[Maylyn's Review] ASUS RT-AC66U Dark Knight Rises

[maylyn]

The new flagship of the Dark Knight router has arrived

The ASUS RT-AC66U

Some might ask? why ac? Simply it's born in the pursuit of wireless higher bandwidth throughput higher than N standard to satisfy people on the way how they consumed content within their home network (i.e multiple downloads, multiple HD streaming via wireless etc)

Other might ask there are existing technologies like homeplug should suffice but performance varies depending on their home power circuity layout/setup etc

Some benefits of AC over N

1.3 Gbps PHY rate performance offering over 3x performance vs. three stream 802.11n devices

Dual-band operation compatible with legacy 802.11n networks

80 MHz wide bandwidth that is 2x wider than current 802.11n solutions

256-QAM, a higher modulation scheme that increases data transfer efficiency

802.11ac-compliant transmit and receive Beamforming for extended coverage for 802.11ac and legacy devices

Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) Codes for increased rate at range

Physical Box

Back View

Package Contents

Dark Knight Rises ~ AC

Setting up is a breeze, choose and click, 30 secs and under

Various fiber profiles are already in with the shipping firmware 140 too

It's highly recommended to update the firmware to the latest version 164

Version 3.0.0.4.164

ASUS RT-AC66U Firmware Version 3.0.0.4.164

Fix bugs:
1. UI related bugs
2. Network map cannot show device name.
3. QoS control for wired connected devices.
4. Special character name/password issue in VPN server.
5. Download master installing issue in AP mode.
6. PPPoE compatibility issue.
7. L2TP compatibility issue.
8. Sonos audio system and network map compatibility issue. Special thanks to Merlin for his contribution.
9. IPv6 6in4 memory leak
10.IPTV multicast related issues
11.FTP/Samba account change issue

Modified
1. Temporarily removed enable AiCloud option, as the service will officially launch late August.
2. Enable cross night setting in wireless radio on/off setting page.
3. Adjust WDS connection rule
4. Enable Beceem Wimax support.
5. Change default wireless security to WPA-AES in QIS.
6. Add Spanish language.
7. Modify VPN server UI.
8. HTTPS authentication
9. Tune IPv6 connection for ComCast
10.Download master BT cache size changed to 256KB
11.Download master supports crosse night schedule setting
12.Download master shows amulle server connection status

 

[maylyn]

AC Goodness

Stay tuned for AC benching when i get hold of the PCE-AC66 and USB-AC53 shortly

But if you are those few that get 2X or more ASUS RT-AC66U. you can configure one of the ASUS RT-AC66U to be in media mode and enjoy ac speed in an instant (Only applicable to ASUS RT-AC66U)

Minor Updates

Utorrent Real Test

Utorrent bolt sprinting @ 3.7MB/s via wireless N (80MHz) /wow. It's already saturating my old wireless N module bandwidth @ 243Mbps which resulting in disk overhead in Utorrent lol

My 5GHz coverage is excellent as usual

 

[maylyn]

Dark Knight Rises

 

[maylyn]

Cat woman

 

[liangtam]

Package Contents

Huai nowadays even high end model also Made in China...

 

[shawn_sboi]

Waiting for more updates! Nice torrent speed!

I managed to get 7MB/s for torrenting on my N66u.

Right now ac is still in draft right?

Is the rt-ac66u draft 2.0 or 3.0?

 

[guangzong]

Do you mind enabling DHT on your torrent client and see if the router can take it? Thanks a lot.

 

[Gribber]

wow.... full of $

 

[Dr.Vijay]

Quite a buggy firmware at the moment.
We're still working things out with ASUS and awaiting updates.

When our review is up, that's probably when most aspects are ironed out - hopefully (cross-fingers).

 

[WhiteFox]

what's the retail price?

 

[SPEED]

what's the retail price?

$329
super super Expensive.

 

[Gribber]

$329
super super Expensive.

*nods*
10chars

 

[sunsunsun]

$329
super super Expensive.

Another reason why this review title is apt... because bruce wayne so rich

 

[kero89]

Started selling already ah?

Everyday keep calling everyday tell me not release yet. Dunno ish tio troll or not

 

[Gribber]

Started selling already ah?

Everyday keep calling everyday tell me not release yet. Dunno ish tio troll or not

pricelist got show wor.

 

[kero89]

pricelist got show wor.

Which shop?

My usual like Fuwell pricelist and the just uploaded by Asus SG to FaceBook never show AC66U

Maybe Comex, but new products always boh discount or freebies

saw on CM pricelist... thanks for the update!

 

[SimonLam]

Going to retire my RT-N66U...making a trip to Hong Kong soon

 

[maylyn]

Do you mind enabling DHT on your torrent client and see if the router can take it? Thanks a lot.

DHT doesn't work for me as i'm on private tracker (doesn't allow DHT) whether i enabled it or not.

I'm just showcasing running Uttorent on 5GHz (N) for this case. I believe i can download @ higher speed easily on wire as mentioned by shawn_sboi and saturated my ISP allowable bandwidth as most of my tracker seeders are on seedboxes

As for simultaneous sessions, ASUS RT-66U/AC66U are able to take the load if not why is everyone getting it if it's not that good

~ Addon ~

From smallnetbuilder.com

Routing Performance

Routing performance for the RT-N66U using our standard test method is summarized in Table 2. The product was loaded with the just-released 3.1.0.3.90 firmware for our testing. Unidirectional throughput is 10 - 15% lower than the chart-topping RT-N56U. But the thing that is sure to cause some people to think that the 66U's routing code is broken is that simultaneous bidirectional throughput is only ~ 800 Mbps. Nothing's broken, folks. It's more throughput than anyone will ever use.

Test Description RT-N66U RT-N56U
WAN - LAN 732 Mbps 802 Mbps
LAN - WAN 729 Mbps 862 Mbps
Total Simultaneous 810 Mbps 1269 Mbps
Maximum Simultaneous Connections 34,925 34,925

Figure 10 shows the composite IxChariot plot for the three routing speed tests, with everything looking pretty stable. And there are plenty of simultaneous sessions to go around. Like the 56U, the 66U maxed out at our 34,925 test limit.

If your primary concern is about simultaneous sessions, you are better off with ASUS RT-AC66U > Buffalo WZR-D1800H > Netgear R6300

Routing performance for the R6300 using our standard test method is summarized in Table 2, along with Buffalo's draft 11ac router. The R6300 has higher routing throughput, if that's important to you. But NETGEAR has kept to its traditional 4,096 limit on simultaneous sessions.

Test Description
R6300 WZR-D1800H
WAN - LAN 783 Mbps 566 Mbps
LAN - WAN 829 Mbps 590 Mbps
Total Simultaneous 808 Mbps 590 Mbps
Maximum Simultaneous Connections 4096 34,925
Firmware Version V1.0.0.68_1.0.16 Ver.1.86

Source ~> http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...er-80211ac-dual-band-gigabit?showall=&start=1

 

[maylyn]

Waiting for more updates! Nice torrent speed!

I managed to get 7MB/s for torrenting on my N66u.

Right now ac is still in draft right?

Is the rt-ac66u draft 2.0 or 3.0?

Should be in draft 3.0

From Wiki

IEEE 802.11ac is a wireless computer networking standard of 802.11, currently under development (Draft 3.0[1]), providing high-throughput wireless local area networks on the 5 GHz band.[1] Standard finalization is anticipated in late 2012, with final 802.11 Working Group approval in late 2013.[1] According to a study, devices with the 802.11ac specification are expected to become common by 2015 with an estimated one billion spread around the world.[2]

[1] Official IEEE 802.11 Working Group Project Timelines" - 2011-11-30

 

[shawn_sboi]

Should be in draft 3.0

From Wiki

IEEE 802.11ac is a wireless computer networking standard of 802.11, currently under development (Draft 3.0[1]), providing high-throughput wireless local area networks on the 5 GHz band.[1] Standard finalization is anticipated in late 2012, with final 802.11 Working Group approval in late 2013.[1] According to a study, devices with the 802.11ac specification are expected to become common by 2015 with an estimated one billion spread around the world.[2]

[1] Official IEEE 802.11 Working Group Project Timelines" - 2011-11-30

Nice! just bought the N66U...

find it worth it! wont go into ac so soon.