Cat6 Vs. Cat7 Cable: Which Is Optimum for A New House?

It is generally acknowledged that build a new house is not a simple task, especially for setting up a new network in the new house. Cat5 network cable seems lags behind a lot in the long run of network cables. For future proofing network cables, both Cat6 and Cat7 Ethernet cables are good choice. Allodoxaphobia would occur under this occasion for most Ethernet users about the optimal one. This article would put emphasis on comparing the difference between Cat6 and Cat7 network cable, and guiding you to choose a better one for a new house in the following four aspects.

—Specification

Specification is paramount to network cables, so do the Cat6 and Cat7 Ethernet cables. Cat7 Ethernet cable features even more strict specifications for crosstalk and system noise than Cat6 Ethernet cable. Shielding has been added for individual wire pairs on the Cat7 cable. Besides, CAT 7 is backwards compatible with traditional Cat5 and Cat6 Ethernet. And Shielding has been added for individual wire pairs on the Category 7 cable. Xmultiple's UltraJAX connectors are designed specifically for these high speeds with not contact pins and a printed circuit board with contact pads integrated into the RJ45 style housing.

—Gigabit Ethernet

For setting up a network in a new house, it is necessary for us to take the prevalent network speed in the years ahead. Will home machines will be able to actually use 10G even in the next 10 years? Years ago, people did to put in cat6 rather than cat5e. They believed the market went from 1G which runs fine on 5e directly to 10G which requires cat6a or cat7. All those people who thought they would "save" money in the future found out they wasted it. The now run 1G over their very expensive (at install time) cat6 cable and if they ever want to go faster will have to replace it just as if they had put in cat5e.

—Transmission Frequency & Cabling Length

Cat6 cable standard provides performance of up to 250 MHz while Cat7 cable is rated for transmission frequencies of up to 600 MHz. The maximum cabling length of Cat6 network cable is 100 m. Cat7 has been designed as a standard for Gigabit Ethernet over 100 m of copper cabling.

—Price

With current SSD drives pushing past 500Mbytes which is around a 50% improvement in about a year and a half, 4k tv's needing around 10gbs because you never get max bandwidth, going to be throwing spam about your house. As far as I’m concerned, I would lean towards cat7a if there is only a few hundred pounds difference. Both Cat7 and Cat6 cables are relatively expensive than the Cat5, Cat5e. Relatively speaking, Cat7 cable is more expensive than Cat6 cable. If you cannot afford both of them, and then Cat5e would also be a good choice for 10G network.

Cat6 Vs. Cat7: How to Choose?

According to the trend of network development, Cat7 cable is more appropriate for setting up a new house. The Cat7a network cable is particularly suitable for the new house. Under 40 Gigabit Ethernet, it will work up to 50 meters and under 100 Gigabit Ethernet, it is possible up to 15 meters. If you are in a tight budget, Cat6 and Cat5e cable would also be good choices.