Product Listing

ASUS RT-AC66U Wireless-AC Dual-band Router - Thrilling Media Streamer

By Andy Sim - 17 Aug 2012
Launch SRP: S$339

Performance - 5GHz

Chariot and QCheck Performance Testing (5GHz Band)


ASUS RT-AC66U Wireless Performance Results - 5GHz Band (Channel: 80MHz)
Average Downlink Throughput (Mbps) - Chariot Average Uplink Throughput (Mbps) - Chariot Downlink TCP Throughput of 1MB (Mbps) Uplink TCP Throughput of 1MB (Mbps) UDP Streaming (kbps) Time to transfer 1GB Zip file
2m
 161.763 155.851 123.077 112.676 999.656 (0.0%) 31 seconds
10m
169.292 154.718 131.148 121.212 999.336 (0.0%) 32 seconds
25m
 162.310 142.248 114.286 115.942 998.040 (0.0%) N.A.
2m with WPA2-Personal
 168.382 148.298 117.647 126.984 997.841 (0.0%) N.A.

They say that every dark cloud has a silver lining. And the ASUS RT-AC66U's redeeming trait can be credited to its astounding 5GHz performance. True that this is our first 802.11ac router, but still, the wireless results acquired by the AC66U practically blew all the older 802.11n-based routers away. In a nutshell, ASUS' offering managed a laudable average downlink speed of 160Mbps (and above) for our tests, measured at 2 meters, 10 meters, and 25 meters. This is a mighty impressive record, considering that it clocked an average of 162.310Mbps at the furthest range of 25 meters as well. The router's excellent flair on the 5GHz band was similarly translated into its data transfer speeds. For example, to took only 31 seconds to transfer a 1GB file from the host computer to the notebook client situated two meters away, with the AC66U acting as a gateway. The router hardly broke a sweat when the distance was increased to 10 meters, with a recorded time of 32 seconds. This was about 6.5x faster than what the 2.4GHz band could achieve.

Likewise, its uplink performance was equally notable. At 25 meters, the 802.11ac router almost doubled the data speeds of what the other N-based routers could manage. ASUS' promise of "high-powered amplification and beam packaging" seems to have paid off as well, judging by the almost lossless UDP streams sustained from 2 to 25 meters. And assuming that 802.11ac adapters are as capable in receiving wireless transmissions like the secondary AC66U configured in bridge mode for our test scenario, this router's AC-mode is most definitely one to watch, and definitely one which would serve your HD video streaming needs well. 

The router's 802.11ac mode not only impressed us with its fast throughput, but its ability to deliver stable and yet speedy results at the furthest point of 25 meters was equally laudable.

In the same way, the RT-AC66U punched through the roof during our uplink tests on the Chariot and QCheck benchmarks. The router delivered 155.851Mbps at 2 meters, and 142.248Mbps at 25 meters.

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8.5
  • Design 9
  • Features 9
  • Performance 8.5
  • Value 8
The Good
Bold and stylish design
Impressive 5GHz data speeds
Comprehensive networking and cloud features
The Bad
Paltry 2.4GHz throughput
Buggy AiDisk feature
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