Need Help Selecting Leviton Components:

[Brules]

Fixing to start building my new house, I am doing all the wiring for phones/net/cable.

I am going to go with a Leviton enclosure, either 28" or 42". The deciding factor will depend on if I mount my switch inside the leviton or outside on a 19" rack bolted to the floor.

My questions:

1) I will have about 15-20 network connections. Should I bypass the leviton box & just use a 24port 19" patch panel? Then mount my switch in the 19" as well? If I do this, how do I best get 20+ NIC cables out of my wall and to the patch panel without it looking like shit?

2) Phone: I will have 1 line servicing 10-12 jacks. I want to be able to down the road add a 2nd line possibly. What leviton item would best do this for the least amount of $? I am weak on phone stuff knowledge so help here is needed!

3) Cable: is 1x8 the most spliting I can do? And is 1ghz or 2ghz powered splitter really needed with RG-6? I wont be sending cable modem signals out thru it, only cable TV or sattelite. Cable modem will be with the switch etc on a seperate cable (2 cables from outside to my wire closet, along with 3 cat5e's for 2 phones and possible DSL if I go that route)

4) I plan on runing outside speaker wire (back porch) and living room and kitchen back to the leviton. Sound to these would be controlled by my PC near the closet. What module is best for 3 pairs of speakers? And what do I need to run from the leviton to the PC to get sound to the speaker wires?

Any other additional tips would be appreciated. This will be my first (and last!) house to wire like this!

PS - Wall jacks and keystones are a breeze....just need help on deciding the Leviton modules that would best suit my needs.

 

[mjones73]

1) I will have about 15-20 network connections. Should I bypass the leviton box & just use a 24port 19" patch panel? Then mount my switch in the 19" as well? If I do this, how do I best get 20+ NIC cables out of my wall and to the patch panel without it looking like shit?

A patch panel and a rack mount switch would be easier probably if you have the room for it. As for the wires coming out of the wall, you can bundle them together with ties, get some flexible pipe to wrap them in, etc. I'm sure some people will come up with some better ideas for that one.

2) Phone: I will have 1 line servicing 10-12 jacks. I want to be able to down the road add a 2nd line possibly. What leviton item would best do this for the least amount of $? I am weak on phone stuff knowledge so help here is needed!

Just run 4 conductor phone line to each jack and tie down the connectors using the color coding. Your first line will use the green and red lines, if you add a second line, just tie it to the yellow and black lines in the future and your set. If you need the second line to be a primary on one of the jacks in the house, just swap the red and green with the yellow and back on the jack.

3) Cable: is 1x8 the most spliting I can do? And is 1ghz or 2ghz powered splitter really needed with RG-6? I wont be sending cable modem signals out thru it, only cable TV or sattelite. Cable modem will be with the switch etc on a seperate cable (2 cables from outside to my wire closet, along with 3 cat5e's for 2 phones and possible DSL if I go that route)

You need to decide up front if your going cable or satellite, if you go cable you can split it. If you go satelite, you need to run a seperate line from the dish to each room, you don't want to split the signal, if you need multiple TV's hooked up, you need to use a multiswitch to split the signal up. There's a quick overview why on this site

4) I plan on runing outside speaker wire (back porch) and living room and kitchen back to the leviton. Sound to these would be controlled by my PC near the closet. What module is best for 3 pairs of speakers? And what do I need to run from the leviton to the PC to get sound to the speaker wires?

Unless your putting self powered speakers in, your gonna need an amplifier of some kind to put between your PC and your speaker, the sound card isn't gonna be enough to drive them.

 

[jeffmoss26]

All those are good suggestions, except:
Do not just run quad wire for phones. You will run into a lot of problems. Run a minimum of Cat 3 (4 pair) or at best Cat5e. That way you can use it for data if you need later on. Use Cat5e jacks also, one color for voice and one color for data.
I assume you will be using the Leviton QuickPort jacks and plates.

 

[Brules]

Yeah I had planed on all telephone drops as cet5e, dual drops (2 diff colors for voice and data). All cable drops get a cat5e as well. All wall plates will be pop in keystones.

Thanks for the tips guys.

As for the sound amp, doesn't Leviton make an amp module that amps and splits the sound?