-it.com


1240-x-698px_mini.jpg
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LMAO, yeah, I couldn't be arsed. There's already trunking elsewhere for electrical wires. I prefer to see the cable and visualise the immense amount of data pulsating through it every second. No one but me is looking at it, so I don't have to worry about guests and the place will probably get ripped down before the internals get refurbished.
 
Just so it doesn't seem like I'm a complete neanderthal, there are parts of the property where I've angle ground out channels and then plastered back in and painted over for completely hidden runs, honest! :p
 
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