For maximum coverage and speed, what is better X10 or X8?

[Logi]

What would be the best option for the best coverage and maximum speed the X10 (R9000) or X8 (R8500) ? I have like 30-40 devices at home, many Apple TVs, Rokus, Smart TVs, MacBook Pro 2016, Surface Book 2017, multiple iPhones and iPads, webcams, Philips Hue, HomeKit devices, etc. Thanks

 

[mreg376]

What would be the best option for the best coverage and maximum speed the X10 (R9000) or X8 (R8500) ? I have like 30-40 devices at home, many Apple TVs, Rokus, Smart TVs, MacBook Pro 2016, Surface Book 2017, multiple iPhones and iPads, webcams, Philips Hue, HomeKit devices, etc. Thanks

I think the R8500 is plenty. The main advantage of the R9000 is "ad" mode, which really doesn't exist yet and some say may never will. Interestingly, the R7800 (X4S) gets some of the best reviews of all Netgear routers in terms of range and performance, but if you need extra LAN ports (the R8500 has six I think compared to the R7800's four), and if you have a lot of 5G devices, you're probably better off with the R8500, which has two 5G bands. I'm pushing about 30 devices on an R7800 (many of the smart home devices only use 2.4G), and it doesn't skip a beat. But the R8500 may be better for you. I wouldn't waste money on the R9000, which, by the way, does not get great reviews. I would also stay away from the R8000.

 

[psychopomp1]

I have the X10 and I wouldn't exactly say its a waste of money. Though I did buy it for only $350 on Amazon Black Friday sale in Nov 2016

Sure, the 802.11ad band on the X10 is almost useless (I have it switched off), however the router has the processing power of a low/mid range PC (hence its high cost) with a 1.7ghz quadcore processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM and 512mb flash. On my FTTP 330/30 Mbps line in the UK, the router runs Openvpn (vpn.ac is provider) with speeds in excess of 200 Mbps - unheard of in consumer routers with the exception of the Asus RT-AC86. We have more than 30 wifi clients connected to the X10 (mostly on the 5ghz band) and router copes very easily.

The X10 gives me great wifi coverage & throughput throughout the home so much so, that I've got rid of pretty much all ethernet connections to it. We have a few VOIP lines and they're now connected via wifi to the X10 with crystal clear call quality on all handsets.

Oh and it looks damn cool as well

 

[mreg376]

Agreed, never meant it was a waste of money (for "only" $350), just overkill for the OP. And you'd probably be able to do the same with the R8500. But it DOES look cool!

 

[avtella]

The X4 is cheaper and even edges out the X10 in WiFi performance (same QCA9984 WiFi Chip), The X8 however has an extra 5Ghz band for you to split your devices more evenly across the 5Ghz spectrum. Unless you really need the CPU power of the X10 I'd get the R7800 (X4S) or R8500 (X8) the R7800 has VPN performance that should be similar to the X10 as OpenVPN is single threaded. The X8 has the weakest CPU so much worse VPN performance of the three and an older WiFi chipset as well.

I wouldn't go so far as to say the quad core Cortex A15 and dual core Krait of the R9000 & R7800 respectively are anywhere near the power of a low/mid range PC/Laptop. Even the Dual Core Pentium in my ReadyNAS 524X or some of those Atoms used in pSense boxes are far more powerful especially for VPN.

 

[doubleroll]

I had an X8 and it was an excellent consumer router. Purchased it for the ability to aggregate ports and the dual 5Ghz radios. Coverage and speed were great, but I only used it in AP mode behind a FiOS gateway. I don’t think you can go wrong with the X8 and unless you go enterprise or prosumer, eg, ubiquiti you will be happy with the performance.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[mreg376]

And Ubiquiti isn't all it's cracked up to be. I bought a Ubiquiti access point, and wifi speeds were all slower that the Apple Airport Time Capsule I had at the time.

 

[Phoenix]

Now that we saw that Smart Connect was introduced in the latest firmware for the R900, is Smart Connect also available for the Nighthawk X8 and Nighthawk X4S?

 

[doubleroll]

And Ubiquiti isn't all it's cracked up to be. I bought a Ubiquiti access point, and wifi speeds were all slower that the Apple Airport Time Capsule I had at the time.

Interesting. I would say ubiquiti requires quite a bit more tuning but overall will provide better performance, reliability and control over your network infrastructure.

However to stay on topic, the X8 is a very good consumer router with dual 5Ghz radios and LACP support are nice features if you need them...


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[avtella]

The R7800 has the best WiFi range/performance of the three but the R8500 has dual radios for load balancing. Regardless the R7800 can easily handle your network load and it doesn’t run hot like the R8500, despite having a far superior CPU. Depending on where you live thermals might also be a consideration.

 

[BUFFBOY]

Hi all,

I just got the R9000, conducted some tests and it appears the signal strength is abit similar as the R7800 - which no surprise since its same chipset, however slightly lower than the R7800 on 5Ghz.

I have also noticed the R7800 can handle more devices on 2.4ghz without it getting the buffering wheel on the samsung TV.

USB3 file transfers, the R9000 kills it.

Question is what is the optimal channel settings for 2.4 amd 5ghz you guys use ?

Thanks

 

[RogerSC]

Hi all,

Question is what is the optimal channel settings for 2.4 amd 5ghz you guys use ?

Thanks

I use the middle of the 3 non-overlapping channels on 2.4GHz, channel 6. And also one of the lower 5GHz. channels, 44 or 48...this due to the fact that a lot of the routers out there don't have the power that the R7800 (or other newer routers) has on the lower channels. I get much more competition on the upper 5GHz. channels than I see on the lower ones. Well, actually you don't use just one channel on 5GHz. in general, but you pick a control channel...