New home build: link me the bulk Ethernet cable I need

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Monoprice is where you need to look

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This

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6A is certainly future proofing but mostly unnecessary.

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. Considering it costs the same there isn't a reason you shouldn't use it.

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5E can handle gigabit which is the most anyone can have currently

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If you're looking at AV distribution over Ethernet and have cable runs over about 35 feet, the upgrade to cat6 may actually be worth it.

I have cat6a because i found a Monoprice spool of it for something like $90. It was cheaper than 5e. If I were doing it again, I'd run 5e just for the sheer number of holes I've had to drill in my top plate for the thicker cable. If this isn't an issue given the new home build status, it's not a big cost difference. You'll almost never likely actually see a performance difference. But you're paying $50-100 more which is probably trivial in the grand scheme of things.


Here is a chart I found helpful:

This is for plenum, but it's not that much different sized than riser-rated. Here you can see that if you drill a 1.25" hole in your top/drop plate, you will squeeze a 1" conduit through there. In your 1" conduit, you can fit 4 cat6a or 11 or 12 cat5e. Again, in the building phase this is easier to plan for, so maybe you can make it work. But it's something to think about and plan for. You'll probably never really justify the bump from 5e to 6a from a home performance perspective. I guess the scenario that's untrue is if you have a massive media server in a separate building 150-300ft away that you plan on streaming transcoded files from constantly. But outside of frequent massive file transfers or video-over-ethernet over long runs (eahch manufacturer tends to give the max cat5e length they recommend. Usually 10-30m), you should at least take cable thickness into consideration for the sake of your media closet's appearance.

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5e is about a hundred bucks cheaper/thousand.

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1000' Cat5e 75$
1000' Cat6 95$ Which i have seen on special for cheaper.

1000' Cat6e 150$

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Then the keystone jacks and patch panels are more

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they are the same arent that?