Good Brand VS Not so Good Brand Ethernet Cables

[reddevil0728]

Heard that brands like AMP and 3M are "branded" and the price is at a premium.

So what advantages exactly do these "branded" ethernet cables have over to those non-branded ones?

 

[azazel1024]

Known quality, or at least the better, less expensive "branded" cables.

Monoprice and Cables 2 Go are my two "old reliables". Good price and they both make excellent cables. There are other brands that are more expensive, but they are in no way better cables. I've also seen cheaper cable makers, and its hit or miss. Sometimes its crap cabling (like copper clad aluminum) and other times the quality is just fine.

You can have various short cuts taken in cabling. Copper clad aluminum is the big one and a big no-no. It saves money, but the cabling is much more fragile and it does not meet specification (must be all copper conductor to meet Cat cabling specs).

Other times you'll find thinner PVC jacketing, not enough twists per inch, missing pair seperator (cat6 and higher) and so on.

 

[kanewolf]

Belden is always safe if you are buying bulk cable.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
Lots of cable choices out there.

I would suggest you head over to Monoprice.com and order up some cables. I have never had any issues yet with any cable (patch cable or bulk) from them.

The only thing that you will need to do,,,, is select the length and color, and cat level 5, 5e, 6, etc..

oh, did I also mention, great prices too.

 

[RMerlin]

Personally I'd say just avoid the discount bin where you can get a 15 feet at 2$. Those will occasionally fail to run at their rated speed (i.e. a Cat 5e might be unstable when used in a Gigabit environment). They might also be poorly crimped, and start to wear out at the connector level after a while

No need to pay a high premium price either (I'm looking at you, Monster Cables and other similar resellers of snake oil).

 

[stevech]

Does Monoprice fab their own CAT5 cables or are they reselling?

 

[sfx2000]

Monoprice - who knows, but they stand behind their product, so buy with confidence.

As for me, I buy cable in bulk, and crimp my own...