Building a new house and HT from scratch, what type of wiring should I do itially (1 Viewer)

[Dougie]

I'm building a new house with a HT in the basement this summer. There is going to be a den with the home PC on the main floor, the HT is going to be in the finished basement. Any advice on what I should run for wiring between the two? I'm not planning on doing much between the two (the PC and the HT that is) initially but may do so in the future .
Also, there's so much new technology out there. Any advice on running wires from the PC to the kitchen or other rooms for future needs.
Thanks,

 

[Adam Krogul]

well i would at least run 3 "solid copper" coaxes (not the regular Home Depot RG6 coax)from the computer to the HT. this would cover the video and audio if you wanted to watch some video files on the big screen. the other thing i would suggest is 3 runs of cat-5 or cat-6 ... one for the internet, one for the infrared to control the computer while you were watching it downstairs, and one for an extra precaution.

this might be a bit of an overkill for most but you asked for what to run for the future and honestly no-one can give you a definite answer for that. But these 6 wires should give you a great start. IMO

l8rz,
Adam

 

[Darren Lewis]

I've sometimes thought about this when planning my "dream house" for the future. It might be best to ask in the HT building forum for advice about the HT connections and allowing room for future expansion.

You may not want all these things now, but if the wiring, or access points are there they can be added in the future, and are great selling points:

Cable/Satellite TV & feeds to other rooms eg bedroom, lounge
Internet connections for broadband feeds to the HT & the home network.
Phone connections eg for TIVO, satellite box to dial out.
Games connections for XBox/PS2 etc...
Wiring for whole house hi-fi/DVD if you want a jukebox type system. I'd like that for music.

As for the PC side, I'd definitely say install the wiring and terminals for a home network. You might only have one PC now, but you'll probably want to add another later, even if you only use your old one as a backup or file server etc...

These are some good sites with advice about home networks.

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/
http://www.homepcnetwork.com/

 

[Andrew Walbert]

If you want to be prepared for anything in the forseable future, and you don't mind spending a bit of money, run the following to every room in the house:

3-Coax (FM, OTA TV, Sat/Cable)
2-Cat6 (Ethernet, two phone lines on the other cable)
4-15A electrical (at least one per wall for an average room, more for larger rooms)

This should pretty well future-proof your house as far as any technology that I've heard of is concerned. Even if you don't need two phone lines right now, you might in the future (kids, working at home, etc). And the argument for ethernet in every room was already made earlier in the thread. If you're in an area where HDTV signals aren't available over Sat/Cable, then a good OTA TV run is very useful. Having all three Coax feeds in every room ensures that if you decide you want a TV in another room, you can easily do so, and you can still have a good radio. As far as the power outlets go, you really can't ever have too many.

Some might say it's overkill to run so much wiring, but it's really up to you to decide.

 

[Brian Ruth]

Doug: As an alternative to all the Cat-6 wiring (which is a good idea, BTW), you MIGHT want to consider a second generation Wireless LAN. While this can get expensive, it can leave you with less wiring to do. One caveat is that its not as fast as 100Mbps ethernet -- I think the fastest one goes up to 54Mbps, with a practical speed probably around 40.

If you want to REALLY future-proof the house, you might want to opt for GigaBit ethernet cord instead of plain old 10/100 stuff. Not sure about the terminology or the price, but its something to consider now that you can start from scratch.

Other than that, Andrew's idea sounds great as far as wiring is concerned.

 

[Joe Hays]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned using the computer for X-10 type home automation. That is why you would run the CAT-6 to the kitchen, bedroom or any other room. Do it while you have the chance. You will kick yourself later when you can't because you have to dig through walls.

Another option you might want to try to NOT running any cables now, but instead, running PVC pipes in the walls where you think you will want your cables in the future. Put a blank face plate over the opening for the PVC pipe so when you finally decided what you want to do, you will have the pipe already run. What good will the pipe do? Leave the PVC pipe empty until you need it. Then wrap some fishing line around a big cotton (or paper) ball and place it in the opening of the pipe. Take your tank style vacuum cleaner, switch the hose around so it blows out instead of sucks in and blow the cotton ball (and fishing line) out the other end of the pipe. Next, tie the fishing line to the cable of your choice and pull away.

Compare the price of PVC to the price of CAT-6 and go with the cheaper option. Remember, with the PVC option, you can always change your cable later and upgrade to CAT-12 when it comes out or fiber optic cable. With the CAT-6 cable, that the only option you have.

You may also want to run cables (or PVC pipe) for a projector. You may not have one now, but that could change very easily.