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Buying Guide: The Top Wireless Routers for Gamers and Power Users
Power users are often tech-savvy DIYers eager to push the limits of the tech they use. These are users who look for features such as printer and external drive sharing bundled into routers. Gamers are often concerned mostly with one thing when it comes to their networks: prioritizing gaming traffic. They are going to want to look for routers that feature QoS rules that can provide highest network traffic priority to gaming.
Both types of users value killer throughput that can handle the demands they place on their tech. Gamers typically go for maximum performance using high-end premium dual-band routers. Dual-band routers are great for gaming, because you can reserve wireless devices that are used for gaming to the robust 5GHz band. Those into console and PC gaming also want to ensure that their routers have Gigabit Ethernet ports to leverage the 1Gbps throughput when connecting a game desktop or console.
Power users familiar with networking like killer speeds as well, but they often look for advanced capabilities such as routers that support Dynamic DNS services. Also, tech-savvier users need less hand-holding, so easy setup or user friendly interfaces aren't necessarily high priorities when they are router-shopping.
Here we present you a round-up the best routers for power users and gamers. These routers are among the highest-rated we've tested in the lab and listed are a few of the features that make them ideal for gaming and configuring advanced features on a network:
Ideal for Gamers:
Trendnet AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router (TEW-812DRU)
$140 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Gamers will love the TEW-812DRU. It not only offered killer throughput that was among top we've tested in the lab, but it also router offers great range. Plus it has two features that can help boost the gaming experience: Wireless Multimedia (WMM) and QoS (Quality of Service). With WMM, multimedia content is given priority. WMM can work hand in hand with QoS in that you can give throughput priority to specific games and applications. Read the full review ››
Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 Smart WiFi Router R7000
$199 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Gamers can also take advantage of the Nighthawk's powerful dual-core 1GHz processor to help boost not only wireless performance but also wired WAN to LAN performance. The Nighthawk also offers robust QoS and a feature called Beamforming+, which improves the direction of the wireless signal to wireless clients. Read the full review ››
Ideal for Power Users, Networking Geeks, and DIYers:
Buffalo AirStation Extreme AC 1750 Gigabit Dual Band Wireless Router
$129.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Buffalo's AirStation is not only equipped with latest 802.11x technology—802.11ac—but it is a multi-function device that can be configured as an access point or bridge, in addition to a router. Plus, advanced users can do things that you can't often do on too many consumer routers such as disable NAT and customize DHCP server settings. A bonus, the router also supports multiple SSIDs. Read the full review ››
Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 Smart WiFi Router (R7000)
$199.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% A great pick for geeks. The Nighthawk is open-source friendly. You can flash it with DD-WRT, the open-source router firmware, extending its feature set. The R7000 also supports OpenVPN as well as DDNS. Read the full review ››
