Receiving a strong Wi-Fi signal has been something we have all struggled to achieve. With so many of us relying on our mobile devices for work, school and even entertainment, it has become one of the biggest hassles. I’ve become so annoyed waiting for a stream I’ve been excited to watch starting to buffer. I could be watching an exciting match on stream and miss some of the good parts, just because of buffering. It was time for me to see if I could find a router that could give me a stable Wi-Fi connection while having my gaming systems and my computer running. I’ve gone through a handful of routers even after making sure I the most powerful Internet connection my cable provider could give me. But even with a strong Internet, I was still having trouble getting a decent Wi-Fi connection when I had more than three different devices on, so I decided to test some of the most powerful routers and narrowed it down to the Top 5 Wi-Fi Routers every gamer should have.
The D-Link AC3200 Ultra Wi-Fi Router
The D-Link AC3200 Ultra Wi-Fi DIR-890L/R Router has a unique design. It has to be one of the most eye-catching routers I’ve ever seen. I’ve caught myself just staring at it for a while, every time I look at the router, it reminds me of a spider. The DIR-890 Measures 15.2 by 9.7 by 4.7 inches (38.7 by 24.7 by 11.9cm) with six antennas, these antennas cannot be removed, so please don’t try to. Make sure you have enough room – the router is pretty big, in-which I had to rearrange a couple of things during my set-up in order for it to fit. Before I took the router out of the box, I assumed it was going to be heavy, just from the way it was built – it’s not.
The DIR-890 is powered by a Broadcom dual-core 1GHz processor. The D-Link DIR-890 is a tri-band router so it has three separate built in AP’s (access points), one 2.4GHz AP that will support all 2.4GHz 802.11n/g/b Wi-Fi clients, which caps at 600Mbps; and two 5GHz APs that will support 5GHz 802.11ac/n/a clients, capping at 1,300Mbps. I had two different devices downloading a game, while I was gaming on my PC – I didn’t see any lag, buffering, no interruptions at all and the games were downloaded in less than a minute. This router is perfect for anyone who has more than three devices that need to run on wi-fi.
Price: $289.99
Linksys WRT1900AC Dual Band Gigabit Wi-Fi Route
With speeds of 1.9 Gbps, the Linksys WRT1900AC delivers the most powerful performance. It comes equipped with the first four-antenna configuration and professional-grade 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU, the WRT1900AC which provides the best signal strength and range. The Linksys WRT1900AC is perfect for file sharing – with the four Gigabit Ethernet ports it makes transferring large files simple and quick, no need to sit and wait for hours – in order to stream or send large files over your network at high speed, all you have to do is connect a flash drive to the USB 3.0 port or an external SATA storage device to the unique eSATA port.
What makes the Linksys WRT1900AC Dual Band Gigabit Wi-Fi Route one of the fastest routers? A professional-grade, 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM processor, the WRT1900AC making it one of the fastest Wireless-AC, a dual-core processor which allows multiple data streams simultaneously. The result: better efficiency and performance, particularly in today’s multi-device world. Linksys Smart Wi-Fi gives you access to your network anywhere, all you have to do is download the mobile app on your phone.
Price: $299.99
Amped Wireless ATHENA, High Power AC2600 Wi-Fi Router with MU-MIMO (RTA2600)
Delivering coverage throughout the whole house, with 16 powerful amplifiers and 4 high gain antennas – the Amped Wireless ATHENA is built to deal with multi users. The Amped router offers Wi-Fi Speeds up to 2.53Gbps, 2.4GHz 800Mbps + 5GHz 1733Mbps, MIMO delivers data to multiple devices at once giving users a better performance and giving you up to 3x more speed. When it comes to gaming, we all have that one thing we can’t stand dealing with, lag. You can now game without worrying about lag, the router is powerful enough to give you great quality while streaming in HD to multiple devices without any interruptions.
Price: $243.99
ASUS RT-AC88U Routers (RT-AC88U)
The new RT-AC88U comes equipped with four detachable antennas and two USB ports, and has its USB 2.0 port which is located on the on the back, and the USB 3.0 port is located on the front. The RT-AC88U delivers A1024-QAM technology – 80% faster 5 GHz at up to 2100 Mbps, 66% faster 2.4 GHz at up to 1000 Mbps, 33% greater 2.4 GHz coverage with 4 transmits, 4 receives (4T4R) antenna design, this will help to reach coverage up to 5000 SQFT. If you own multiple gaming consoles the ASUS RT router offers up to eight LAN ports that are for Ethernet-compatible devices allowing them to connect simultaneously.
Price: $299.99
Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 Smart Wi-Fi Router (R7000)
Finally, enjoy gaming without any interruptions – the Netgear Nighthawk delivers AC1900 WiFi, a powerful dual-core 1GHz processor, and giving you an advanced upstream QoS for optimized game play on your favorite console. Nighthawk also features downstream QoS, Beamforming+ and built-in iTunes server so you can stream without having to deal with those annoying buffering wait times. You will now have access to your stored media within seconds with the USB 3.0, and no need to worry about every losing your media files – the Nighthawk AC1900 keep it safe with free automatic backup software for PCs & Time Machine compatible for Macs. Need Wi-Fi coverage throughout the whole house? No problem, with the high-powered amplifiers and antennas this will help extend WiFi coverage throughout large homes and even allowing you to reactive coverage in your backyards.
Price: $184.99
