Basically, I’m building a home and getting it wired with Ethernet cabling. I didn’t want to get too much into the technical details, so I just provided the builders with locations where I want RJ45 ports, along with one spot where I just said “24-port patch panel” (the number of ports located elsewhere being 22.

I did some Googling and figured the patch panel should cost at most $150 in hardware costs (I found plenty of sub-$100 options, but a couple of more expensive ones and would not have been . I didn’t mention anything about needing a rack because I thought it would be something that could just go directly in the wall. (And then I could buy a switch and use it to connect pretty much all the ports from the patch panel to the router.)

The builder came back to me with an estimated cost of:

  • $465 for a server cabinet: SEVCBN -6RU – 66WM
  • $567 for a patch panel: NCO760242563
  • $148 install charge

They gave me specific model numbers for the patch panel and server cabinet, but I can’t find information about whether that’s the actual cost of them, because the costs are locked behind having an account with the B2B retailers.

Does their proposed patch panel costing about 4x what I was expecting actually seem likely to give any value? Is there are explanation for that cost?

Secondary question: is having a wall-mounted cabinet worthwhile? How will it work in terms of installing a switch and connecting from the patch panel to the switch?

Thanks!

  • Moonrise2473
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    1 year ago

    At my home they quoted me for retail price + 200% markup. I just told them to lay an empty conduit.

    The main issue is that after ten years I only passed a single cable from the 24 ports switch because I’m lazy

    • Zagorath@aussie.zoneOP
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      1 year ago

      Yeah I’m definitely willing to pay to get it done, because I’m sure I’ll be the same if I don’t.

      But the cost they’re suggesting for the patch panel is (including the cabinet, which I was expecting to be my own after-the-fact expense not budgeted as part of this) about 4x what I would have expected even after budgeting things at the high end of what I thought might happen. $150 instead of <$100 for the hardware, and $150 for the labour was my expectation.

      And that’s without even getting in to the cost of the actual cables. I didn’t put it in this post because it was already long enough and I figure it’s a basically separate issue. But they’re wanting to charge me $266 per cable. No modification for the fact that more than half the cables are going to just 2 locations, and all the others are two cables to the same location. Just a straight $266 for every individual cable. It’s meant this whole thing has blown out way beyond where I was expecting it to be.

      Out of interest, if you do just get them to lay empty conduit, how easy/hard would it be to run 4 or 8 cables through that conduit and fit it to a faceplate later on?

    • deadsenator@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I second this sentiment.

      It gives better flexibility going forward and you save that money for now. When ready, you can decide wall mount or free standing rack, patch panel or none or anything you wish to change once you’ve had time to consider the issue more thoroughly.

      I never installed any additional patch panels. Instead I just put the RJ-45 end on and plug straight into the switch. Easier and I never have any problems doing so.

      • Zagorath@aussie.zoneOP
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        1 year ago

        Interesting. So you’d suggest just getting the conduit put in? How hard and/or expensive/cheap would it be it run 4 or 8 cables through that conduit later on, compared to (a reasonable charge for) getting it done while the rest of the wiring is being done?