Cat-5 cables
 

My laptop did not come with a Cat-5 cable. While I was in CompUSA picking up a wireless card, I looked at their prices. It was almost $30 for a 14-foot cable.

I picked up a 14 foot Cat-5e cable from Wal-mart for $8. I priced K-Mart and other stores for about 50 cents per foot. Why was CompUSA so expensive.

BTW, what is the performance gain in Cat-5e over Cat-5? Is it anything a 10/100 Ethernet card would notice?

No. Cat 5 is regular 2-pair ethernet. Cat 5e is 4-pair and is suitable for gigabit ethernet. I wouldn't worry about it unless you were running gigabit.

They both use RJ-45 connectors, are they compatible with each other?

Interchangable, but CAT5 won't work with gigabit.

There's a slight quality difference, I think; twists per foor or inch or whatever. Not really noticable. CAT5 will work for a home network.

Well, I paid the extra 2 bucks for Cat-5e. This way I will be ready for Comcast gigabit in 10 years.

Re: Cat-5 cables
 

Because they bank on people not comparison shopping for the small stuff. They figure Joe Six-Pack who's there to buy a laptop won't know better, and often they're right. They make a killing off cables, paper, disks, etc. that you should buy somewhere else but don't since you're there anyway.