Always use a patch panel. Cat cables are tiny cables that break easily. Fix cables to a patch panel and leave them along. Now you can plug and unplug from the patch panel to the switch to your heart's content replacing the cheap patch cables as they break. However . if you don't have a patch panel and you break a cable that is routed meters away, through wall, under floors and over ceilings then that is an expensive break. A patch panel removes this risk. Ask any network engineer if they would fit a patch panel and they will recount the time they tugged that cable a bit hard and ended up rerouting (lifting floors, ceiling panels, walls etc)