[Kreij]

The catx specification is not a requirement specification, it is a specification for gauranteed performance. The standard on the cables is for a guarantee of transmission integrity over a given distance at a given speed.

I run Gb switches on cat5 fine, but that does not mean that I will see 100% data integrity if I am pushing them over their rating.

No, it is unlikely that someone would see problems on a lesser rated cable if they are underutilizing their available bandwdth, but in a scenerio where they need the full bandwidth they could potentially see serious problems when they try to push the data through the cables at 3x times their rated throughput.

For home users this would most likley never be a problem as the data throughput requirements will never exceed the cables limits.