Relative intensity noise (RIN) induced penalties were experimentally measured in distributed Raman amplifiers (DRAs) for G.654.E and G.652.D fibres with forward, backward and bidirectional pumping configurations. The measured signal RIN using the G.654.E fibre was ∼3.5 dB and ∼2 dB lower than the G.652.D fibre with forward (FW) pump configuration for PM-QPSK and PM-8QAM signals, with single span transmission showing a Q-factor improvement of ∼3 dB and ∼2.5 dB for G.654.E over G.652.D fibres. The performance penalty in a long haul coherent system was evaluated for 28 GBaud PM-QPSK signals using a recirculation loop for backward and bidirectional distributed Raman amplifiers. Our experimental results demonstrate an additional transmission distance of more than 1000 km for G.654.E over its counterpart G.652.D assuming a HD-FEC limit of 8.5 dB.