Question Where to get legit CAT Rated Ethernet Cables and how much they cost?

[Gamefreaknet]

So I know on Amazon and other sites some sellers may sell some dodgy/fake CAT8 Ethernet Cable which isn't much faster than a legit CAT5E cable however which sites/sellers actually sell the legit cables rather than fake cables and how much should I expect to pay for 10+ metres at CAT7 or CAT8.
(Simply I have a bunch of devices hooked up to a 8 port and 5 port Gigabit ethernet switch since I'd prefer to use with Ethernet rather than WiFi since its faster and more stable but it's all coming off one ethernet port so I know it'd be pointless to have a legit CAT6 from my router to the switch and then have CAT8 to my PC and TV, etc... since the limit of CAT6 would limit how much the CAT8 cable receives)

 

[Viking2121]

Thats not how CAT wire works. If you are using a gigabit switch, all you need is cat5, epically for short distances, long distances that are hard to access sure cat6 maybe 7 if its at a fair price but thats only for future proofing so you wont have change wire out in hard to get to spots like in a wall.

You are limited by the switch being at gigabit, Cat 8 will not help you there, even if you had a 48 port gigabit switch you are still limited by gigabit, Wire will not help speeds.

The only time that cat6 and up will help you is if you are running a switch thats rated at 5gbit, 10gbit or more, but your device connected to it will also have to support that, if your device only supports 1gbit, thats all its going to do, nothing more, So you are limited by the switch and or the device nic.

2.5gbit, cat5 can do that effortlessly most of the time, seen a few cases where it didn't work and defaulted to 1gbit.

So in your case, cat5e would be plenty, if you are looking into the future, sure get a cat6 or cat7 but if there is a big price different, I wouldn't even bother, might help later when more hardware is able to support it.

Good Luck

 

[bill001g]

You are think about this the wrong way. It is not the cable that is limiting the speed it is the ports in the equipment.
Cat5e cable can run full gigabit...in fact it can even run 2.5g. Buy more expensive cable does nothing for you it still runs at 1gbit...the port can not run any faster no matter what cable you plug into it.

This is like you comparing which racing tires you put on your car but you live on a dirt road.

I wish there was a sure fire way to always get cables. You would think you could look for the certification marking on the cable like EIA/TIA but some companies from china are forging those. Places like amazon crack down on fake purses and watches but amazon themselves sells cable that is not certified ethernet cables.

Generally the fake vendors do not outright lie, they are very decptive but you seldom see them for example sell cable that is CCA and claim it is pure copper. Amazon will kick them off the site for stuff like that but as long as they just sell garbage cables and they refund if you complain amazon let the scamming go on.

So what you want to search for is the words pure copper and then look for the wire size it must be 22-24. Vendors that sell legit cable know about the fake cables and clearly state this information. Uneducated consumers do not know but it is used to show why the cable likely costs a bit more. All the fake cable tend to be cheaper because they contain less copper metal which has gotten extremely expensive over the past say 5-10yrs.

Problem is even valid vendors such as monoprice which is well liked sell that stupid flat cable that has wire size awg 30.

Note in many cases you can get cat6 cable for less than cat5e. Not sure why mostly supply and demand and likely the cost of the copper metal is a higher percentage of the manufacture costs so there is no difference. It won't run any better or faster but if it is cheaper it will work just as good.

 

[USAFRet]

"Cat8" is not yet a defined standard
"Cat 7" never was

Good quality Cat5e will do gigabit to 100 meters.
Often farther and/or faster.

How much do you need for your residence?


And...performance depends on the slowest device in the chain.
Magical "Cat8" is only as fast as the ethernet it is plugged into on each end. Are you going to update the port and circuitry on your TV?

 

[RealBeast]

So I know on Amazon and other sites some sellers may sell some dodgy/fake CAT8 Ethernet Cable which isn't much faster than a legit CAT5E cable however which sites/sellers actually sell the legit cables rather than fake cables and how much should I expect to pay for 10+ metres at CAT7 or CAT8.
(Simply I have a bunch of devices hooked up to a 8 port and 5 port Gigabit ethernet switch since I'd prefer to use with Ethernet rather than WiFi since its faster and more stable but it's all coming off one ethernet port so I know it'd be pointless to have a legit CAT6 from my router to the switch and then have CAT8 to my PC and TV, etc... since the limit of CAT6 would limit how much the CAT8 cable receives)

Buy all CAT 6 or 6A cables, there is no benefit to using CAT 7 or 8 other than to spend more. I still use primarily CAT 5e since I have a big spool of it and it supports gigabit and performs as well as any other more expensive choice between gigabit ports. For higher speeds I use Intel 10Gbs SFP+ adapters and cables that are cheap but support much higher speed over short distances for linking small servers.