Cat5e or 6 for gigabit copper network

[meastaugh1]

I've done plenty of installations for 100mb networking with cat 5e, but now I want to install gigabit networking for a video editing suite. Do I need Cat6, or will Cat5e suffice? Some searching around suggests the latter, but wanted to double check. Any advice appreciated. cheers.

[eejit]

Cat 6 is a waste of money. 5e will be fine.

[Grommit]

The BSF and BECTA are insisting on CAT6 for all the new builds... but the peoblem with CAT6 is that it is to thick and bulky.. and you would need double the size containment to do a room..

 

Plus it's very expensive... Just shows you .. what do BECTA and the BSF really know when faced with the knowledge of ICT Managers

[eejit]

They are idiots.

 

Please feel free to quote me in any argument about standards.

[Geoff]

While it's true GigE is more fussy about it's cabling than 100BaseT. It's entirely possible to use Cat5e with no bad side effects.

[GrumbleDook]

It partly depends on what you intend to be doing with the suite. If you are looking at video editting the access to storage is important. If you are looking at editting direct from network based storage then Cat6 is a must. You must also remember to control routing from workstation to server, implement QoS and have network capable of handling it. Where possible the storage device / server has to be attached on the same piece of network hardware.

 

Cat6 as a standard is not always needed and can be more expense that warranted, but when thinking about long term solutions then it is a good idea to look at Cat6. remember that people used to think Cat3 was good enough.

 

For most schools then I would recommend working on locally attached storage for video editting anyway and back it up to a network attached devie on a regular basis. Because of the long upload / download times and short periods then people will be tempted to work across the network ... and without the right infrastructure it can cause series issues.

 

It is not as if a school is a multi-facetted news company that requires a server to hold all video/audio assetts to be shared by all users. Some of the requirements are also determined by the software used ... Final Cut Studio is different to Final Cut Express and different to iMovie ... and different to Adobe Premier Pro ... which is different to Adobe Premire elements ... and then we start on the requirements of AVID systems.

 

If you are after a pro solution then get advice from someone who has a pro solution or sets them up, and try and plan for as many changes or advances as you think the school can afford. If you think that the school will start off on a basic system but will go to a pro solution then plan for it ... Cat6.

[kingswood]

The BSF and BECTA are insisting on CAT6 for all the new builds... but the peoblem with CAT6 is that it is to thick and bulky.. and you would need double the size containment to do a room..

 

Plus it's very expensive... Just shows you .. what do BECTA and the BSF really know when faced with the knowledge of ICT Managers

 

I think BECTA are correct on this one. All new installations need to look to the future, and in that case Cat 6 is the best option. It has a frequency up to 250MHz, higher performance than 5e, and much better consistency due to its having physical separators between the four pairs of cable (reducint NEXT and ELFEXT). There are Cat 6 patch cables available, and for horizontal cabling and vertical cabling between imtermediate switch rooms I don't think it's as cut and dry as "5e is better". It simply is not true.

 

Most cabling systems last 10 or more years and that being the case (and 5/5e being a lot lot older than the ratification of 6- around 2002 I believe) category 6 is an obvious choice. Apparently 80-90% of new installations will be Cat 6. So the evidence suggests that networks want to move data faster and the older 5e- though adequate for many now- may not offer future proofing like Cat 6 presently does.

 

I will extend this by saying that whilst talking to specialists in the last month about this very issue (we are having a new build and so this is an issue), we settled on Category 6 without question. It's that obvious a choice.

 

Paul

[localzuk]

It isn't an obvious choice when you bring in the fact that budgets at our school are tighter this year than scrooge's! The quotes I've been given for Cat5e make my bursar cringe, let alone Cat6. In the end, it means the difference between kitting out 2 rooms or kitting out 1.

[meastaugh1]

Thanks all for your thoughts.

 

Tony, I'll likely be implementing a local NAS: on the same switch as the workstations. They will be saving directly to a local HDD then uploading to the NAS. The current application is U-Lead video studio.

 

I'll price up both and see how much "future proofing" will cost.

[wesleyw]

I could play devils advocate and say cat 7 sorry couldn't resist if your think cat 6 is difficult to install its a breeze compared with 7 the stuff has a foil wrap insulation which means its about as bendy as coax if not worse!

 

Wes

[kylewilliamson]

You can of course get shielded cat5 too, that has the foil wrap round it...

[Geoff]

Lies and shenanigans. I think that the 'future' BECTA is looking at will have no room for copper cable. I believe that we'll be running fibre to the desktop by then.

[localzuk]

Lies and shenanigans. I think that the 'future' BECTA is looking at will have no room for copper cable. I believe that we'll be running fibre to the desktop by then.

 

Oh god! That'll be robust in an environment where kids break everything in sight!! We'd be getting through fibre patch leads by the dozen every day!

[Kyle]

So,

 

With new blocks going up in lots of areas, all the new blocks will be having Cat6 installed (in our LEA anyway)

 

All current wiring in the other older blocks is Cat5.

If there are plans to upgrade other rooms to IT rooms in the older blocks should thay have Cat6 even though the rest of the block has Cat5?

 

Can you mix Cat5 and Cat6 in one buliding or does this not work?

Even thought the connectiion between the two blocks if 1gb fibre?

[Grommit]

So,

 

With new blocks going up in lots of areas, all the new blocks will be having Cat6 installed (in our LEA anyway)

 

All current wiring in the other older blocks is Cat5.

If there are plans to upgrade other rooms to IT rooms in the older blocks should thay have Cat6 even though the rest of the block has Cat5?

 

Can you mix Cat5 and Cat6 in one buliding or does this not work?

Even thought the connectiion between the two blocks if 1gb fibre?

 

It's not possible to run 30 CAT6 cables down the same Containment route as CAT5..

 

you'll have to invest in more containment

[wesleyw]

You can run both together thats not a problem just the CAT6 cable is a little larger so more trunking is needed!

 

Wes

[GrumbleDook]

Thanks all for your thoughts.

 

Tony, I'll likely be implementing a local NAS: on the same switch as the workstations. They will be saving directly to a local HDD then uploading to the NAS. The current application is U-Lead video studio.

 

I'll price up both and see how much "future proofing" will cost.

 

I would look at setting the upload to NAS as a nightly backup rather than getting students to do it at the end of a lesson. If you have a large project (around 4-6GB) for a group of 3 students, and have 5 groups ... it can be a nightmare to upload them all at once.

 

Do you already have the NAS device? Or something similar with the same disk speeds and speed of NIC? Try and connect a few different machines to the same switch and do test uploads and downloads to see what the performance hit it. Will the switch be gigabit on each port? Your original post sort of makes me presume it. If it is not them you are unlikely to see improved performance between Cat5 and Cat6.

 

Remember that sometimes the bottle-neck is not with the network but the workstations or storage device itself.

 

Good luck with it all.

[meastaugh1]

Thanks Tony,

 

It's certainly something to think about: I'll get someone to do some upload tests when it's in to determine the best usage pattern. We don't have the NAS yet, just a Netgear SC101 as an interim measure, which periodically falls over (typical Netgear!).

 

Yes, I intend for the link between the clients and NAS to be fully gigabit.

 

Mike

[DMcCoy]

although if you have short cable runs to the switch you might not need to replace it immediatly anyway. I have a cat5 room that has been tested and certified to cat 5e standard as they are all short runs (switch is in room) and they are well contained.

[gwendes]

Not long until Cat7... Cat6 is an aging tech!

[localzuk]

Not long until Cat7... Cat6 is an aging tech!

 

Is Cat7 gonna be an inch thick with a max length of 12 inches? Seems that the higher the standard, the thicker it becomes and the more difficult to install...

[featured_spectre]

I have CAT6 running to the network points in the wall, but because of budget constraints am forced to use CAT5e as the network cable...

[Michael]

To be honest I would stick with CAT5e. There's a huge difference in cost between CAT5e, CAT6 and CAT6a cables and secondly labour will be considerably more too as the cable is thicker and much more difficult to install.

 

CAT6 will support 10Gbps upto 55metres and CAT6a upto 100metres, so Becta's advise of CAT6 isn't that good really. Most networks adhere to the 100metres rule, so in practice CAT5 and CAT6 have little technical differences between them. CAT6a is what you're after for true future proofness (if there's such a word).

 

Personally however I think at the rate wireless is developing, speeds are fast approaching that of 10/100 ethernet, so it's only a matter of time before it reaches 1000Mbps equivalent speeds. I'd also bet it'll be a fraction of the cost of CAT6 too

[apeo]

Personally however I think at the rate wireless is developing, speeds are fast approaching that of 10/100 ethernet, so it's only a matter of time before it reaches 1000Mbps equivalent speeds. I'd also bet it'll be a fraction of the cost of CAT6 too

 

Oh what a headache that would be to rely solely on wireless..

[DMcCoy]

I'm still waiting for WiFi PXE boot and multicasting before it could be useful for very much.