In your experience, wiring between the router and whatever you’re using for the Plex Server, have you noticed a difference between using CAT6 cable (and connectors) and CAT5?
Well, CAT5 is only rated for 100 Mb whereas CAT6 and CAT 5e are rated for 1 Gb. So that can make a huge difference if your device has a 1 Gb port. But most of the TV boxes that I’ve seen only have 100 Mb ports.
You might see differences when the length of the cable is getting larger than a few feet/meter.
You must look out for the acronyms “S/STP”, “S/FTP”, “U/STP”, or “UTP” which are usually printed directly on the cable mantle.
Use only cables bearing the first 2 of these codes, discard cables bearing the latter two. (except maybe for very short patch cables of just 1 or 2 ft.)
If you mean the port on the TV then yes, I think basically all of them are 100Mbps. If you are talking about streaming boxes for your TV, then all the ones I have used and would suggest have 1Gbps ports. Either way it shouldn’t matter for the most part as very few files actually need more then 100Mbps.
As for CAT5 vs. CAT6 I would just buy either CAT5e or CAT6 as you won’t save much if anything by buying CAT5.
You definitely want 1 Gbps if you have UHD/4K Bluray “remux” files. These can easily go above 100 mbps at times.
Yeah, I’ve only bought cheap Android boxes. So they only have 100 Mb ports. I’ve never bought anything like, say, a SHIELD. It would make perfect sense that the higher end boxes have 1 Gb ports.
If they are straight Bluray rips sure. But even then not all of them go above that threshold and they usually only do it in spikes. I will definitely concede you are right though. I just don’t think most people are using Plex in that way. But you know what assuming does 
Even some of the cheaper ones have 1Gbps available or can be adapted to do so. I think the Chromecast with Google TV can utilize 1Gbps through it’s USB-C connection if hooked up to a hub. I’m not an expert though as the only things I have are my Shield, a CCwGTV (that I use wirelessly), and a Chromecast Ultra with the 1Gbps ethernet adaptor.
Thanks everybody. What drove this question was how I wanted to implement. Planning time! Have a good PC that could be used for the server, but it’s in the next room, and in an apartment, I can’t imagine that during construction, they went to the trouble of putting in CAT6. Nah. It’s undoubtably CAT5. So that option is out. Otherwise, looking at whether I want to buy an (expensive!) WD PR4100 NAS with 1G I/O, and built in video conversion for the same room as the to-be-upgraded Apple TV4 up to the 4K. If I’m going to do that, CAT6 for locally running mkvs should be an easy no-brainer. Thanks again, and much!
You’d be surprised. CAT5e has been the standard for quite a long time in builds. And CAT5e is more than good enough for gigabit.
Also, at short-ish lengths, decent CAT5 can often handle gigabit fine. It’s just not a guarantee. It’s worth testing gigabit on it, if you have the ability to do so without needing to spend much.
BTW I’ve never had a problem with 100mbps (which is what Roku uses). Unless you’re doing raw 4K UHD rips, or watching the full quality 4K77, 100mbps really should be more than enough. 99+% of stuff you’d watch on Plex is fine on 100mbps.
First, I’d say if you are going to spend $500 or more on a NAS I would look at the offerings from Qnap, Synology, and Asustor as you will get a much more impressive unit IMO. For Qnap, check out the TS-453d (this is what I run), it has an Intel J4125 which is quite a bit more powerful than the chip in the NAS you were looking at, it’s got upgradable memory, easy expansion if you ever need to, dual 2.5G ports and an available PCIe slot for adding 10G and M.2 support. The Synology DS920+ is a very similar box, with a couple of downsides and one upside, you go down to dual 1G ports, one of the memory channels is soldered on and not upgradable, no PCIe expansion, and expanding it can be a little more of a pain. The software for Synology though is chefs kiss. With Asustor you can get the AS6604T which is a great unit but definitely falls a little short of the other two, the hardware is great but not as good as the Qnap, and the software is weaker than both IMO, but I have seen it pretty frequently be cheaper than the other two. I’m not sure where you are, but in the US they are all pretty easy to get ahold of. Qnap has been running some sales lately and I got my TS-453d for under $500. I also just bought the TR-004 expansion the other day for $175 on Amazon.
As for your wiring, I agree with @Cafe_Diem. You probably already have CAT5e in your walls if it is wired for whole-house ethernet. And if that is the case then you should be good to go. I use CAT5e for all my 2.5G stuff and it supports the full bandwidth with no issue. Also as far as I know and correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like I read that most CAT5 cables actually meet the CAT5e spec but just aren’t certified for CAT5e. Meaning that they should work identically to a CAT5e cable.
BTW, you guys called it. CAT5e in the wall. (yes, that’s singular) In a 2BR-2BA apartment, outside of the provider jack, there is one (count 'em) wire that goes from the living room to the front bedroom-turned office. Fortunately, that’s exactly where I need it. Still - weird… Now it’s hardware time. Festive viewing, everybody!
