Pleasurable PC gaming requires a gradual hand, sharp reflexes, and most necessary, connection to the web. The Asus ROG Strix GS-AX5400 ($249.99) can’t assist you to with the primary two, however it may possibly assist you to ensure that your community is optimized for the last word gaming expertise. This dual-band Wi-Fi 6 gaming router not solely affords instruments designed to cut back latency and supply most bandwidth for on-line avid gamers, however it delivers speedy throughput and comes with sturdy community safety and parental management instruments. That makes it our new Editors’ Selection for midrange Wi-Fi 6 routers.
Trendy Angles Decked Out In RGB
The GS-AX5400 has a trendy angular design and options an RGB gentle bar with customizable results. The cupboard is black and has a textured high that sports activities a Republic of Avid gamers badge, in addition to LED exercise indicators for energy, WAN, and each radio bands. It measures 2.1 by 10.2 by 7.0 inches (HWD) and has 4 non-removable adjustable antennas.
Round again are a WAN port, 4 gigabit LAN ports, a USB 3.2 port, an influence jack, an influence swap, a WPS button, and a reset button. You received’t discover any multi-gig ports like the two.5Gbps port discovered on the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX11000, however you possibly can configure the GS-AX5400’s LAN ports for hyperlink aggregation. Furthermore, one of many LAN ports is devoted for gaming, mechanically prioritizing a gaming console or PC you connect with it.
The GS-AX5400 helps the newest Wi-Fi 6 applied sciences, together with 160MHz channel bandwidth, Orthogonal Frequency-Division A number of Entry (OFDMA), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), Goal Wake Time, MU-MIMO knowledge streaming, beam-forming, and WPA3 encryption. It is also suitable with the Asus AiMesh characteristic, which lets you join sure Asus routers collectively to create a whole-home Wi-Fi mesh system.
The GS AX-5400 is powered by a 1.5GHz tri-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, and 256MB of flash reminiscence. As a dual-band AX5400 router, it may possibly hit most knowledge charges of as much as 574Mbps on the two.4GHz band and as much as 4,804Mbps on the 5GHz band.
You possibly can set up and handle the GS-AX5400 utilizing an internet console or with the Asus cell app for iOS and Android. Each are chock stuffed with settings that can assist you to tweak your community for optimum gaming efficiency, however the cell app affords a slicker interface than the online console. It opens to a Dwelling display with a cool game-inspired background theme. On the high of the display is a panel with the community title, IP tackle, and SSID for each bands. There’s additionally a recreation controller icon that takes you to a display the place you possibly can assign prioritization for one among a number of functions together with gaming, media streaming, net browsing, and file transferring.
Within the heart of the Dwelling display is a standing circle that shows a colourful real-time community site visitors chart. Faucet the arrow on the left or proper to have the circle show the community title and SSID names, CPU and RAM utilization, variety of related wired and wi-fi shoppers, and Aura RGB settings.
Beneath the circle are icons for configuring a mesh community and enabling Cellular Recreation Mode, which boosts bandwidth allotment and reduces latency while you’re taking part in video games in your cell machine.
On the very backside of the Dwelling display are Units, Perception, Household, and Settings buttons. The Units button opens a display the place you possibly can view an inventory of all related gadgets. Faucet any machine to view real-time site visitors utilization for that machine, set bandwidth limits, apply QoS settings, and examine the machine’s IP and MAC tackle data.
The Perception display helps you to seek for out there routers so as to add to your AiMesh community, share Wi-Fi entry by way of a QR code, test your password energy, and examine safety occasions like blocked malicious web sites or contaminated gadgets.
The Household button opens a display the place you possibly can create profiles for members of the family and assign age-based parental management filters that block entry to social media and websites that comprise violence, playing, and grownup content material.
Lastly, the Settings button takes you to a display the place you possibly can configure AiProtection (the router’s anti-malware characteristic) and parental controls, run community diagnostics, configure Open NAT (port forwarding), allow and configure application-based QoS settings, replace the router firmware, and configure Wi-Fi, LAN, and WAN settings.
Simple Setup, Loads of Throughput for Gaming
Establishing the GS-AX5400 router was simple. I unplugged my modem, related the GS-AX5400 to the modem and to a close-by desktop PC, and powered up the modem and the router. At this level you should use the cell app or the online console to put in the router. I selected the latter and typed http://router.asus.com right into a browser bar on the related desktop, which launched the setup utility. I opted to separate the 2 bands, gave them names and passwords, and was prompted to replace the firmware. After a couple of minutes the replace and set up have been full.
The GS-AX5400 delivered stable numbers on our throughput efficiency exams. Its rating of 128Mbps on the two.4GHz shut proximity (identical room) check was quicker than the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX90 AX6600 (109Mbps), the Linksys MR9600 AX6000 (111Mbps), and the Netgear Nighthawk XR1000 (122Mbps). The TP-Hyperlink Archer AX11000 led the pack with a rating of 133Mbps. At a distance of 30 ft, the GS-AX5400 garnered 44Mbps, as soon as once more outperforming all however the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX11000 (67Mbps).
The GS-AX5400 turned in excessive scores on the 5GHz throughput exams. Its rating of 846Mbps edged out the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX90 AX6600 (841Mbps), the Linksys MR9600 AX6000 (840Mbps), and the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX11000 (831Mbps), however couldn’t match the Netgear Nighthawk XR1000 (865Mbps). Nevertheless, its rating of 424Mbps on the 30-foot 5GHz check took high honors.
We check wi-fi sign energy utilizing an Ekahau Sidekick Wi-Fi diagnostic machine and Ekahau’s Survey cell app. This mixture generates warmth maps that present the GS-AX5400’s 2.4GHz and 5GHz sign energy all through our check residence. The white circle on the map represents the placement of the router, and the colours symbolize sign energy with darker greens indicating the strongest sign. Yellows point out a weaker sign, and grays point out no perceptible sign reception.
As illustrated by the maps, the GS-AX5400 did a comparatively good job of delivering a dependable 2.4GHz sign all through the house, however the 5GHz sign was weaker within the far corners of the home.
To check file switch efficiency, we transfer a 1.5GB folder containing pictures, video, music, and workplace doc recordsdata forwards and backwards between a USB 3.0 drive and a desktop PC which can be each related to the router with the intention to check write and skim speeds.
The GS-AX5400’s write pace of 69MBps was a hair quicker than the TP-link Archer AX11000 (68MBps) and 15MBps quicker than the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX90, however couldn’t catch the Netgear Nighthawk XR1000 or the Linksys MR9600 AX6000, each of which scored 73MBps. The GS-AX5400’s rating of 85MBps on the learn check was equivalent to the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX11000 and quicker than the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX90 (58MBps), the Netgear Nighthawk XR1000 (76MBps), and the Linksys MR9600 AX6000 (70MBps).
A Large Degree Up for Critical Avid gamers
When you’re trying to enhance your on-line gaming efficiency, the Asus ROG Strix GS-AX5400 router will help. It supplied quick throughput in our efficiency exams and affords free lifetime community safety instruments and sturdy parental controls. It additionally offers you many gamer-friendly utilities designed to offer you a aggressive edge by optimizing bandwidth and lowering lag. It lacks multi-gig connectivity and it has solely a single USB port, however its total efficiency and options earn it an Editors’ Selection nonetheless.
When you require a router with extra connectivity choices, try the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX11000 (additionally an Editors’ Selection winner). It’s dearer, however it affords wonderful efficiency, multi-gig WAN, eight LAN ports, and many gaming settings.
