CAT5e vs CAT6A

sl0wfi

n3wb
Jan 18, 2020
6
1
USA
Walls are all open, about to be all my structured cabling. I’m planning to use 5e for cameras, IOT, etc. 6A “plus” for data. (5e because it is smaller and easier to terminate which adds up with 60 runs)
I see people recommending CAT6 for cameras, but even 8K RAW is only like 750Mbps so it’s not for bandwidth. And the power carrying capacity of 5e is plenty up to 100M. Am I missing something or am I being a pedant?
 
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I ran all cat6. The only justification I can make is I have long runs and the 23 awg wire will have less power loss than 24 awg in the cat5e. Probably makes no difference in reality, but I feel better about it. Cost difference was a nit compared to the installation labor.
 
Walls are all open, about to be all my structured cabling. I’m planning to use 5e for cameras, IOT, etc. 6A “plus” for data. (5e because it is smaller and easier to terminate which adds up with 60 runs)
I see people recommending CAT6 for cameras, but even 8K RAW is only like 750Mbps so it’s not for bandwidth. And the power carrying capacity of 5e is plenty up to 100M. Am I missing something or am I being a pedant?

Hi @sl0wfi

Since you're doing a lot:

Cat5e is fine, just make certain it is well rated the sheathing. ( for those following, avoid CCA - use cat5e/cat6 with solid copper wire )

Yes I do like cat6 more as the wires are slightly thicker - the cable stronger ( thus less likely to get broken during the pull ). Also if you're only getting a couple boxes for both inside data runs and cameras nice to just go cat6 . Of course in some cases I ran cat5e because I needed to run multiple lines in a 1/2" emt conduit.. so personally I do mix and match cat5e/6 cables depending on the run.
 
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