Coax or Cat5 with Balum's

[gtxkid 0]

When is the cross over point to go from Coax to Cat5 with balums.

When is it more cost effective.

Small store on siamese cable or large department store on Cat 5

You can get Balems now for 2 dollars and box of cat5 for 68.00.

Looking for a rule of thumb i guess.

[Soundy 1]

Don't forget to factor in labor costs (UTP is easier to work with, especially if pulling through tight space), excess cable costs (leftover Siamese won't be good for much else; leftover Cat5e can be used for all sorts of other things), and potentially, future usability (Cat5e allows easy upgrade to IP cams... Siamese, not so much, at least not cheaply).

 

Around here at least, Siamese runs about three-and-a-half times the cost of Cat5e at retail ($158/500' vs. $89/1000')... couldn't tell you the difference in wholesale because I've never had to buy Siamese wholesale, but I would expect it's about the same ratio. Makes the math pretty simple, I'd say.

[fa chris 0]

What Soundy said.

 

Good rule of thumb is always use cat5, doesn't matter if you're doing a stadium or a run across your buddies attic. It's cheaper, its future proofed, and its good to standardize how you do all of your installs (you can focus on cat5 equipment, testers, crimpers, and other tools).

[bpzle 0]

what they said

 

but be careful of $2 baluns... that's a lil too cheap, even at dealer cost

[rory 0]

Whatever you do dont use $2 Baluns.