I am often asked, which is the best network cable to use – CAT5e or CAT6? The answer is simple, CAT6 going forward for any major installs into building structure to meet the growing need of future generations of devices. CAT6 is backwards compatible with all CAT5e Network Devices and Application while quickly becoming the new standard of networking. But is this really necessarily for your home network - probably not. In fact, there is little developed to take full advantage of the CAT6 improvements over CAT5e that would be noticeable to a normal user.
Lets take a look at the difference between the CAT5e and CAT6 Network Cables. The major difference is in the speed standards; the CAT5e uses 100MHz of bandwidth (1Gpbs) while the CAT6 uses 250MHz of bandwidth (10Gbps) or higher. Now I know some of you are jumping on the faster speed but remember most of us do not have more than 50mbps internet connection to our homes. The only real advantage to a normal user would be in transferring large files between two computers. The next difference is in reliability, where the CAT6 is design to reduce interference of cross-talk and noise-loss. What does this mean to us? Not a whole lot unless you are running a critical application like in the medical field.
Finally, we come down the cost of networking CAT5e verse CAT6. If you where to go out and purchase all the materials to create the network cables – CAT5e would cost on average of $0.08 per foot verse CAT6 at $0.10 plus connectors. As an example, CAT5e 100 foot Network Cable is about $8 and CAT6 100 foot Network Cable is $10 online. There is not much of a price difference between the two until you get to professional installation. To have a professional come in to run network cables will often run in the range of $2 to $5 per foot based on cable type. In a future post I will show you how to make your very own CAT6/5e Network Cable.
As you can see there is not much of a difference in cost; but for speed and reliability of future network devices – why not invest?
Activision Blizzard has officially released Diablo III on Tuesday Worldwide, after nearly 12 years since Diablo II was released. I was able to obtain the Collector’s Edition of Diablo III and have had the game for about 24 hours now. The Collector’s Edition came with Diablo II and Diablo II Expansion Pack, Soundtrack, Behind the Scenes Video, Art Book and Diablo III Game. I have always been a fan to Blizzard Games and this Collector’s Edition lives up to the standard of the previous Collector’s Editions.
