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Monoprice 113120 3ft Cat5e Ethernet Cable - Yellow — main product image
Monoprice 113120 3ft Cat5e Ethernet Cable - Yellow
Monoprice 113120 3ft Cat5e Ethernet Cable - Yellow
Monoprice 113120 3ft Cat5e Ethernet Cable - Yellow
Monoprice 113120 3ft Cat5e Ethernet Cable - Yellow
Monoprice

Monoprice 113120 3ft Cat5e Ethernet Cable - Yellow

★★★★★4.6 (382 reviews)

Gold-plated RJ45 contacts and 350MHz pure copper spec give this 3ft Cat5e cable the electrical integrity to handle Gigabit runs in production environments.

$4.64*
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*Price sourced from Amazon.com. Last updated:Jul 15, 2026.Price and availability are subject to change.

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Overview

The Monoprice 113120 is a 3-foot Cat5e ZEROboot patch cable that checks the full compliance box: TIA-568-C.2 transmission performance certification, UL Code 444 listing, National Electrical Code conformance, 50µm gold-plated RJ45 contacts, and 24AWG stranded pure bare copper conductors at 350MHz rated bandwidth. Those certifications aren't marketing — TIA-568-C.2 requires tested performance across attenuation, near-end crosstalk (NEXT), and return loss parameters at frequency. A cable either passes or it doesn't. The gold plating at 50µm thickness is a specific manufacturing decision: it outlasts thin flash plating in static installations where contact oxidation would otherwise build up over years, gradually increasing resistance and creating intermittent link issues that are notoriously difficult to diagnose.

The 3ft form factor is a workhorse length for the rack environment — long enough to run cleanly from a patch panel port to an adjacent switch, short enough to avoid the bundled slack that restricts airflow in high-density installations. The pure bare copper construction also makes this cable a reliable choice for PoE and PoE+ deployments; copper-clad aluminum cables can develop resistive heating under sustained 30W PoE+ current loads, which pure copper handles within thermal spec. The yellow color is conventional for certain network segments and management VLANs, but color standards vary enough between organizations that verifying your facility's convention before ordering in volume is genuinely important — this cable does not change color.

Specifications

Model
113120
Cable Type
Cat5e UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair)
Conductor
24AWG Stranded Pure Bare Copper
Bandwidth
350MHz
Connector
RJ45
Contact Plating
50µm Gold
Length
3ft
Color
Yellow
Compliance
TIA-568-C.2, UL Code 444, National Electrical Code
Design
ZEROboot (no clip cover)
Shielding
Unshielded

Pros & Cons

👍 Pros

  • 50µm gold-plated RJ45 contacts resist oxidation and maintain low contact impedance over years of use in static installations.
  • TIA-568-C.2, UL Code 444, and National Electrical Code compliance confirms this cable has been tested against the full Cat5e transmission performance specification.
  • 24AWG pure bare copper conductors safely carry PoE and PoE+ current loads without the resistance-induced heat issues associated with CCA cables.
  • 350MHz bandwidth rating provides 3.5× headroom over the Gigabit Ethernet minimum, leaving margin for real-world connector imperfections and environmental factors.
  • 3ft length is optimized for patch panel to switch connections in standard rack configurations without generating excess cable slack.

👎 Cons

  • Cat5e is limited to 1Gbps throughput — environments migrating to 10GBASE-T will need to replace this cable with Cat6A or higher rated infrastructure.
  • Yellow color coding limits compatibility with structured cabling installations that use yellow for specific reserved circuit types — verify your color standard before bulk deployment.
  • UTP construction provides no shielding against EMI — unsuitable for installation near high-voltage runs, motors, or other interference sources without switching to an STP variant.
  • 3ft fixed length creates slack management challenges when used for connections shorter than approximately 2.5 feet; no shorter ZEROboot variant in this color.
  • No protective boot cover exposes the RJ45 locking tab to accidental depression in environments where cables are routinely handled.

Frequently Asked Questions

Gold is used on connector contacts because it resists oxidation. Unplated or thin-plated contacts can develop a resistive oxide layer over time, which increases contact impedance and can cause intermittent link failures — particularly in environments with humidity variation or infrequent cable swaps. 50µm is a meaningful plating thickness that will outlast thin flash-plated contacts in long-term installations.
Yes. The 113120 meets UL Code 444, the National Electrical Code, and TIA-568-C.2 — the three primary compliance benchmarks for Cat5e structured cabling in commercial and residential installations. TIA-568-C.2 compliance specifically means it has been tested and meets the transmission performance requirements (attenuation, NEXT, return loss) for Cat5e at the rated bandwidth.
Cat5e cable at 24AWG pure bare copper supports both PoE (15.4W) and PoE+ (30W) within its current-carrying specification. The pure copper conductor is important here — copper-clad aluminum cables can overheat under sustained PoE current loads, which pure copper handles without the same resistance-induced heat buildup.
3ft is one of the most common patch lengths for rack-to-rack or patch panel to top-of-rack switch connections, providing enough slack for clean horizontal runs between adjacent rack units without generating excessive bundled cable mass. For directly adjacent port-to-port connections, a 0.5ft or 1ft cable is more appropriate; 3ft handles the short hop across a rack or between nearby equipment cleanly.
Cable color conventions vary by organization, but yellow is commonly used to identify voice, management networks, or specific VLAN segments in structured cabling standards. In many data center and enterprise environments, yellow also signals caution — cross-connects or circuits requiring special handling. Verify your facility's color standard before deploying at scale.

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