Patch panels, particularly the type and quality of the patch panel used, can significantly impact your internet speed. It. I am in the process of designing a mid-size network (~300 connections) and I play with the idea of having 2 levels of patch-panels. ) if new cables are eventualy required in the. Do patch panels degrade the overall performance of a FO connection? For context, we have MultiMode OM5 LC patch panels that are used for connecting servers/switches from Rack-1 to Rack-2.