Spec me a WiFi 6 router for Gaming and Streaming?

Vidar

Vidar

Vidar

Soldato
Joined
18 Dec 2008
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Location
Liverpool
Looking to upgrade to a WiFi 6 gaming router but not clued up on this stuff and finding all the options confusing. Budget is up to £500. Service is Virgin Media 1gig.

Have been looking at the Archer GX90 and the Nighthawk AX12 RAX 200 as I can get a great deal on either of those but am not sure. Don't think I need mesh, my house is pretty small and even the virgin hub 4 can get signal in all the rooms to atleast 2 bars. It's more the constant disconnects of wireless and ethernet connected devices that's got me looking. That and most of the devices in the house are WiFi 6 capable or will be replaced soon enough to justify it now.

Gaming on the PC and PS5 and also streaming Netflix etc to multiple devices TV, phones, tablets etc is the main concern but something that will work well with Express, Nord, Surfshark or PIA vpn's is also a consideration.

Help me pick the best option please...
 

davetherave2

davetherave2

davetherave2

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Personally I have been having a lot of joy (if you can from networking equipment) with Ubiquiti.
For your budget you could do something similar to me and just get yourself the Dream Machine Pro and a wireless access point ( Access Point WiFi 6 Lite + PoE Injector) this came out at just over £420. It maybe a bit more hardcore than you are looking for but will support the benefits of the 1gig connection with a 2.5Gig wan port (so getting the max benefit of the 1gig connection).

I went with this over other devices for a number of reasons which included (in no particular order)

1. Breaking away from the simple/limited security the ISP router/modem provided me with
2. Having to reconfigure the network any time I had to swap said ISP Router/Modem
3. With working from home more I wanted to beef up the home network.
4. Have a path to upgrade to 2.5/10gig network at some point iin the future.
5. Include home security network (camera's, doorbells etc) as an option in the future
6. Get to play with more "enterprise" level hardware which may benefit me career-wise in the future.

After almost a month with the kit and still probably only scratching the surface of what it can do I am still learning a lot of new things and looking at how to improve the network layout with my IoT devices and splitting out the various "networks" I want. I have already started to plan my next upgrades in terms of 2.5/10gig switches

Plus with getting this kit it means I can safely upgrade to Virgin Gig1 when it is available in my area and get the maximum line speed out of it.

The one thing I would suggest that if you do go for this kind of solution be prepared to have it somewhere that is out of earshot. Although it isn't the loudest of devices it definitely has some background noise to it (especially with a HDD installed for the NVR side of things)

Hope this helps.
 

Firegod

Firegod

Firegod

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12 Sep 2003
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10,041
Location
Newcastle, UK
I've been using the Netgear Orbi AX4200 RBK752 WiFi 6 Mesh kit (So 1 Router and 1 Satellite) for about 2 months now. It's tri-band (so it has dedicated back haul) and coverage is excellent (and this is in an old stone built property. Not brick or stud wall). TBH I think the one main Router would work well on its own, but having two is no issue (you can turn down the transmit power independantly on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz channels) and it is nice that it stretches outside into the garden etc. Comes with a 30 day free trial of Netgear Armor (which is powered by Bitdefender) so that is useful but probably not something you would renew unless you have lots of IOT devices. But it's been working well these 2 months and I've shifted everything to WiFi - no ethernet. My 5G internet gets me about 300 - 400Mbps and plumbed into the Orbi, it handles it just fine - it can handle up to a 2Gbps internet service. Plenty of options to configure as well and the mobile app is one of the better ones I've used. The two piece kit is £449.99 but I got it in their sale at the time, so cost was down to £400. Only annoying thing, well slight annoyance, is that you cant have WPA3 with WAP2 fallback (not sure if a FW update may change that) but it's either WPA2 or WPA3 but not both.
 

Earth[Tera].bin

Earth[Tera].bin

Earth[Tera].bin

Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2007
Posts
2,830
I just sent the Nighthawk AX12 RAX 200 and the Nighthawk extender back, found them pretty disappointing especially with their price point. If you're relatively close to the RAX200 the throughput is quite impressive but the range is pretty poor and it struggled to punch through any of my walls. Also found the UI to be quick slow, especially when saving settings. Of note is the fact that the EU version lacks 160mhz, and the RAX200 has a slower processor than the cheaper RAX120 ( dual band ).

If money is no object the Orbi RBK852, expensive but delivers the goods. Also the Asus AX68u seems be very highly regarded.
 

JohnRo79

JohnRo79

JohnRo79

Associate
Joined
21 Aug 2021
Posts
2
Location
UK
Xiaomi ax9000

Huuuge specs for small money

2.5 or 1 GB WAN(yes, you have a choice of 2 ports)
wifi 6e
Wide fast gaming focused wifi
Plus another normal 2.4/5ghz ones too
Mesh support too (if you really have a long home)
 
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