Cat 5e vs Cat 6

[pastrychef]

Does anyone have any links to tests that compare Cat 5e vs Cat 6 cables in a gigabit ethernet environment? I'm just wondering if there's any advantage to upgrading. Thanks.

 

[OmarM]

Cate5e only support 100Mb and Cat6 support 1Gb...that's all there is to it. If u got gig then use gig cable...simple as that...unless u dont need the bandwidth, then cat5

 

[izibo]

Cate5e only support 100Mb and Cat6 support 1Gb...that's all there is to it. If u got gig then use gig cable...simple as that...unless u dont need the bandwidth, then cat5

Incorrect, Cat5e supports gigabit speeds. You would only see a difference (between 5e and 6) if you were running longer lines since Cat 6 runs at up to 250 Mhz.

Now, if you wanted to run 10GBit ethernet, that would be a different story. But I'm guessing that gigabit should suffice for the time being.

 

[spacecadet610]

i agree just use cat5e. cat6 realistically won't give you any advantage..

 

[pastrychef]

Yes, I currently only have a gigabit network. However, I notice (through MenuMeters) that transfers speeds fluctuate quite a bit and was wondering if replacing my Cat 5es with Cat 6es would improve/stabilize speeds.

Currently, transfers usually hover around 40-44MB/sec. Does that sound right?

Thanks.

 

[NoNameBrand]

Currently, transfers usually hover around 40-44MB/sec. Does that sound right?

That's probably the limit of your MacBook's disk speed - I hit the limit on mine when I send files to/from my G5 over GigE.

 

[pastrychef]

That's probably the limit of your MacBook's disk speed - I hit the limit on mine when I send files to/from my G5 over GigE.

Thanks for the info!