Review on High-Quality Monoprice Cat5e Ethernet Bulk Cable - Solid, 350Mhz, UTP, CMR, Riser Rated, Pure Bare Copper Wire, 24AWG, 1000ft, Gray - 100877 by Rodney Mendoza

Haven't used this product much before so these are my first impressions. I don't have a high quality cable tester. I can check continuity but not the baud rate. At least not easy. I live in the country and was lucky enough to be able to connect to the internet at 50 Mbit/s. Almost every type of cable will support this speed, even the Category 3 cable my house was built with years ago. I am using this cable to replace part of this cable for various reasons not relevant here. In any case, I'll limit this first review to just how easy this cable is to use. I'm using RJ45 pass-through connectors. And thank god. I have used these connectors with other brands of Category 5e cables and the connectors have always been easy to install. However, attaching plugs with this cable is a bit more of a hassle. I'm guessing the AWG size for this product is a bit smaller than what I'm used to. The individual wires were less stiff and therefore a little harder to get into the right slots when passing them through the connectors. Also, they most likely don't want to stay in the right slots in my RJ45 jacks due to the supposedly smaller wire gauge. They tended to "move around". Since my connectors are pass-through type (and designed for use with 5e cable) it was easy to verify that the wires were in the correct slots before crimping the connector in place. So in terms of port pitting, no failures, it just took longer than it should have. The tool I use to crimp connectors also has a groove and blade for severing the cable's outer jacket. Well, this cable appears to have a smaller outside diameter than what I've used in the past because when I placed the cable in the groove in my crimping tool and closed the blade next to it, the blade didn't cut into the sheath unless , I manually pushed the rope to the blade. Bottom line, the outside diameter is a bit smaller than what I'm used to, and that seems consistent with my observations on individual gauges of wire. Also consistent with the above, this cable seems to bend more easily than I would like. Okay, what does this cable do for him? Well, one is the price. And maybe that's the only one. Well I was attracted by the fact that the wires are supposed to be 100% copper and not copper clad aluminum. But if I were a professional cable installer, I doubt I would use a spool of this cable to wire a house or two. The extra time spent playing around with it wouldn't have been worth the lower price. And I think if I were a professional cable installer I would already be aware of the trade-offs in ease of use and cost. Your decision will depend on how the additional time metric performs versus the cost. I personally would like to choose a different cable, even if it's a bit more expensive. But right now I've had enough of that goodness and I can live with it.