If you are planning to buy a gaming router in 2018, you should first learn the most important thing before buying anything: Know what you are buying. Knowing is vital than just buying your way to any router that is offered or gets in your way just because it is cheap and it sounds good. To help you out, here are the things to know before buying a gaming router.
3 Things To Know Before Buying A Gaming Router
When you buy a gaming router, do not go for how it looks. The looks do not define the performance and capacity of a router. This is very important especially when you want a gaming router. Gaming router does not mean that it should be futuristic looking. It has to have all the qualities that a gaming router should have. Here are the three things to know before buying a gaming router.
Range
How big is your house? Does it have a lot of rooms and obstructions? How many devices do you plan to connect to the router?
The range of the router is very crucial especially when you want it to broadcast all over the house. If that is the case, you will want a long frequency WiFi for that. For your information, there are two popular main frequencies for routers—the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz.
The 2.4GHZ is the long-range appropriate frequency. It can typically reach a wider area and is compatible with older WiFi devices. The only downside is that it is slow and poor with congested situations.
On the other hand, the 5GHz frequency is compatible with modern devices. It is good with handling congested traffic and is much faster. Its downside is that it is great only with shorter range areas.
If you can afford it, go for dual band. A router that can emit both 2.5GHz and 5GHz frequency is much better just in case you plan to carry around your router. Or if you are not sure about your area’s appropriate frequency, the dual band is a safe bet.
Processor and RAM
Just like your computer and smartphone, the router has RAM and processor. And if you want a gaming router, faster of both hardware is good for your gaming experience. Go for dual-core or better processor with 1.2GHZ frequency or more. And at least 256MB of RAM or better will give you smoother performance.
This is plain common sense. The better the processing power means better data handling and processing. That means, if you have multiple devices using the internet, it can easily distribute different types of data at once.
Advanced Features
Your candidate router should have features that are actually useful for you. Do not buy any router just because it has fancy new features that won’t have benefits for your daily use.
- Here is a list of typical added features that might or might not be really useful for you. See if anything here is actually worth something for your everyday use.
- USB Slots – this is usually useful if you have a pen drive or external hard drive that you want to share in the network. This is a great help if you do not want to share your PC or laptop’s local drive over the network. Also, everyone can access the files even if your PC or laptop is turned off. And if possible, choose the one that has USB 3.0 version. It is much faster.
- Support for MU-MIMO – this feature is great for multiple network users as this can transmit data with ease. Even if all the devices connected are streaming, it can handle it with flawlessly. The rest will be dependent on your internet speed.
- Smartphone app – the smartphone app lets you control most of the router’s capability on your mobile device. You download and install the app then go to 192.168.1.1 via any browser and you will be on the admin page of your wifi router. This means that you will not have to go over to your router just to fix something.
In Conclusion
Those three features are your basis when you finally decide to pay for your chosen router. Of course, the price matters as well. But like I have mentioned earlier, if you can afford the router with all these features, then the price is not always a matter of preference.
But if you really mind the pricing, then try as much as you can to get the one with the nearest capability. The best thing you can do is try not to rush into buying anything. Look out to other markets and be patient with your choices. Who knows, you might find a great discount on one of your searches.
If you have other concerns and questions, feel free to leave a message in the comment section. We will try to get back to you as soon as we can. And don’t forget to share this article to help others as well.
