Cabling my new house?

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sdemler

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#204487 3-Oct-2016 23:38

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy 4 boxes of ethernet 6A cabling to wire my house up. I'm new to NZ so not familiar with the various places to source this. Can anyone offer any recommendations or is it worth importing from China/UK/US?

Thanks.

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#1644975 4-Oct-2016 00:33

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/CABDNX2925/DYNAMIX-305m-Cat-6A-Blue-SFTP-Cable-Roll-23AWGx4P

This will do you great. By the time you pay for the cable and ship it in, you'll end up spending just as much - if not more than purchasing locally. Also, if you import it and have a quality issue, it'll be a real pain to get it sorted.

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#1644985 4-Oct-2016 01:10

Any particular reason your are willing to pay the (substantial) premium for Cat 6A over Cat6?

I did my house (retrofit) in Cat6. General comments: Cable is cheap, Mechs, Cabinets, Patch panels are expensive. Electrical wholesale prices are weird. Sparkies getting discounts like trade minus 60% is common, as a cash customer you can get anything between this and full price depending on who you speak to at the desk. (they are generally open to negotiation if you are prepared to walk out.). Write up a bill of materials for everything, and get the three big wholesalers to quote for it.

Shipping heavy stuff like cable internationaly probably isn't worth it.

CYaBro

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#1644989 4-Oct-2016 01:19

Yea I wouldn't bother with cat6a.
Even cat5e can do 10gbps up to 55m and not many houses would have runs that long.

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Jase2985

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#1644992 4-Oct-2016 05:02

and 4 boxes? i take it its not the 300m boxes?

richms

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#1645000 4-Oct-2016 06:53

If you want 4 cables to a place then you need 4 boxes or it is a nightmare figuring out the length and then spreading the cables out neatly to pull thru. Lots of time wasted trying to do it with a single box.

Richard rich.ms

Scott3

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#1645445 4-Oct-2016 20:41

richms:

If you want 4 cables to a place then you need 4 boxes or it is a nightmare figuring out the length and then spreading the cables out neatly to pull thru. Lots of time wasted trying to do it with a single box.

That Cat6A is fairly expensive. 1 box did my house (just). At $300 a box, it would cost an extra $900 in materials.

I would pull one run, then use the numbers listed on the cable sheath to work out the distance I ran, cut say three off , and run the next three. Really need somebody to guide the cables into the wall as they tend to kink when not coming straight from the box.

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richms

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#1645460 4-Oct-2016 20:59

Can always sell the remainder in the boxes and people will overpay on Trademe so a good chance you come out better off than if you did it with 1 box

Richard rich.ms

dt

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#1645659 5-Oct-2016 09:23

on this topic, my house is already cabled.. however i need a few extra ports in some existing locations throughout the house. Anyone know the best way to do this? could I just duct tape some extra cables to an existing cable and effectively use it as a draw wire? this method would have me worried about it coming undone part the way through though!

jonb

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#1645688 5-Oct-2016 09:50

Cat6 will be 5Gbps in consumer gear in a few years, so not worth the expense and difficulty in installing Cat6A..

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/09/5gbps-ethernet-standard-details-8023bz/

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#1645972 5-Oct-2016 15:08

dt:

on this topic, my house is already cabled.. however i need a few extra ports in some existing locations throughout the house. Anyone know the best way to do this? could I just duct tape some extra cables to an existing cable and effectively use it as a draw wire? this method would have me worried about it coming undone part the way through though!

could run a small switch at the remote end?

jonb

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#1646005 5-Oct-2016 16:13

If you have underfloor access much easier to string extra cables alongside. If access is not possible gets much harder. Very likely the existing cables are not even in conduits and are fixed runs..

As mentioned, a switch is probably best option, if not the neatest..

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sdemler

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#1648042 9-Oct-2016 15:42

Thanks guys for all your comments and advice.

I'll settle on CAT6 and I'll get a quote from PBTech. One last question is it worth the trouble to install conduit rather than cable. I'm fairly low skilled when it comes to DIY so I'm leaning against this at this stage.

Regards.

cynnicallemon

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#1648061 9-Oct-2016 16:15

If I was to cable, and future proof, a house now I would probably opt for fibre if at all possible.

Jase2985

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#1648062 9-Oct-2016 16:20

cynnicallemon:

If I was to cable, and future proof, a house now I would probably opt for fibre if at all possible.

may i ask why?

currently consumer Ethernet is rated at 1gbps, soon it will be rated to 5gbps with the current cat6 cables. it can do 10gbps with specialised gear and the right cables.

fibre requires a whole different set of equipment and there are lots of things that dont offer connections for fibre (tv, consoles, AP's etc)

the speed of the 5gbps ethernet is actually faster than the current version of SATA3 HDD's so you wouldnt be able to achieve those speeds anyways

basically the cost vs gain just isnt there

cynnicallemon

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#1648085 9-Oct-2016 16:45

Jase2985:

cynnicallemon:

If I was to cable, and future proof, a house now I would probably opt for fibre if at all possible.

may i ask why?

currently consumer Ethernet is rated at 1gbps, soon it will be rated to 5gbps with the current cat6 cables. it can do 10gbps with specialised gear and the right cables.

fibre requires a whole different set of equipment and there are lots of things that dont offer connections for fibre (tv, consoles, AP's etc)

the speed of the 5gbps ethernet is actually faster than the current version of SATA3 HDD's so you wouldnt be able to achieve those speeds anyways

basically the cost vs gain just isnt there

I guess we all have different needs/requirements. You could put together a fairly cheap 10Gbps network using Chesio or Mellanox adapters, pretty good if you have a NAS and you could saturate a 10Gbps link with a NAS. CAT 6A/7 cable and adapters are pretty expensive at the moment from what I've seen and leave little room for error when installing - not saying that fibre doesn't either.

I would say copper inside the home will be gone within 5 years or so, just as coax for networking made way for CAT5.

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