(Cat 8) Cabling Project, need some advice on sourcing

So i’m planning on running Cat 8 S/FTP 22AWG cable drops in my home and hope to centralize it in a leviton panel inside the house. It’s possible i’ll be doing this as a favor in some other homes too.

  • Before anyone asks why I would use that when I can use a cheaper cable, i’ll just say this: Because i’m calling the shots, I can do whatever I want with it and I don’t ever want to have to do it again for the life of the house or it’s owner (me).

What i’m looking for is a source for a 12 port mini patch panel that fits the cat 8 standard. I can’t find any that specifically claim they do. None of them reference beyond cat 6.
A source for boxless wall mounts would be awesome too.
Any help would be appreciated.

I think your best way forward will be a blank Keystone panel/box and Keystone compatible Cat8 jacks. Lots of different blank panels out there. Still not going to be cheap, I was seeing Cat8 jacks for $10usd each.

Not sure you will find boxless wall plates. But there are a few types of boxes that clamp to the sheetrock that you could use, should be more than secure enough for network cable and not too expensive.

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OK, was wrong about the wall boxes, https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-1-Gang-Low-Voltage-Mounting-Bracket-5-Pack-5041-5PK/305193864

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I have the keystone jacks figured out, I wasn’t clear on whether I needed a special blank for it.
Like I said the blanks only list up to cat 6, it is not clear to me if I needed a special type of blank for shielded.

From what I’ve seen, anything that fits in a Keystone panel, just fits. The shielding will be handled by the jack, or at least the few connectors I’ve seen handle the shielding with a metal wrap around the jack.

I’d probably buy one of the type of jack you want to use, and a simple and cheap surface mount Keystone box and see if they work together.

All that said, the only 10gbe stuff I’ve purchased has been for the Belsen 10gx cable which I think is cat 7, I haven’t really done anything with shield cable.

And the jacks I bought for that require a slightly wider spacing because they have the square on end termination. Fine for most walk plates, but might not work in panels. Can’t find a picture to link, but the back end where you punch the wires down is bigger than the normal jacks most of us see. This was in the early days of 10gbe on copper, so a lot has changed.

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I didn’t receive any hands on training with shielded cable either but i’ve browsed enough YT and related stuff to sort out the termination procedures. The modular connectors are a game changer for me.