The cable is a good quality product, and, packaged correctly in terms of not damaging the cable. I marked the product down because the box is really hard to open relative to a plastic bag, or zip ties.

It is quite simply not at all frustration free to open the packaging, a cardboard box sealed by a thick plastic seal which can not be broken by your hands. It is also somewhat neurotic to feel compelled to ship a box inside a box. Would it really be that bad to ship a box of cables instead of a box filled with boxes which each contain a single cable?
Rating: 3 / 5

Amazon just set a new world record for Cat5e Ethernet cable; at least in comparison to what I have seen at the most popular stores. What I decided to do was to compare this 50 foot cable with the 6 to 8 foot cable I have connecting my computer to the nearby gigabit switch. That switch is then connected to the Verizon router in the basement with a 50 foot Cat5e. So in effect, I wanted to attach the 50 foot Amazon cable that I am reviewing here instead of a short approx 6 foot section and see if there was any performance difference. Before all you networking guys shout at me exclaiming that runs up to 300 feet don’t have any appreciable effect on performance in Cat5e, I wanted to say that I am only making sure that a cable at this price point doesn’t have any significant drawbacks, or performance anomalies. The 50 foot Amazon cable, in addition to the 50 foot cable running to the router equals a total of 100 feet.

So what I did was run a Verizon online speed test, accessible at [...], and ran a series of 3 trials, got the download speeds, and upload speeds, provided below, and then I shut down the computer and hooked up the new Amazon 50 foot cable, and ran them again. I immediately followed with a second set of trials with the Amazon cable still connected, and then shut down the machine once again, and returned it to its original state with the approx 6 foot cable connected to it. I am running Windows Vista Home Premium with a 3.0 machine and 4 Gig of ram and Verizon Fiber Optic, their basic service.

Here are the results;

First set of trials

Short Cable

Download Mbps Upload Mbps

24.917 2.133

24.901 2.067

24.891 2.11

Amazon 50 foot cable

Download Mbps Upload Mbps

24.858 2.12

24.885 2.11

24.864 2.145

Second set of trials

Short Cable

Download Mbps Upload Mbps

24.884 2.149

24.931 2.129

24.935 2.155

Amazon 50 foot cable

Download Mbps Upload Mbps

24.894 2.114

24.924 2.073

24.896 2.132

So if you do the math averaging the results you get a total of download speeds in all trials, 24.91 with the short cable, and 24.89 with the Amazon cable. In upload speeds the short cable averaged 2.12 in upload speeds, and also 2.12 with the Amazon 50 foot cable.

Conclusion: The Amazon cable over 6 trials, the upload speed comparison between the short and longer Amazon cable matched exactly at 2.12Mbps, and on download, it was 24.91 with the short cable, and 24.89 with the longer Amazon cable, which is a statistically insignificant difference in performance. That would be equivalent to doing 99.56 miles per hour in an automobile, as compared to 99.64 miles per hour. (By multiplying the results times 4 you can easily see this)

So this is a long winded way of stating that the 50 foot Amazon cable is not only the price leader, it also is a top performer compared to a more expensive cable, one that was more than two and a half times the price. Want it simpler than that? Buy it.

For the sake of the network aficionados, here is the disclaimer on the Verizon infospeed site.

Disclaimer

Actual throughput speed will vary based on factors such as the condition of wiring inside a specific location, computer configuration, network or Internet congestion; and the server speed of the Web sites accessed, among other factors. Speed and uninterrupted use of the service are not guaranteed.

Here is something of interest. I have quite a few computers hooked up to the home network, and in every Windows XP machine that I have they are consistently getting 8.2 download speed, and both Windows Vista Home Premium machines are getting 24.8 approximate download speed, and getting those results consistently. Someone suggested that Vista has some automatic fine tuning that can be done manually in XP, but don’t hold me to that.

A final note: The specs written on this cable are as follows:

Amazon Basics-High Performance-Cat5e-4 Pair UTP-24AWG-AWM E129760

Additionally this is a snag free cable, so it has the built in protector that prevents the clip at the end of the cable from being snapped off in the event you are pulling the cable out of a snarl of different cables; a common occurrence. The actual connectors inside of the plug, the contact surfaces are copper or gold color. Overall the cable appears to be the same thickness as my other more expensive cables.

All in all a highly recommended product. You can never have enough RJ45 Cat5e cables around. Stock up.

Rating: 5 / 5