Cat5e Cable Ratings

[phenix]

Ok here's a question for the experienced Cat5e people out there.

I was just about to buy my Cat5e cable and I realized i have no idea what the difference is in the Mhz ratings.
I see some no name brands that are cheap at http://www.firefold.com/category.aspx?categoryID=322
that are rated for 350MHz. Then I see the Belden Cable which everyone says is good cable only rated to 100MHz.
Whats the difference???? Which is better??
And then what is the difference between Shielded and Unshielded??? on that firefold.com website they have both. Why would you choose one over the other?

Thanks

 

[Steve]

There is small e and big E. You want big E cable rated to 350 mhz. You typically don't need shielded except for special applications. Don't get hung up on brand names. I know this can get highly personal, but as long as you get the right quality/specs I don't see a good reason to spend alot of extra $ on brand names.

 

[Sacedog]

There is small e and big E. You want big E cable rated to 350 mhz. You typically don't need shielded except for special applications. Don't get hung up on brand names. I know this can get highly personal, but as long as you get the right quality/specs I don't see a good reason to spend alot of extra $ on brand names.

Yes, cable names can be a personal issue.

Most of the reason for going to a brand name is for ease of installation, as well as quality of construction. I guarentee that a Belden Cat5e cable will outperform the generic crap you can get from Home Depot every time. Also, Belden is not a whole lit more money than the generic stuff.

As far as teh 350Mhz rating, this cable will be able to pump more data through it with fewer problems. It is typically used when the install requires Gigabit speeds, however, I would also use it if you are using Cat5e for Video distribution.

 

[MikeB]

There is small e and big E.

Really? Never heard of that before. What's the difference?

 

[Herdfan]

Most of the reason for going to a brand name is for ease of installation, as well as quality of construction. I guarentee that a Belden Cat5e cable will outperform the generic crap you can get from Home Depot every time.

While I can't attest to the performance, I can state without a doubt that you can tell the difference between Belden and the Home Depot stuff. The Belden 1583 has nice tight twists compared to the HD cable. Looking at them side by side you can tell that the Belden is a better made cable.

As for coax, compression fittings slide right on the Belden with no issues at all. With generic brands you sometimes have to twist and bend and fight to get the connectors on which can lead to a less effective fitting.

 

[phenix]

Hey thanks guys.

You can always learn a lot from the debates over cable. I think I am going to go with the Belden. The consensus seems to be that they are a better quality. I believe to get the 350MHz rating you have to purchase the Belden 1700. The 1583 seems to be only rated to 100MHz. I might be wrong though. 1000 ft roll of the 1700 is about 130.00 and the 1583 107.00 both at tselectronic.com check it out.

Steve - I can't find the difference anywhere between the Big E and the Little e. Maybe you can elaborate.

Since we're on the Cabling topic. I have another question. If you have your Audio Video Rack say in the basement how to you get your component video to your nice tv in the bedroom or living room? I read somewhere that component video cable can't run more than 40 ft.

 

[Sacedog]

I agree that the old Datatwist was horrible! I actually switched brands after using that for a couple of jobs. But I'm back on Belden, as their current line is very easy to work with.

I have used the generic stuff plenty of times before, so I would recommend it in certain situations, if the budget is tight. All of the installs I have used generic in, have been in drop-tile ceilings, where I have access to the cables after the install. I just get a better sense of security using a higher quality cable for home installs, since you would have to rip out sheetrock to get to a lot of the cabling. Once again personal preference.

If you are running all of your cables through a crawl space or attic on a one story house, and you want to save some money, I would also consider the generic stuff. I have used the cables from PI Manufacturing for previous jobs, and have never had an issues with it (www.pimfg.com). It isn't as easy to work with, but if you are talking about 10-15 drops, ease of install might not be an issues either.

 

[Steve]

Ok, essentially the hierachy of cable grades are Cat5e (small e), Cat5E (big E) and Cat5E 350 Mhz. If you get the 350Mhz you don't need to worry about the e/E. The E cable will test to tighter tolerances. So when you do a certification on it your test equipment can tell you if its E rated. Both e/E are still only rated to 250Mhz, but the E has a greater number of twists. 350Mhz rated cable may be referred to as Hyper/Enhanced, etc by different manufacturers. The 350 is basically Cat5E plus. That is the cable I recommended and use. BICSI spells out some of this stuff in their literature, but it is what I was told by my cable vendor and a friend of mine who has been a pro LV installer/manager for > 20 years. As far as Belden being 'the best' is kind of BS, but like I said, it is a personal thing and do not wish to debate it. There are plenty of good quality brands out there (BerkTek, CommScope, Mohawk, General, etc, etc) and I would not hesitate to use any of them that are rated 350Mhz. Yes, some of the really cheap stuff can have jackets that come off, etc but only experience can tell you what those are. Also, it depends on your terminations. Some manufacturers of termination equipment will not honor a warranty with certain cable. The bottom line is if you go with a decent brand or know what generic stuff you are getting (many times it is the same name brand and same cable under a generic or no-name brand) you should be fine. I would definitely not spend twice as much on a cable just because it says Belden on it. The cable I use is 'generic' from a place I trust and it was roughly $70/1000 for 350Mhz rated cable. My pro friend has pulled a bunch of it with me and said it was fine and would not hesitate to use it.

So the choice is yours - if you feel more comfortable with cable saying Belden or XYZ and you have the budget to pay the premium, then go for it. But when you put a certification meter on it, my generic cable (or any other decent branded cable) will perform and spec out the same.

 

[phenix]

Well I've been doing a bunch of price searching over the past few days and I just came across an interesting company so I thought I would throw it up on the forum for others to checkout and see if anyone has heard of them. The most interesting thing about them is there prices. You can get cat6 for cat5e price. I know I know if it sounds to good to be true it probably isn't but I just talked to the place and he said they can offer these prices because they don't have the overhead and advertising that the big name companies do. He is emailing me a spec sheet on there Elite Brand cables so if anyone is interested I can post that as well.
Any thoughts?

 

[Sacedog]

As far as Belden being 'the best' is kind of BS, but like I said, it is a personal thing and do not wish to debate it.

I agree. I don't think that anyone said that they were the "best". Just that they were a very good brand-name cable, that performs and installs well. Like you said, there are plenty of other brands out there that are probably better.

 

[MBrew]

The twist rate for UTP cable is specified in it's standard. Each of the four pairs in any Cat5 cable are twisted at different rates. This is to minimize cross talk. There is just a bit of info on this site. I didn't have time to look for a more detailed site.

Mike