ASUS ROG Joins the Expensive Cables Club with ROG CAT7 Cable

[TheLostSwede]

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.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Haile Selassie]

A 1000MHz CAT7 SFTP cable is about 10USD for a 10-foot (~3m) patch cable.

Or 170USD for a 1000-foot (300m?) rool.

 

[BSim500]

Ignoring faulty bottom tier junk and just focussing on "normal" cables that work to advertised specs, I thought people grew out of the "Monster Cable" trend crap after figuring out that if digital cables worked as audiophiles claim, PC's would be crashing millions of times per second (because all those copper PCB tracks on the stuff that's behind the connectors they plug into are not 'premium branded') and the Internet which functions 99.9999% on normal cables would be completely unusable?...

 

[aktpu]

No RGB? Pass

 

[Turmania]

This is getting ridiculous.

 

[zlobby]

@TheLostSwede, did you mean 'shielded FTP wires'

This is getting ridiculous.

Eh, cut them some slack (pun not intended). What's wrong with selling a cable?

 

[TheLostSwede]

@TheLostSwede, did you mean 'shielded FTP wires'

Hmmm, Asus says STP on their site, but that does indeed appear to be SFTP going by their claims and the picture on their site.

 

[R-T-B]

I love how CAT7 isn't even a standard and people still buy it.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I love how CAT7 isn't even a standard and people still buy it.

It is a standard, just not intended for RJ45 based Ethernet.

GG45 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

TERA - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Deleted member 24505]

I'm sure a bog standard cable is just as good as this. £100 HDMI cable anyone?

 

[R-T-B]

It is a standards, just not intended for RJ45 based Ethernet.

GG45 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That's what I meant. This cable isn't a standard of anything.

My wording was admittedly broad and poor.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I'm sure a bog standard cable is just as good as this. £100 HDMI cable anyone?

Unfortunately, if you want longer runs of HDMI 2.1, you're going to end up paying that and more, as you're going to need optical cables, which don't come cheap.
Even HDMI 2.0 cables can be on the pricey side if you want something outside of the standard 1.8-2 metre lengths.

 

[R-T-B]

Unfortunately, if you want longer runs of HDMI 2.1, you're going to end up paying that and more, as you're going to need optical cables, which don't come cheap.
Even HDMI 2.0 cables can be on the pricey side if you want something outside of the standard 1.8-2 metre lengths.

Are there even HDMI 2.1 optical options yet?

As of last year all that claimed to be were 2.0 transmitters in disguise.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Are there even HDMI 2.1 optical options yet?

As of last year all that claimed to be were 2.0 transmitters in disguise.

30ft £85
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ConnBull-M...PWMR/ref=dp_prsubs_2?pd_rd_i=B07VRQPWMR&psc=1

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Love the titles of the recent articles from TheLostSwede

The most ridiculously priced networking cables are the snake oil ones that audiophiles buy and are sold, I don't know how I stumbled across them, but a few weeks ago I was on an "audiophile" equipment site, and they literally wanted about $300 for a 1 meter network CAT6 cable, but that's not even the best part.... They claimed it had to be used in a certain direction to get the best experience... Can you believe that?

Here you go, 1200 euros for 2 meters:

https://jcat.eu/product/signature-lan-cable/

 

[BSim500]

The most ridiculously priced networking cables are the snake oil ones that audiophiles buy and are sold, I don't know how I stumbled across them, but a few weeks ago I was on an "audiophile" equipment site, and they literally wanted about $300 for a 1 meter network CAT6 cable, but that's not even the best part.... They claimed it had to be used in a certain direction to get the best experience... Can you believe that?

Yes I absolutely can believe that. I used to work in an audiophile store that stocked the usual £500 digital "directional" interconnects, "Magic Pyramids" that held cables up off the floor (because clearly cables that lie on the floor are at risk of the digital bits spilling out and causing a digital puddle on the carpet...) We used to joke the reason we kept a 1st Aid Kit behind the counter wasn't health & safety regulations, but rather half the customers held their heads up so high sneering down at any 'peasant' who spent even £1 less that they did, were at risk of scraping their noses on the ceiling...

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

That's what I meant. This cable isn't a standard of anything.

My wording was admittedly broad and poor.

CAT7 is NOT an IEEE standard...I have my home 10gbase-t network wired with CAT6a, which is basically the same in claimed capabilities and I've never had issue.

 

[TheLostSwede]

In all fairness, the "new" optical HDMI cables are directional, as they have electrical to optical and optical to electrical signal converters in the connector housing, which means you can only use them one way around. Very technical reason for it in this case though.

 

[Chrispy_]

Overpriced but not quite at the fully-committed, scam-level pricing yet. These are unnecessary and overpriced, much like an RTX 3090 but at least the price hike is justifiable by additional build quality and packaging 'experience'.

Asus make them because idiots with money have proven that they'll willingly buy stupid shit they don't need, so it's hard to frown on Asus for catering to this market opportunity.

 

[Crackong]

look at amazon I saw monoprice cat 6A 5 feet cables 5 pack at 14.99

This ASUS one costs 22 for ONE ?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Overpriced but not quite at the fully-committed, scam-level pricing yet. These are unnecessary and overpriced, much like an RTX 3090 but at least the price hike is justifiable by additional build quality and packaging 'experience'.

Asus make them because idiots with money have proven that they'll willingly buy stupid shit they don't need, so it's hard to frown on Asus for catering to this market opportunity.

Managed to find a picture of the packaging, see up top. Not sure I would pay extra for that

 

[erocker]

It's 22 bucks. Not as bad as I was initially thinking. It's meant for something between your PC and your modem/router that looks neat. People will buy it.

 

[TheUn4seen]

Expensive snake oil for people who derive their self-worth from the amount of money they are willing to waste on unnecessary consumer goods? Thorstein Veblen wrote a book on that.
In all honesty though, separating fools from their money is what corporations excel at, so no surprise there.

 

[Chrispy_]

Managed to find a picture of the packaging, see up top. Not sure I would pay extra for that

For the sort of idiots who would waste money on this utterly pointless cable, it's all about the premium experience and a colour-printed sleeve with ego-sating premium marketing blurb on it sure is unnecessary enough to qualify as premium, no matter how pointless it seems to most of us.

Hell, "unboxing videos" are a mainstream thing, somehow :|

I buy minimum-packaging OEM/bulk/SI stuff whenever possible as I tend to purchase parts for 6-20 builds at a time and it can take a minion (or worse - me personally) a whole day just to unpack components, sort the packaging for recycling, flatpack all of the cardboard, and take it down to the waste collection area. For patch cables it's usually a box of 100 cables with individual bags that contain 5 cables each and no further packaging other than a twisty-tie to keep them coiled neatly, though I doubt that's news to anyone here who's ever worked as a builder or sysadmin....

 

[Valantar]

I mean, it's obvious that these will drastically improve your experience - as long as you have a ROG router, ROG switch, ROG access points, ROG motherboard, ROG GPU, ROG input devices, ROG monitor, ROG chair, ROG desk, ROG ... socks? etc. Everyone knows these things work better when they are designed to work together


(/s, in case that wasn't obvious)

Love the titles of the recent articles from TheLostSwede

The most ridiculously priced networking cables are the snake oil ones that audiophiles buy and are sold, I don't know how I stumbled across them, but a few weeks ago I was on an "audiophile" equipment site, and they literally wanted about $300 for a 1 meter network CAT6 cable, but that's not even the best part.... They claimed it had to be used in a certain direction to get the best experience... Can you believe that?

Here you go, 1200 euros for 2 meters:

https://jcat.eu/product/signature-lan-cable/

Lol, their site won't even load for me - the progress bar just stops towards the end. Must be my puny non-premium cables interfering.