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Did you know that buying the fastest, highest performance Ethernet cables on the market

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is probably a bad idea? The cables I'm talking about are Category 8, or just Cat 8 for short.

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It's quite easy to buy them online, but you'll typically pay a premium for it, compared to

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more common Cat 5e and Cat 6 cables.

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But that's fine, because according to Amazon listings, these cables are great for gaming

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and streaming, right?

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Yeah, you really should take pause before dropping extra money on Cat 8 just because

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it's the newest, fastest thing out there. The most obvious reason is simply because there isn't really a point to Cat 8 for most

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home users. Cat 8 tops out at 40 gigabits per second, which is seriously impressive.

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All other things being equal, that's fast enough to download a 50 Gigabyte Steam game

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in just 10 seconds. But the fastest home internet connection in the US right now is only 8 gigabits, and

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average speeds are far lower than that. You'll also need equipment at home that can actually take advantage of those higher speeds.

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Many computers still only come with 1 gigabit Ethernet ports, and although you can certainly

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buy Ethernet adapters that support higher speeds, you'll pay more and more money the

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higher up the ladder you go. A 40 gigabit network card can set you back many hundreds of dollars, and models that

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are available now don't even support Cat 8 Ethernet cables.

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They instead use a different connector called QSFP+, which is typically used with fiber

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optic or twin axial cables. There are adapters you can use, but none of them seem to support the full 40 gig speed

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over a standard Ethernet connection. And unless you're often moving huge amounts of data around your internal home network,

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you're never even going to get close to using all that bandwidth.

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However, there's another really important reason you might not want to splurge on Cat

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8. Category 8 cables are typically thicker and stiffer than other Ethernet cables you're

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probably used to. Although this sounds like it could be a good thing in terms of durability, it actually

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makes the cables harder to bend, which means they're more difficult to route around objects.

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But even if you're doing a short, straight cable run, there have been a good number of

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anecdotal reports of Cat 8 cables not working very well with home networking equipment,

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with users complaining of poor performance even though the cables are theoretically compatible

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with mainstream routers, PCs, and consoles.

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Because the cables themselves are larger, more rigid, and require shielding.

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Terminating them, that is correctly attaching a connector so you can actually plug them

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into something, is significantly more difficult than with a more run-of-the-mill Ethernet

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cable. This is obviously an issue for people buying bulk cable and terminating the cables themselves,

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but it's also an issue for folks who are just buying plug-and-play Cat 8 cables online.

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A good number of quote, Cat 8 cables being marketed towards consumers for relatively

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low prices are simply not being built to the actual Category 8 specification, meaning that

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problems people are reporting from trying to use them at home are likely the result

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of fake Cat 8 cables. Whether it's because they just aren't being constructed well due to either bad termination

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or some other manufacturing issue, or because they're straight up mislabeled on purpose

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as part of a scam. So what kind of cable should you be buying?

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Depending on how fast you need your connection to be, and how long a cable run you need,

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you should be buying either Cat 5e 6 or 6a.

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Just have a look at this chart for details. We all love a good chart.

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And I love a good viewer who watches all the way to the end of the video.

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Good viewer! I'm sorry. If you liked that, you can like the video.

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If you disliked it, dislike the video. Check out our other videos, comment with video suggestions in the comments below, which is

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where the comments are. And don't forget to subscribe and follow.

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I'm a little flustered now.