[SOLVED] help with wired home network

[sucker]

A little backstory. I used to live in a single story home that I ran CAT6a wiring. I had the main cable line go down the wall to the TP-Link router that had 4 ports on it. I ran one wire to 4 room locations and then used small switches to add multiple devices in each room. This limited my attic time. In my new house I need to run network wire also. It is a 2 story house so the network will be very large already. I'm thinking of getting a small rack and putting a large switch in it along with patch panel and the whole 9 yards. My big question is do I need to run a separate and descreat CAT6a wire from the room to the rack switch? Meaning if I have a TV, PS4, blue-ray player, DVR in one room, do I need to run 4 individual wires to the switch in the "server closet"?
Will there be any benifit to this approach than running one wire and daisy chaining switches in each room? The cool geek factor is there but what about better reliability and speed. I want to future-proof my home network as much as possible.

 

[gmagdna]

Depends on if you expect to ever saturate a single Gigabit run, which is unlikely in most home environments. In your one example I assume the devices will all be on a single TV with none of the devices run simultaneously. Even if they were that wouldn't saturate a single run. Reliability won;t be an issue other than introducing additional points of potential failure points with more hardware.

The advantage to multiple runs is that each one is Gigabit, rather than a single run where all devices will share bandwidth.

 

[bill001g]

It is all a bandwidth issue. It depends if a single cable is enough bandwidth for all the device you connect on the remote end since they all share it.

Realistically in a home install you are not going to exceed a gigabit port. To even think to do it you would need some kind of server in the house since it is not likely you are going to use a gigabit of internet if you can even git it.

Then again since you are running cat6a cable you can upgrade to 10g ports if 1gbit is not enough.

I suspect you are over thinking this is the real answer

 

[sucker]

OK. I will also have my home server on this network and I will stream videos and music from it. I also am unusual in that I will have 4 other computers plus the home server computer on the network. Not all computers will be active at once but up to 3 at a time. I know I can get 980 Mbps transfer from computer to computer. I haven't measured server to TV. The entertainment center was the example of one location with many different network users.
I'm trying to decide if it is worth the extra effort to run potentially 24 wires in the wall and attic as oposed to 4 or 5.

 

[sucker]

I probably am overthinking it

 

[USAFRet]

OK. I will also have my home server on this network and I will stream videos and music from it.

And that is still easily within the realm of a standard gigabit LAN.

I've done tests from my Qnap NAS box. Said NAs is off the router via a single Cat5e. All other devices are behind normal consumer grade inexpensive switches.

Playing 1080p movies out to 3 devices, music to a 4th, and accepting large backups from 2 other systems, all at the same time.
Zero video or music degradation on any device.

 

[gmagdna]

One run to each room will be sufficient, You could run a second to each room just to say you did and to be well on the safe side of pretty much any future need.

 

[falcon291]

OK. I will also have my home server on this network and I will stream videos and music from it. I also am unusual in that I will have 4 other computers plus the home server computer on the network. Not all computers will be active at once but up to 3 at a time. I know I can get 980 Mbps transfer from computer to computer. I haven't measured server to TV. The entertainment center was the example of one location with many different network users.
I'm trying to decide if it is worth the extra effort to run potentially 24 wires in the wall and attic as oposed to 4 or 5.

You can get 980 Mbps but, this is a speed you can achieve if only you have NVMe PCI-X drives as target and source. This is a bandwidth that as a home user you can never fill. Yes you are overthinking

 

[sucker]

Thanks for the input everyone. I think I'll stick with my simpler wiring and switches in each room.

 

[SamirD]

If you truly have the opportunity to wire whatever you want, ie new unfinished walls, put as much wire as you could imagine in your wildest dreams. At my parents house, we ran 2x cat5 and 2x coax to each room and it wasn't enough. Doing it right the first time is a lot less pain than trying to do it again.

Remember, you don't have to terminate or do anything with the wire in the walls if you don't want, so if you run 4 and 1 is enough, you can just terminate 1 and be done. But the day you need more, they are right there waiting.