Friday, September 17th 2021
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ASUS ROG Joins the Expensive Cables Club with ROG CAT7 Cable
Cables, why is it that some people are so fixated about them? We've seen companies like Monster Cable base their entire business around them, yet most people don't even seem to know why they're buying expensive cables. Asus has now joined the club of expensive cable sellers with its new ROG CAT7 Cable, which has started to appear in various markets around the world.
In all fairness, Asus isn't asking for thousands, or even hundreds of dollars for their ROG branded cables, but a 1.5 metre cable will set you back in the region of $22, whereas a longer 3 metre cable comes in at around $37. An ROG branded velcro tie is included in the box as the only accessory. We're not sure that nylon braiding is going to be useful on an Ethernet cable, but Asus is at least using shielded FTP wires (although Asus say STP on their site), which suggests it should be a decent quality cable at the very least. It's worth keeping in mind that CAT 7 isn't recognised by the TIA/EIA as part of the Ethernet standard and offers no real world benefits over CAT 6A on a 10 Gbps or slower network.
Source:
Asus
In all fairness, Asus isn't asking for thousands, or even hundreds of dollars for their ROG branded cables, but a 1.5 metre cable will set you back in the region of $22, whereas a longer 3 metre cable comes in at around $37. An ROG branded velcro tie is included in the box as the only accessory. We're not sure that nylon braiding is going to be useful on an Ethernet cable, but Asus is at least using shielded FTP wires (although Asus say STP on their site), which suggests it should be a decent quality cable at the very least. It's worth keeping in mind that CAT 7 isn't recognised by the TIA/EIA as part of the Ethernet standard and offers no real world benefits over CAT 6A on a 10 Gbps or slower network.
56 Comments on ASUS ROG Joins the Expensive Cables Club with ROG CAT7 Cable
" Stupid is as stupid does "
'nuff said :D
I just payed for a similar, 10m S/FTP cable (so double shielding - foil and braid) around 13$.
like buying Monster HDMI cable at best buy...
I've seen far more ridoncolous things that went under the radar but somehow a branded Eth cable drove everyone nuts?
audiobacon.net/2019/11/02/the-jcat-signature-lan-a-1000-ethernet-cable/
"CAT 7 isn't recognized by the TIA/EIA as part of the Ethernet standard and offers no real world benefits over CAT 6A on a 10 Gbps or slower network."
True, but also extremely deceptive and misleading!
CAT7 was 'made' before CAT6A was ratified. TIA/EIA indeed did not ever ratify CAT7 as a standard. HOWEVER, CAT7 was developed not 'in theory' but in real world testing and development. Not only has it been lab-proven to be sufficient for 40gb/s and greater (over some distance), the 'non-standard' includes both individual twisted pair shielding, and overall cable foil+mesh shielding. All (to spec) CAT7 rejects interference far better than UTP CAT6A. when I ordered a 1000ft spool for wiring my house CAT7 SF/FTP (mesh Shield + Foil overall/Foil shield on ea. Twisted Pair) was more affordable and far more available than equivalently shielded CAT6A. It is also immensely more affordable than CAT8 if you're trying to 'future proof' your install as much as money allows.
One could argue "No real world benefit below 10gbps", but most haven't recognized or been dealing with interference and inductance problems in the homespace for years. EMI and RFI are 'real world' problems; shielding benefits mitigation. HAMs and industrial automation technicians should also understand the Real World Benefits of shielded lines.
There are many aspects of network cabling most people don't understand;
Firstly, the Ethernet cabling standards are set very conservatively, for operating whole bundles of cables in server racks full of electromagnetic noise. The Cat 6/6A standard doesn't even require shielding, so most Cat 6/6A cables far exceeds the requirements of the standards, and some does even meet the physical requirements of the Cat 8.1 standard, the only thing missing is the certification. The only difference between the Cat 6/6A Ethernet standard and the Cat 7 cable standard is the requirement of shielding and a different certification, where in Cat 6/6A the shielding is optional. Whenever you see Cat 7 "Ethernet cables", these are just rebranded Cat 6A S/FTP or F/FTP cables, with a premium price. For bulk cable, these days we can find decently priced Cat 6A S/FTP 23 AWG cable (good enough for 8.1), which will be good enough for 25 Gb speeds. There is no point in "future proofing" by buying the same cable with a different name. 22 AWG Cat 8.1 cable does exist, but the benefits of that will only come into play beyond 25 Gbps.
Secondly, for patch cables the bottleneck is nearly always going to be termination and physical damage to the cable and plugs. Many shielded patch cables these days are super stiff, and it takes very little to damage the plugs. If a patch cable is going to be exposed to physical stress regularly (like on a laptop), you'd be much better off with a soft cable with stress release than the cable with the highest rating. I'm not so sure Asus even makes them, probably just some rebranded OEM junk done by a third party. And considering buying decent patch cables cost like $2, and they still make good money on that, they probably cost like $0.2 to make. It's just pure profits.
I'm laughing my ass off
Again, I seriously hope this isn't necessary, but:
/s
Whoa only $1000/m, what a bargain!
no need for /s
Welcome to Cat 8 NTP cable, cheaper and faster; So they say...:
www.amazon.co.uk/Primewire-Ethernet-Standard-Gigabit-Shielding-black/dp/B0873CWXQL?th=1
But if you want to truly go premium, at only $10.000/m, I have the only product on the market hand-terminated with love by me, fully compatible with military grade encryption™, and 100% compatible with all the cat videos on YouTube. :p
IMHO, cables (of any kind) are soooooo 1960's-ish.....
I've been sending & receiving my data at a gazillion q-bits per nansecond, over my invisible, dilithium-powered quantum picobit lightwave network for almost 40 years now..... too, hahahaha
Yeah it looks nice an all but in reality you're only paying for the brand name after that it's still a cable made in China in some out of the way slave labour factory where every other network cable is made