Linksys EA9500 Max-Stream AC5400 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router Reviewed

[sfx2000]

Drop the RAM from the EA8500 and raise the price. Great marketing.

If one doesn't have over 20 clients, probably won't notice the difference, for what it's worth...

 

[sfx2000]

i was wondering if it was a typo , as i too see this as a concern and whats with smart connect only on 5 gig's ?

I'm ok with that actually - it's more about load balancing the two 5GHz radios, and it does simplify things for SmartConnect as the two 5G radios will have similar characteristics...

 

[sfx2000]

BTW - that thing is heat sinked like crazy - big aluminum plate for the radios topside, the SOC heatsink with the big alloy block and a metal radiator shield to boot, and the plate on the bottom side. Must be weighty...

Along with the impressive heat sinkage - the build quality of the board looks really good - esp in the Radio side, look at the power supplies for the radios, those are good parts, and the board layout is pretty clean - Linksys does nice work here - a bit more than required perhaps, but hats off for doing that little bit more.

Now if they could only clean up some of the long standing issues in SmartWifi software (which I documented pretty well on a WRT1900ac thread) - it's more important than ever now with the restrictions in place, and Linksys only supporting 3rd Party development on the WRT line...

 

[sm00thpapa]

Just curious why Linksys took a step back on the memory. The ACS and EA8500 have 512. You would figure 512 to be the norm at this stage. Sorry for beating the issue but it just makes no sense.

Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk

 

[RMerlin]

Saying a review was paid for without that fact being disclosed is a serious charge to make. What is your basis for your statement?

I agree the review is light on details and is complementary. But that doesnt' make it paid for.

I highly doubt that CNet's reviews are paid for. Their Asus router reviews showed to me that, in fact, there is very little communication between the reviewer and the manufacturers, as a few of the problems they encountered would have quickly be resolved by a quick chat with Asus.

I rather put in doubt their methodology, not their objectivity.

 

[RMerlin]

256 MB of RAM isn't a big issue, especially as Linksys's firmware tends to be rather light on features.

The only scenario I can see these days where a home router might use the extra RAM is for cacheing USB disks. The firmware itself requires very little RAM (and conntrack isn't that big of a user itself either).

We're talking about a bit over 300 bytes for a tracked connection.

 

[RMerlin]

Along with the impressive heat sinkage - the build quality of the board looks really good - esp in the Radio side, look at the power supplies for the radios, those are good parts, and the board layout is pretty clean - Linksys does nice work here - a bit more than required perhaps, but hats off for doing that little bit more.

Build quality has long been a strong point in Linksys's routers. Their routers tend to last long.

I'm glad to see that Belkin decided to keep that quality.

 

[pete y testing]

I rather put in doubt their methodology,

what methodology , their reviews have become far less based on the technology and more based on opinion , so they may not be so called "paid for " but more puff pieces

its a shame as many ppl rely on cnet as their guide to buying new products

 

[sfx2000]

The only scenario I can see these days where a home router might use the extra RAM is for cacheing USB disks. The firmware itself requires very little RAM (and conntrack isn't that big of a user itself either).

One person's opinion - and that's fair - but from a design perspective, one tends to put the thumb on the scale in favor of the user - esp. at this price point.

Old school Linksys firmware was pretty lightweight, Linksys SmartWifi is a quite a bit more - more so that other vendors.

We're talking about a bit over 300 bytes for a tracked connection.

I always allocated 1K per connection in my designs - note that is not per client, but per connection - and clients do have many... you always overbuild just a little bit, and RAM is cheap compared to customer goodwill...

 

[sfx2000]

In any event - not trying to make a mountain out of this - if one has less than 25 clients or so, probably won't notice - I'm sure that Linksys Engineering and Broadcom looked at this, and decided 256MB is enough for the target market.

 

[sm00thpapa]

In any event - not trying to make a mountain out of this - if one has less than 25 clients or so, probably won't notice - I'm sure that Linksys Engineering and Broadcom looked at this, and decided 256MB is enough for the target market.

Understandable. But why take a step back from the WRT1200AC, WRT1900ACS and EA8500 which all have 512MB. Now your King of the Hill router only has 256MB. I would love to know the real reason why the cutback. Maybe cause of the high price tag they felt the extra RAM would put the price out of the public's range.

 

[thiggins]

Guys, the RAM horse is dead. Stop beating it.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Been running this router for about 3 weeks now with 45 connected devices. 20-25 constantly running at a time. Seems to handle everything on my home network just fine.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Can anyone confirm that this router runs at 160MHz on the 5GHz band?

 

[sfx2000]

Can anyone confirm that this router runs at 160MHz on the 5GHz band?

Supposedly it does - do you have a client that can do 160MHz channels? (more like a client that can do 80MHz + 80MHz configurations).

I haven't seen any desktop clients capable of this yet...

 

[sm00thpapa]

I'm using the WUSB6100M I think that runs at 160MHz but I'm not sure. Talk on the Linksys forum is this router runs at 160MHz. Why Linksys doesn't mention this on their website or box is mind boggling.

 

[sfx2000]

I'm using the WUSB6100M I think that runs at 160MHz but I'm not sure. Talk on the Linksys forum is this router runs at 160MHz. Why Linksys doesn't mention this on their website or box is mind boggling.

It's an AC433 adapter according to their spec sheet - which is single stream AC - makes sense given it's size - but AC433 is up to 80MHz channels - it does do MU if one has another MU capable client handy...

 

[thiggins]

Can anyone confirm that this router runs at 160MHz on the 5GHz band?

The BCM4366 radio SoC is spec'd for 160 MHz. But no manufacturer of AC5400 class products has said 160 MHz mode is supported. And the device's MU-MIMO still doesn't work.
https://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s889428

 

[thiggins]

I'm using the WUSB6100M I think that runs at 160MHz but I'm not sure. Talk on the Linksys forum is this router runs at 160MHz. Why Linksys doesn't mention this on their website or box is mind boggling.

Sure, why not promote another feature that provides little to no practical benefit to get folks like you excited?

 

[RMerlin]

Sure, why not promote another feature that provides little to no practical benefit to get folks like you excited?

It's time someone starts taking a look at such shady marketing practices. It's misleading, and borderline illegal to advertise such features that clearly do not work as advertised. Not sure if the guilty party here is the SoC manufacturer (BCM) or the various router manufacturers all pushing these bullet points in their marketing material.

Most blatant case is the Turbo/Nitro/BSQAM technology announced by BCM and their partners. I get the "up to" claim, but it should also imply that there is at least one scenario showing that upward limit being reachable OUTSIDE OF A LABORATORY. Otherwise, might as well claim "up to 10 Gbps", and claim they aren't lying in any way.

To my knowledge, nobody ever showed BCM's *QAM connecting at any of the advertised limits.