Cat 5 vs. Cat 6 - on-line gaming

[fraggelrock]

I am setting up a new network in my home - 3 computers on a wired network.

I am doing a lot of VOIP and on-line gaming (Battlefield f-ing yeah!!!), so I got a QOS 1 gig router.

All my motherboards have 1 gig NIC onboard.

My question: Does it really matter weather I use Cat 6 or Cat 5?

What is the real difference?

 

[LVDAX]

There is no real difference when it applies to your Internet speed. You will only be able to communicate at the slowest point (your internet service).

As for gaming you should be fine with CAT5e, i wouldn't waste the extra $$$ on CAT6

Here are some wiki's on the topic:
CAT5 and CAT5e
CAT6

Best of luck.

See you on the BF :twisted:
btw which version BF and whats your screen name??

 

[riser]

Throughput on Cat6 is higher but the main difference is Cat 6 can extend to around 680-700 ft, whereas Cat5e can hit around 280-300 ft.

 

[fraggelrock]

Well, my longest connection will be 30 feet - so distence is not the issue.

What about data loss from cell phones, wireless phones etc. - Cat 6 offer more protection than Cat 5e?

 

[riser]

No real difference. Cat6 has more twists which makes the signal travel further. At 30 ft, no difference.

Cat 5e would be sufficient for what you need. Come to think of it, everytime we hire out Blackbox or a telco to wire a building, they're sticking with cat5e unless needed for the long distances.

 

[LVDAX]

Very true. But being a home user and only playing games and internet he will see very little to no difference if he were using CAT5e instead of CAT6 if he were to transfer documents or play on the LAN.

 

[Zorg]

Agreed, being that his internet access is less than 10Mb/s he could use CAT3 if he wanted. For that matter he could almost use kite string.

 

[sma]

Where are you people getting this info from seriously.

cat6 does not mean that you can have a run longer than 100m or 295ft.

Cat5 has the same constraints as Cat6 due to the quality of the electronics. The 2 volt nominal signal for both drops away due to signal strength past 295 feet in the link.
Not to mention that Ethernet is designed to detect collisions and base their timers use the fact that electrical signals running down copper have a speed of 98% speed of light, Based on this the timer knows exactly how long to listen for a collision based on the amount of time taken for that signal to travel 100m or 295ft.

If you make a longer run REGARDLESS of the category of cable you are using Ethernet WILL NOT function correctly and you WILL drop down to 10mbps/half duplex.

Simple physics and math is used for a reason in electronics dont screw with it.