So I went to the local office supply store to see what they had. I found the Belkin Cat6 (Category 6) Ethernet cable that you can see below; Ethernet cable is usually the blue or grey networking cable you may have at home. Cat6 has higher transmission speeds than Cat5, but is also more expensive. Both Cat5 and Cat6 are a type of Ethernet cable, which is a type of twisted-pair wire as we discussed in class. Standard phone-line is also twisted-pair but a much lower transmission rate. Cat5 Ethernet cable usually has about 3 twists per inch, although manufacturers differ.
Note in the second picture it says, under point 'C,' that the cable has "50 micro-inches of gold for better conductivity." Gold is *not* a better conductor than copper which is the standard wire type used in these cables, including the ones in the pictures, but it is more resilient as it won't corrode. Also, standards for Cat6 cable connectors make no mention of gold, their specifications already minimize noise and subsequent possibility of crosstalk - the signal jumping from one of the twisted wires to the other - as we talked about on Friday.
Also, a micro-inch is one millionth of an inch. It's not much, even 50 micro-inches isn't much. I very seriously doubt that the 50 micro-inches of gold touted on the package, but not explained in any detail, do anything for performance. The price difference between this and standard Cat5 is $10 ($14 vs. $24), but Cat6 *may possibly* provide an improvement if you are doing a lot of data transfer. For a standard home network Cat5 should be fine.
I think that unless you are looking for something with a specific purpose because you need it, it is ok to spend more money on that product. But people out there pay the extra money just because it might be better? Like in this example the, the cheaper cable works just fine. Also sometimes we are willing to pay more if the item is a certain name brand.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you there. A month ago I was in the market for a new laptop. I was set in my ways and wanted to buy a Apple. Why you might ask? Well because they are the best, wow was I way wrong. I was going to be paying around 2-3 times more just because of the name brand and I was going to get way less of a computer. With the help of Professor Darren and the internet I chose to buy a Asus.
DeleteThanks for checking this gold cable out for us. I was very curious about it myself. I mentioned it to the IT department at my work and they hadn't heard of gold Cat 6 cables. This is a waist of $. I think that people are buying a name brand without knowing if the product is worth it. I wonder how many other products like this one are out there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update. I was interested to learn more in regards to the difference as I have seen the gold plated wires myself. I did not personally feel as though there would be a huge difference, I assumed if was pretty much preference and/or aesthetics. I also appreciated the information about the differences between Cat5 and Cat6.
ReplyDeleteI went to Office Max to buy some paper and I wanted to try and see if I receved the same response. So I asked an associate were I could find Ethernet cables and he lead the way. I told him I didn't know what they were for all I knew if that my boyfriend called me and asked me to stop by and purchase them here. He was really nice and went straight for the cheapest ones and told me that, that was all I needed. So I believe that there are still good hearted moral people walking this earth.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you on that point. I recently wanted to upgrade my cell phone, and pay the extra $200 to do so. I went into the Cricket store near my home, and one of the guys I usually deal with asked why I wanted to upgrade. I told him more memory. He told me to just buy for memory for $25 instead of paying the $200 for upgrading, and stated I would get the same result. So I was pretty happy with him saving me that money.
DeleteMya Taylor
It exist! I think people that works for office supplies or any type of retail will always recommend what's more expensive because it's what the company wants them to do. It's kind of sad how it works, since I've worked on retail. They will tell you anything to try and sell it to you, but there are people who will truly want to help and give you what you need instead. It's nice to know though that Cat5 is all I need.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you telling us that a standard Ethernet cable would work just fine (just as good) as one with gold in it. I would hate to have been sucked into someone’s brilliant sales pitch. I looked it up as well and found that research claims that there is no significant difference in regard to the standard and gold Ethernet cables. I read Bernice’s response to this post, and I am very glad to hear that the salesman was honest with her and didn’t try to rip her off, since he led her to the cheapest cables! I feel like I would be the same way if I were the salesperson. I love saving the customers’ money and offering them honest assistance because I would like them to do the same for me if roles were reversed!
ReplyDeleteThese "gold" cables seem like another way to get consumers sucked into the next "big thing". Gold cables do sound pretty cool. Perhaps if we weren't all in an Information Systems class right now we may be a little more gullible. I like that Bernice found a store clerk that was honest. I have a family member that works for Best Buy so I've been fortunate of having the gift of the truth with his advice. Companies will definitely do anything to get you to pay a little more and this seems like that's all this is.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am the one that brought this up in class, so I had to respond! I do want to state for the record that I did not buy the gold cables that were toted too me by the salesperson. I went with the standard cable, which works fine by the way. I am happy to hear that you checked it out. I have to admit my technology knowledge is not what it should be, but I still recognized a sales pitch when I heard one. Besides, the fact that if he really wanted to sell me those gold cables, he should have been at least able to tell me why they were better.
ReplyDeleteI am not the most technical savvy person so this was very helpful to me. In not having much knowledge I tend to go to the medium price items. The cheap ones I'm afraid won't last long and the expensive ones I feel are just to over priced. I could stand there for quite a while trying to read the packaging trying to sort through all of the information. This really helped me to know that I can get the cheap ones and be just fine. Thank you Nichole for bringing it up in class.
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