How Much Does it Cost?
The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 WiFi 6 Router is one of the flagship gaming routers from ASUS, and one of the most advanced consumer routers on the market, so it’s not surprising that it’s pretty expensive. It’s currently on Amazon for around £338, but I have seen it a little closer to £300 at times so it may be worth shopping around. That being said, it’s a big investment, so likely only going to appeal to the enthusiast and prosumers out there, but it’s still a sound investment if you want your router’s performance to match the capabilities of an ultra-fast internet connection, the latest PCs, consoles and mobiles.
Overview
I absolutely love this router, it claimed to come out swinging and deliver killer performance, and it certainly does just that. For me, the main thing is stability and signal strength and you certainly get that here. It’s not something that shows in benchmarks, unfortunately, but compared to the Virgin router I was using before, it’s a night and day difference. Before, our phones would fall back to the 2.4GHz band, only getting 5 GHz in the living room, most of the time, and it was a real pain trying to reset to get back onto 5 GHz. With the ASUS router, any WiFi devices are getting closer to their maximum over a much greater distance and with significantly improved stability. There is still a dead spot in the bathroom, but it’s practically a bomb shelter of concrete and metal between the router and that area of the house. However, the 2.4 GHz reaches there fine now, while that room got no WiFi at all from the Virgin router. Perhaps I’ll look into the Mesh router options from ASUS to address this.
The addition of a wealth of security and family safety features is awesome too. My daughter likes YouTube, and we want her to stick to YouTube Kids. With this router, I can just block that website on all her devices, or even lock certain things down at various times of the day. I can filter keywords, gaming sites, even block certain online games. I still prefer education over draconian locks, but with some things, it’s nice to have these tools at my disposal.
The opposite is true too, while I can block things, I can also open up more things. I can easily ensure certain sites, services, games or whole devices get priority. If I’m gaming on LAN and my son on WiFi, I can at least ensure we both have priority for better ping times and speeds, while I can set it so my Plex server/NAS gets more priority than my Xbox, so big updates or game downloads don’t interrupt that service. It’s a stack of little things, but wow does it make a difference!
Another welcome thing is that while this router is expensive, it’s reassuringly well made. It’s a great-looking bit of kit, but it feels it too. Everything is robust, looks and feels well designed. In terms of internal hardware, it’s got a fast and powerful processor, chunky antennas, and a robust suite of connectivity and expansion options that will ensure you get the best from just about any device that needs it.
Should I Buy One?
Are you a person who cares about their online gaming performance? And I mean REALLY cares? If yes, then it’s certainly an interesting tool, and about one of the best routers out there to ensure you can trim down those ping times, and ensure a wide range of gaming PCs, consoles, phones and more can all get the most from your ultra-fast broadband connection. I’ve had 1Gb internet for a while, but with the ASUS AX-6000 router, it finally feels like I’m properly using all the internet I’m paying for, and getting the best from my devices. Expensive, yes, but worth everything penny.
