cat5e or cat6 or cat6e or cat7 ethernet?!

[bmorris]

So I have my mac mini with 2tb fw drive setup as a media center in the living room. and i have my mac pro in my office as my main computer and a time capsule for a router.

so all of my movies and music are on the mac mini, but i setup my iphones and ipods on my main computer.

the syncing takes TOO long over wifi.

what type of cable is good for transferring music and hd movies to and from the two computers?

i saw this below:
Cat5e:
Gigabit Ethernet up to 100 meters
10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 45 meters

Cat6:
Gigabit Ethernet up to 100 meters
10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 55 meters

Cat6a:
Gigabit Ethernet up to 100 meters
10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 100 meters

Is the distance of 10 Gigabit ethernet the only difference for the cat5e, cat6, cat6e, and cat7; or will it improve my transfer speeds of files?

 

[Sun Baked]

For a short run in your house, the only thing likely to change is the minimum payment on your credit card after the purchase.

As long as the cable is decent quality to begin with.

If you were in an office with multiple computers sharing bandwidth, then you'd have to start worrying about cables, routers, switches, servers, etc.

Otherwise running down to Fry's for a 500ft Cat6 home network kit plus the cable tester shouldn't kill you. Probably is under $200 for enough to do several rooms.

Stepping up to 6a with all the 6a rated panels might be a bit more if you also include the cable tester.

 

[bmorris]

For a short run in your house, the only thing likely to change is the minimum payment on your credit card after the purchase.

As long as the cable is decent quality to begin with.

If you were in an office with multiple computers sharing bandwidth, then you'd have to start worrying about cables, routers, switches, servers, etc.

So a 5e would be the same as a 6 for the distance?

 

[MrWillie]

When you run the cables, pay attention to the bend radius and watch for kinks in your cable. this has an adverse effect on gigabyte ethernet speeds.

 

[Sun Baked]

So a 5e would be the same as a 6 for the distance?

Apple networking is still slow and likely handled by decent quality cat5e.

If you get a home networking kit, the cat6 is going to be a nominal increase, I think it is $20 more at frys -- so worth stepping up.

But homes are generally short runs compared to offices where single cable runs can easily be 100m so more thinking is needed during network installs.

We've been waiting years for Apple to add 10G ethernet, since Broadcom has had it since about the Intel switch -- but no dice yet.

 

[hitekalex]

So a 5e would be the same as a 6 for the distance?

Cat5e should really be fine for the foreseeable future.. Your computers won't have 10Gb NICs for quite some time, and 1GbE is more than sufficient for all practical home uses.

Make sure your Ethernet switch supports 1GbE, and not limited to 100Mb.

 

[bmorris]

Cat5e should really be fine for the foreseeable future.. Your computers won't have 10Gb NICs for quite some time, and 1GbE is more than sufficient for all practical home uses.

Make sure your Ethernet switch supports 1GbE, and not limited to 100Mb.

How do I make sure my Ethernet switch supports 1GbE?
I have the Dual band Time Capsule, does that help?

 

[MrWillie]

How do I make sure my Ethernet switch supports 1GbE?
I have the Dual band Time Capsule, does that help?

Yep, your time capsule has a gig WAN plus 3 gig LAN ports, however, I forgot to mention earlier, the Apple TV's wired port is only a 10/100.

Edit: I don't know why I mentioned the Apple TV. Long day at work.