Any good deals on Cat 7a Ethernet Cable?

[importcrew]

I'm looking for 100 ft of Cat7a cable. Gonna wire a jack next to my STB (and connect cat7a from the STB to the new jack) and run cable through the attic and down to the media closet and have my RG (residential gateway) sit in the media closet as well and run cat6 cable from the gateway to the living room (2 cables). Also thinking of running cable to the home office and put in a new jack as well. Eventually, a little down the road, will wire a few jacks and cables to the garage as well but currently will bridge the AC router for now.

So any decent deals on Cat7 cable? Not looking to spend a couple hundred on 500 ft. Just want 100 ft for now and can run cat6 for everything else.

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[Mr_Roboto]

Shame you're in Elgin, if you were close to Joliet I could probably give you a chunk of a 1000 foot spool that would be over 100 foot to get rid of it. My advice is check monoprice.com for a cable.

You should be able to do CAT5E/CAT6. CAT7 is 10G ready if I remember right.

 

[importcrew]

Yea, Cat7 is 10G. Essentially, Cat 6 would suffice. I just want Cat7 as the main line running to the gateway, then eventually some many many years down the road, cable is still relevant. I guess you can say "future proofing." Of course I won't be here in this house (optimistically), but would be nice to have a gigabit network setup soon. Starting off small and working my way up.

I appreciate the gesture. Monoprice does have 100 ft for $45 (includes $10 shipping). I figured I would be able to get it for about $30-35 out the door, but what's an extra $10.

Now time to order the Cat 6. I may order 500 ft of that as I will be wiring the garage in the future and need at least 60 feet for the living room.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Fiber

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Also I see it online for 25-35$ for 100ft. Just search around.

 

[Eagle]

Even IF you're running 10gb, just run cat5. No real need for that fancy shit. Once you get to cat6, the connectors are special and the cables are a PITA to make and test/certify to 6 spec. Can't imagine how much a PITA 7 must be...

 

[importcrew]

I do have fiber internet, and would be nice to run it wired through out the house. I guess I should have had the house wired during the building process, but it is what it is.

Found a decent price on a roll of Cat6. I think I'll just end up doing that. I know I won't fully utilize the potential of it anyways, or at least for the a long time down the road. Might as well save a few bucks.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Even IF you're running 10gb, just run cat5. No real need for that fancy shit. Once you get to cat6, the connectors are special and the cables are a PITA to make and test/certify to 6 spec. Can't imagine how much a PITA 7 must be...

I totally agree with this. I just use 5e for the most part. Some 6 is standard size I've found. But if your going to go through the hassle of cat7/6e....go fiber for a bit more money for the backbone and never worry about upgrading.

 

[Intel]

The nice thing with solid cat 6 is you just have to punch it down into the ports vs making ends with stranded, a lot simpler. Just finished networking my whole house with Cat6 as I got a 1000 ft roll of it for 50 bucks.

 

[importcrew]

How the hell did you get a roll for $50?

 

[TCG Member 5219]

Cat 6A will do this. no need for 7a.

 

[muskie]

So I actually work for Anixter, which is one of the largest Wire and Cable Distributors in the world. We actually helped to develop CAT ratings.

I can tell you that CAT 7/7A really aren't even accepted as a standard yet.

If you truly want good 10gig you need to make sure you follow install requirements. There are certain bend radius requirements as well as proximity to other sources of interference that need to be taken into account for it to be 10 gig certified.

If you really want to do this right the first time I would suggest either looking at CDW or Anixter's website and get some Belden or CommScope cable. They are the industry standard. Many of the cheaper brands are CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) and are absolute shit.

 

[FESTER665]

So I actually work for Anixter, which is one of the largest Wire and Cable Distributors in the world. We actually helped to develop CAT ratings.

I can tell you that CAT 7/7A really aren't even accepted as a standard yet.

If you truly want good 10gig you need to make sure you follow install requirements. There are certain bend radius requirements as well as proximity to other sources of interference that need to be taken into account for it to be 10 gig certified.

If you really want to do this right the first time I would suggest either looking at CDW or Anixter's website and get some Belden or CommScope cable. They are the industry standard. Many of the cheaper brands are CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) and are absolute shit.

I'm pretty sure my company buys from you on occasion for the harnesses and wiring we do.... Are you a salesman there?

 

[Bruce Jibboo]

ya wasting time with cat7

 

[Intel]

How the hell did you get a roll for $50?

some guy over ordered for a job.. was on craigslist so who knows.. Almost ran through the whole box due to the long runs in the attic.

 

[muskie]

I'm pretty sure my company buys from you on occasion for the harnesses and wiring we do.... Are you a salesman there?

We do a lot of kitting for harnesses and what not. I'm not a sales person, I'm in the IT infrastructure side of things.

I just like knowing what we sell and have a pretty good understanding of structured cabling from my position.

 

[Eagle]

So I actually work for Anixter, which is one of the largest Wire and Cable Distributors in the world. We actually helped to develop CAT ratings.

I can tell you that CAT 7/7A really aren't even accepted as a standard yet.

If you truly want good 10gig you need to make sure you follow install requirements. There are certain bend radius requirements as well as proximity to other sources of interference that need to be taken into account for it to be 10 gig certified.

If you really want to do this right the first time I would suggest either looking at CDW or Anixter's website and get some Belden or CommScope cable. They are the industry standard. Many of the cheaper brands are CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) and are absolute shit.

This x11tybillion.

The installation is key, but the testing and certification is the real gotcha. Most handmade and installed cables will fail even basic 6A certification, let alone anything 7*.

Just stay with 5e and save some time, money and disillusionment around what your installed cabling can actually handle.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Just gonna say overall I concur unless this is going to be a pain in the ass to rip and replace or you're going to run fiber, forget the fancier cabling. I would also say if you want to roll cables (not terminating to punch blocks) get pre-made ones. Sure you can crimp up good patches but at the same time it increases the odds of having weird network issues.

Lastly, what switching gear do you have? If it's not decent I'd be curious how much throughput you'll actually get. 3750Gs are actually going for a decent price on Ebay, I'd check em out. Either that or say a Power Connect 6224 or 6248 depending on port count needs.

 

[importcrew]

I opted not to get Cat7. As many of you mentioned on here plus the research I've read, it just isn't worth it. I did get 100 ft cat6 cable for the time being so I can run my initial cabling and re-route my gigapower gateway to my media closet. I'm just hoping it won't be a pain to fish the cable to that location. I guess if worse comes to worse, I have a backup plan for location.

I did see plenty of "cheap" cable online, however, they were CCA and not bare copper. So that's one reason I opted just to get the initial 100 ft. As for switches, I haven't gotten one yet. I'll get one when I get some cable and ready to run line everywhere else. I also may redo my media closet and better organize it. Add better shelving, clean up the cabling for the surround sound and tv, ect.

I figure instead of rushing, take it a step at a time. The more you rush, the greater the chance in an error.