Holiday Gift Idea 9: Step up your game with this router
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Holiday Gift Idea 9: Step up your game with this router
ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC2900
Your router doesn't have to be a boring black box that gathers dust on a shelf. The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC2900 was designed to be shown off, featuring RGB lighting that can be customised to match the rest of your setup. Nearly every component you can think of today comes with RGB LEDs, and the ROG Rapture will fit right in with them.
This is an 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) dual-band router that supports maximum data transfer rates of up to 750Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 2,167Mbps on the 5Gbps network. In addition, it supports dynamic frequency selection, or DFS, which still isn't offered on many routers today. DFS allows the router to use less congested channels typically reserved for government services, so you get better Wi-Fi performance.
A trio of features also come together to minimise latency and ping. ASUS calls this its Triple-level Game Accelerator, and it comprises a dedicated ROG gaming port, an adaptive QoS technology called Game Boost, and a wtfast subscription. The ROG gaming port prioritises the device that's plugged into it over other connected devices, while wtfast finds the best routing to popular game servers to improve the quality of your connection.
One particularly convenient addition is something called Open NAT, which lets you quickly load port forwarding rules for popular games like Battlefield V, CS:GO, PUBG, and World of Warcraft.
AiMesh is supported as well and it lets you create a mesh network with compatible ASUS routers. If you have an older AiMesh capable router, it can then act as a mesh networking node to expand your Wi-Fi coverage! The good news is that it works quite well as we've found from testing this feature.
Round the back, the router has a single Gigabit Ethernet port and four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports. Two of the LAN ports also support link aggregation, so they can combine to create a single 2Gbps connection. In addition, you'll find one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 port, which can come in handy for file or printer sharing.
The ROG Rapture GT-AC2900 is currently available exclusively to all StarHub broadband customers for S$399 or at no extra cost with StarHub's Turbo Gamer Plan. To find out how well the router performs, check out our review!
Guess the Next Day’s Gift Suggestion and Stand a Chance to Win One!
That’s right, we have got hints packed at the end of our daily Christmas gift suggestions and it’s up to you to guess what the next gift suggestion might be. This routine will take place every day leading up to the 27th December 2019 and HardwareZone Members (residing in Singapore) are eligible to partake in this fun series. Participants who get the most number of correct guesses will stand a chance to win some of the gift ideas in this series!
Bonus Step: Discuss about the prospective gift idea in the forum and you stand a chance to also nab one of the two bonus prizes we're setting aside for being constructive and helpful. Don't forget to share our gift ideas with your friends and get them to participate too!
Riddle Me This: What is the Next Gift Suggestion? (Contest Hint)
Our last and final gift idea is a smartwatch that a big Chinese company recently launched alongside its flagship smartphone. It's available in two sizes – 42mm and 46mm – and different designs, with the larger model offering a more premium look with 3D curved glass created using various sculpting and gemstone processing techniques. Can you guess the brand and smartwatch model name?
Post your ANSWER in our Discussion Thread!
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