ROG Rapture WiFi Gaming Router (GT-AC5300) - Tri Band Gigabit Wireless Router, Quad-Core CPU, WTFast Game Accelerator, 8 GB Ports, AiMesh Compatible, Included Lifetime Internet Security

Before I start let me just say that wifi performance can vary depending on your home/apartment walls material and interference. I've read some great and some good reviews about the GT-AC5300. Some reviews say it's way too much money to spend and some say it's great in every way. At the end of the day, the only way to know what you will like is BUYING IT and TESTING IT for days. I ended up testing both the RT-AC5300 and the GT-AC5300 to see which one I liked more. I ended up sticking to the GT-AC5300 for some good reasons; hardware specs, tools and the awesome webui that I liked the most. I will go over the things I liked first and then what things I didn't find too great which was totally not a deal breaker at all. If 8 ports and gaming boosts with the different webui is not a thing for you then the RT-AC5300 is more than enough to support your network. Plus with the RT version you can get merlin firmware (asus alternative firmware that is a more minimalist approach which I really like. I spend a good time also on small netbuilder website and its forums to watch how the GT-AC5300 firmware improved over the past year. Hardware - This router has pretty insane specs. A 1.8Ghz CPU with 1GB of ram. This thing is like a gaming computer, pretty nuts. The bootup is a bit faster than the RT-AC5300. The 8 ports are one of the reasons I liked this one including the link aggregation. By the way, if you will not use this feature you need to turn it off so that you can use port 5+6 with different devices or they won't connect! I tested the network under heavy load with my smart TV doing netflix 4k along with my laptop transferring files to my NAS in the same time over wifi at over 75 MB/sec and the wife watching her youtube videos on her cellphone with zero issues. I do know that the GT-AC5300 and the RT-86U both have the newer wifi chips so that's nice. Connectivity - A neat feature are the first two gaming ports that I use for my two gaming stations. I noticed they get a little nice performance boost. Things just respond faster on the network, the web and gaming wise. Lovely feature. I also really like the dashboard webui that shows network ping and ping deviation. Another feature that I have yet to test but is really awesome is the VPN fusion where you are able to assign specific clients on your network to be on VPN. I attached speed tests I did on speedtest by ookla and dslreports.com. DSLreports one can vary as their servers aren't really the best but it shows that the QOS I setup works well so I have zero complaints there. Keep in mind that these tests can vary time to time depending on the server load. There are times you can have bit slower speeds which doesn't mean you have any issues on your end. Before I got these two routers to setup I actually had spectrum come out to improve my cable signal since the signal was too strong (I only have the cable modem I use in my apartment complex so usually they send stronger signals since most homes have more than one device). I was also getting more error logs in on my Netgear CM600 cable modem before the fix and after the fix I only would get maybe one T3 error in 3 weeks now instead of a few daily. Wifi range and speed are absolutely incredible just amazing. Gaming/Performance - I really love the gaming features of this router. When you combine the WTfast gaming network with the game boost for specific game like how I tested for Destiny 2 for PS4, you can get some pretty damn low pings in the low 10's. I really like also the game radar that shows you the servers that are close to you in your region. For the WTfast network, it only boosts one device for free which is perfectly fine as I mainly do online gaming more on the PS4. I used to play world of warcraft a lot on my PC but I quit that game a while back. Overall compared to the RT-AC5300 I like these small features that the GT version comes with that helps in small ways. Anything that helps to me is good in my book! Here are some other things I noted that weren't maybe the best about the GT-AC5300 which I can improve over time. Wifi radar. When I initially tried this the feature just did not work. I found out that you actually have to click the "start data collection" button to be able to scan the wifi in your area to get information.The information you can gather is quiet nice and can be useful. 5GHz-1 and 5GHz-2 Wifi performance. The two wifi bands actually have different performance. The 2nd 5GHz has better signal and performance than the 1st one. I verified this using the wifi analyzer app on my phone and the wifi radar app on the router. I disabled the 2.4GHz and will leave the 1st 5GHz for visitors/friends to use while I use the 2nd faster wifi band. I am using the latest firmware that is dated 9/19/2018 which has noted "fixed wifi stability issue." Not that I have any wifi problems or stability issues but that's kind of interesting. I sort of was hoping that maybe in future Merlin would support this router and make firmware for it but that is definitely not going to happen as the hardware is quiet different. That's all. Overall I highly recommend the GT-AC5300 if you really are going to use the awesome features it comes with, want the 8 LAN ports and better hardware specs. I am just in love with this router and it's awesome features.

First off let me start off by saying that I've tried the Linksys EA9500, Netgear Nighthawk x10. Both of which are the top dogs within the realm of Wireless networking. I have since returned both because I was not satisfied with the way they performed. The linksys only had a 1.4 GHZ dual core while the Netgear had a 1.7 GHZ. The linksys choked at times running 15-17 devices in my household, The Netgear held up with the power demand. The Linksys also had issues with my 3TB backup drive connected via USB 3.0, Data transfers were very slow as because the memory was only that of 256mb While the netgear had 1 GB and was able to load up and transfer files between my backup storage without any issues. Now the reasons I returned the linksys was obviously Not enough Power, Ram. The Netgear was returned due to not being able to justify using the 60 GHZ AD technology, Nas, & 10 G Fiber, Which at that point only left me with me a basic router with only dual bands of 2.4 GHZ & 5 GHZ. Wireless range of the two were decent but would start degrading outside of the house from the door step.. Now that I got those out the way, I read plenty of reviews on the ASUS GT-AC5300 and was skeptical at first because of the Bugginess of the firmware. That didn't keep me away from looking deeper into the router because the specs were insane. 1.8 GHZ Quad core, 1 GB of ram, two USB 3.0 Ports, and with some high performing antennas (8). The fact it also had a dedicated Gaming 5GHZ band and ethernet ports also was a big plus. I decided to buy the router and try it myself and see if it was Good & Bad like the reviews said. I was blown away once hooking up the router and having it fully set up with my Verizon FIOS Gigabit connection. I've done my firmware update out of the box and setup was a breeze. Not a hiccup in install, upgrades and setups. I have the antennas at all angles wide so it can penetrate every aspect of the area it can and I must say, WOW. While sitting in my car in the drive way I had all bars of wifi signal strength on 5GHZ band. I started degrading by the mailbox which I then connected to the 2.4 GHZ and was ROCK SOLID in signal again. I am very pleased with signal strength and the performance this thing has. Even with my 3TB backup drive, I am able to transfer files with ease. In my eyes this router flies like no other, I love the GUI in the router settings that allows me to have full control over the way I want it to perform. I give this 5 STARS.. It is a must have for anyone that have multiple devices, That games, That run multiple devices (MU-MIMO), This will not let you down by far. 15-17 devices connected and its still wanting more !!!!!!!!

Hey! This wireless router is pretty great!!! It upgraded my speeds compared to the Apple Airport Extreme (narrow tall one). I upgraded my cable internet service and cable modem which did get me much better speeds on the Airport, but I was not satisfied with my signal range and strength. I also bought a WiFi mesh router Asus RP-AC1900 and it is also working great. It's so nice to be able to extend the range without the need to setup a different WiFi network that makes you switch from one to the other as you move around your property. I signed up for the 1 Gbps service which hardwired gets me 800 Mbps. I can get over 500 Mbps on my cellphone while on the WiFi 5ghz network. Apple Airport maxed out at about 300 Mbps. I have not tried any of the special gaming features because it seemed odd that you have to agree to a bunch of stuff that probably allows some company to monitor your data. I'll read through it sometime maybe. Initial setup was smooth, but setting up mesh didn't work until I did it a 2nd time. I also had to factory reset the main router after a reboot that caused it to lose the networks that I just set up. Now I'm afraid to reboot it again. Note that I rebooted it through the web GUI and that's when the device failed. It's working good now though. As large as this router is, it is not too obtrusive sitting behind my TV. The white lights in the front are not super bright to distract you. I may still use some dimming stickers to dim them like I had to do on a bunch of home theater electronics. I wanted to place it up high on my mantle, but the device would hang over the edge an inch or so. I'm sure the TV interferes with my WiFi signal a little bit, but nobody can have a perfect setup. Highly recommend this router!

Sometimes i feel after reading people's reviews about how it didn't do this or its DOA 4 times or it just sucks, i tend to think they are just the unlucky ones or just haters spamming nonsense. i took mine out of the box, hooked it up, it came on (after i figured out it had a power push button) my 2 computers, 2 tablets and phone immediately found it both wirelessly and wired in. i went in to do the basic setup and firmware updates (no problems there) then to setup the 3 different wireless bands (2.4Ghz and 2 5Ghz lines.) and come to find after jumping on an mmo to find things wouldnt load very fast like a ingame store page or event page. after a long timeline of a few days of buying a new modem from my ISP because i upgraded my internet previously and my old modem didnt support the new speeds, and got a new modem i still problems with super erratic download speeds. like really fast to almost nothing. long story short the QOS (quality of service) thing in the router settings was freezing up my true internet speeds to do the complete opposite of what it claims. i dont bother using really any of the other features in it like the vpn and the gpn thing. basically its just my high dollar, high speed router that does what a router should basically do and that's that. my computers, tablets, laptops, phones, and even my IRobot Roomba's connect and stay connected like they are supposed to. As far as performance is concerned i usually have both of my computers turned on and doing something. i play an MMO that has alot of AFK-able tasks so 1 computer is usually always running that game about 16hours a day, and i'm usually playing something else online while sitting in a discord room with buddies chatting and neither computer has any lag or degradation of performance related to the router (lag from the game's connection different story). past that i've also ran a small minecraft server for myself, friends, and family without a hitch. forwarding ports on it is a snap, alot easier than previous routers i've had. i've also had friends over while also doing the mentioned above, with them doing their own downloading and playing, and still no realistic drop in connection quality to speak of. i really have no complaints to speak of. i've had it a little over a year and its been serving me well for what i use it for. i would add pictures but the store page ones are accurate enough. i will most likely add some later. Edit: 11/10/2019: Passed it's 2 years alive in my house mark. No noticeable drop in performance to speak of. Currently the record holder for longest living router in my house.

We own an ASUS AC5300, and two AC1900s that form the backbone of our home network. The AC5300 is very capable of handling our combined traffic of Smart phones, TVs, tablets, computers, and other IoT devices, but has to be located in a wiring closet in one corner of the house and does not provide consistent WiFi coverage for the entire house. To provide full coverage, we tried ASUS's AirMesh technology with the two AC1900s with limited success (AirMesh nodes kept dropping off and had to be manually added back in) and finally opted to have the two AC1900s repeat AC5300's signals. This configuration has been stable, even though repeating a signal cuts its effective bandwidth rate in half. The AC5300 is pricey, but worth the bandwidth that it provides for our devices. Its software interface is feature rich, but can be overwhelming for an average user. Having "novice" and "expert" modes can remedy this. Overall, one gets a good deal of power in a small package, but harnessing it will take some trial and error.

I purchased the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 Router to replace the similar Asus RT-AC5300. I believe the main difference is my GT has 8 ether net ports and the RT has 4. I used the RT for 2 yrs & 8 months until a power surge, cause unknown, burned out both the GT Router as well as the Century Link Modem sitting behind it connecting it to the telephone line. I must have been a power surge because the modem and router failed at the same time. We had a power surge less than a yr. ago that fried the Century link modem but spared the router. Therefore, I invested in a DSL phone line power surge suppressor with a Green Ground Wire, very expensive, as well as a similar ether net power line surge suppressor with a Green Ground Wire, both connected to an Earth Ground. Perhaps it will prevent the agony and shipment delays of equipment replacement in the future. I am happy with the RT as a replacement for the fried GT. I was pleasantly surprised when I found it was possible to upload the backups of the GT, stored on on my computer, into the RT replacement. That made life so much easier. The older router had a huge Network map with security cams, door bell cams, static IPs for my printers and Sky Bell and direcTV links, etc. etc. It would have been a real headache to go thru all that programming again. All I had to do was change the user name and password for the RT after I had finished uploading old data from the GT backups into the new RT router. 2 things I noticed during my unique experience with these high end Asus home routers. #1 The Warranty for these routers does not specify a TIME PERIOD!!!! , unless you live on the Continent of Australia. I thought that was bizarre. I checked it because the first router failed after 2 years and 8 months. I looked into it and saw no time period given for the Warranty's expiration period. I noticed several other reviews where others had noticed the same thing. #2 The damaged RT router worked when I set it up as a WiFi extender Node for the active GT-AC5300. It seems that the power surge damaged all the ethernet ports, but the RT's wifi radio went unscathed. It is easy to set up, and I am still using it to make my signal stronger in one end of my house. That was another pleasant surprise, that saved me from having to throw away the damaged RT router. I recommend checking to see if any old router can be used as a WiFi extender before you decide to throw it out. Note: I felt good about giving everything 5 stars, except tech support. I never used them so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. These ASUS Routers are great and the definitely exceeded the power of the routers I first purchased off the shelf in Stores.

So far, not so good. I am an IT Consultant and have been for 20 years and I am an avid ASUS fan, but wow, the ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 is aggravating to say the least at this point. I couldn't possibly count the number of wireless access points, routers, extenders and other devices i've configured over the years, certainly more than 500, probably more than 1000. Some are awesome, others are a little tricky but work fine once you find their sweet spot, others just don't seem to want to show up for work at random moments. My experience so far is that the latter is the case with the GT-AC5300. Unboxing: It is a formidable looking and feeling wireless router, big, heavy and it makes me want to run from its spidery legs =] but i kind of liked that. Very solid, feels like it is made well with solid materials and would be able to disperse heat with no problem at all. Initial Setup: Pretty painless, attach the antennae, plug it in to our comcast business connection, get power to it, let it boot up and break out my laptop to connect to the standard default wireless networks that magically appear. No problem Connected to the admin UI, most folks complain about the ugly ROG interface, meh, i don't care much either way, a UI is a UI at this point to me, its all a matter of finding what needs to be done and doing it. So i won't go into all that too much, only to say that i like the initial screen of network stats screen., not necessarily the look (who cares), but the data.. me likey data.. Anyway, i'm in the admin UI, I go thru the initial standard setup that anyone who should be considering this router would be very familiar with (translation: if you are looking at a router like this, you should be very familiar with the ins and outs of how to setup wifi by now, not like its hard) and within 10 minutes or less i'm up and running with my 2g, 5gx2 internal and guest wifi networks. There is a firmware update, so i go ahead and do that as well. All is well, Cool, just as it should be. I leave it at that for the night because i have other things to do and it seems to be working ok. IPS, Game Boost, QOS and GPN (WTFast) are all in their default disabled state. If i didn't want to use the router for anything more than a standard $125 router could handle i suppose i would be writing a 4 star review.. umm.. but i spent a LOT more than that and for a reason.. Later the next day, i go in and enable Game IPS (the GT-AC5300's implementation of Trend Micros security), Adaptive QOS, Game Boost and WTFast.. woot! game on baby! well.. sorta.. i mean its JUST diablo 3 for crying out loud.. which i've been playing for years off various other wireless routers just fine... but as i'm sure you can tell.. Hell hath no fury as a necromancer routed thru a GT-AC5300! i noticed a little bit of load time issues right away, but thought nothing of it, maybe my computer was just slow today (please.. please God.. let it just be my computer slow today.. ok???) once i get in game and start up a grift, i get about 3 minutes in and i lag out, ping goes from 65ms (already very slow for me) to well over 1000ms.. then 2000ms.. 3000ms.. you know where this is going.. connection dropped.. I am in the middle of "trying everything" on this router, but i'm frustrated as you can imagine. even disabling everything and making the router the equivalent of a $400 version of a $125 router, d3 gets massive lag spikes and disconnects.. this is hardlined into the 5300 or via wireless. if i wifi directly into my old wireless router d3 plays fine. I am sad to say, that at this point my professional opinion as an IT professional with 20+ year experience specifically with network hardware and infrastructure. This router isn't ready. Either there is a manufacturing issue, where some routers have a problem and i got one of those, or there is a firmware issue or its just plain bad. i'll continue my experiments today and post anything useful i might learn. **Updated 7/2/17 1pm PST** I've downloaded the latest firmware, which as mentioned above i already installed via the admin UI, and installed it again directly from file. then did a factory reset to clear all the settings. Resetup with the same exactly settings, enabling Game IPS but leaving QOS, WTFast and Game Boost disabled, and so far so good. i've run about a dozen grifts fine, although my in game latency is averaging about 70ms which is a bit slow for me. it isn't lagging out at least and all webpages are loading so far. **Updated 7/2/17 4:45pm PST ** Sadly one problem fixed and another pops up.. I run a plex media server at home and while my wireless devices previously streamed at full file size original no problem before with many simultaneous streams. Now i can't even get a single stream to play without constant buffering. Even with a very small originating filesize of barely 1mbps. i've turned Game IPS (trend micro) off, hoping that would help but no. I also went into the advanced troubleshooting page to see if the showed anything of value and noticed that it doesn't reflect the proper wireless network names, it retained the default network names and shows no data whats so ever. /facepalm **Updated 7/2/17 5pm PST** ANOTHER manual power cycle of the router and it updated the advanced troubleshooting page to show the right SSID's. it is at least temporarily streaming video as well too. Let's see if it maintains. **Updated 7/3/17 10:20am PST** I am noticing that the router will work great for a short time after a restart, which makes it very difficult and much more time consuming to troubleshoot if a change actually has a positive effect or if its just a reboot "honeymoon phase" for the router. Lots of issues last night for my wireless devices, the kids had trouble streaming youtube and pandora and even just getting page loads on snapchat and instagram. Restart the router and it works for 30 minutes or an hour or 3. Same thing going on this morning. Definitely not good. **Updated 7/20/17 1:30pm PST** After an extreme amount of testing, tweaking and retesting.. i've found a configuration that at least for my particular router works great. Albeit, with less than fully advertised functionality. First thing i did was download the current firmware(3.0.0.4.382_12184, signature v2.022) directly from asus and manually patch the router (again, this version was already applied to the router, but i did it again, this time manually (choose file), NOT via the automatic "check" button. per a forum recommendation). After trial and error here is my basic configuration that has worked GREAT for the last 2 weeks: Game IPS - ON (all 3) Game Boost - OFF (on caused issues) Game Private Network - OFF (on caused issues) Wifi Radar - remember to STOP data collection when you are done in here or it will cause issues VPN - OFF (haven't tried it yet) Traffic Analyzer - On or Off is fine, i have mine on Tri-band Smart Connect - On (i LOVE this feature, the router smooth and seamlessly connects devices to 2.4ghz or 5ghz depending on quality and congestion of signal and capability of device) Guest network - i have one enabled fine i have all of the AICloud 2.0 menu options disabled because i don't need any of them. I'm happy to share any other settings if it might help someone else get a temporarily stable router until Asus figures out the issue.

I'm using this router in a mesh network now. It's hardwired from an ax11000 that also feeds another and a rt-ac5300. I have total household coverage that is fast. The weakest link in my mesh is an old cat 5 line that is connected to an rt-ac68U and it's limited to the 100mb due to the cable. I can tell you I have gotten bad routers in the past. I don't diddle-daddle when it comes to stuff like this if it doesn't work out of the box it gets sent back <period>. I don't wait for customer support (especially asus) whom i have had to deal with several times since the late 90's when their customer service was pretty good like you could call and someone on the other end picked up. Anyways i have no issues with this router the mesh works like it should and other then my provider recently doing upgrades in the area the connection speed to the internet has been across the board at or near advertised speeds. My connected hardware is my bottleneck to these routers. On my main system i can access files on a server and download at 900+mbs. Most of my runs to the routers are over 100' and on my wireless laptop i can get 750mbs anywhere in the house and i can still stay connected to the mesh at about 450' out of the zone. I have 2 routers in the cellar on each end and 3 on the top floor with the 68u in the middle of the house. I only wrote this because of all the so called "PRO'S" claiming years of experience and how their router was bad out of the box... I mean really now if you bought a $5 box of cereal got home opened the box and saw that it wasn't sealed right from the factory would you just call the cereal company and complain or would you take the box back? This is an electronic device if it's not working right from the start there is a very good chance that it is damaged and "factory reboots" are only a band-aid to get the piece past the warranty until if totally fails.

Excelente módem-router proporciona una señal bastante potente, tiene un radio de alcance muy amplio, la banda de los 5ghz hace que funcione muy rápido, que se conecte a los dispositivos móviles y accedan al contenido de internet con gran rapidez, sea una página que solo contenga información escrita, para descargar software o ver una película, funciona excelente.

I owned another ASUS router - AC87U model before and decided to go with ASUS again. AC87U had some really nasty overheating issues so it was sitting on a laptop cooling pad working 24/7 for entire three years of its life. Finally died on me when I needed it the most since my entire family is working and studying from home nowadays. Picking GT-AC5300 over RT-AC5300 was a no-brainer for me since despite of what a lot of people are saying ROG versions is way more powerful and has 2 year ASUS warranty out of box. I've been dealing with ASUS service centre before and had absolutely zero issues with the whole process so I am absolutely confident of them backing their products. Even though this model is lacking the newest and brightest wi-fi 6 AX capabilities no devices in my house are supporting this future standard anyways. The previous one I owned was a two-band router and I had no bandwidth issues with it despite of having 6 PCs, 4 Cell Phones and a couple Smart House devices connected to it. through Wi-Fi. Multiple high-definition video streams, conference calls and meetings are handled by this modem simultaneously without issues so far. The modem was up for 14 days now and I haven't witnessed any glitches or drop in speed. I have this modem installed on the first floor in another end of my house and even 5G signal strength in the furthest rooms is excellent, despite of walls, ceiling and probably 70 feet distance. The signal strength is so good that I can still pick it up 100 feet away from my house when I go to pick up the mail. Router switches radios flawlessly (it has a total of three of them 2.4 5-1 and 5-2) - if I go from one modem to another during conference call there is zero issues but maybe a slight barely noticeable delay which I could have never even caught otherwise. Don't get confused by advertised bandwidth though - 5334 MBs advertised are shared between all three internal radios. It will NOT give you any faster connections if you already own a decent 5G AC-capable router. It can however provide you with mode bandwidth since it effectively has two independent 5G radios - 5-1 and 5-2. 5G performance for this modem is pretty the same as what I had with AC87U. Both signal strength and speed. However, now I can distribute devices between two radios instead of one which potentially guarantees better stability for those connections. Once again - I was unable to ever exceed even single 5G radio capabilities in AC87U so GT-AC5300 which essentially doubles it should never reach its hardware limits. I an NOT using any advanced QoS, Family or bandwidth management features since ASUS basically got that part of their firmware provided by Trend Micro which openly tells you that they reserve the right to intercept and forward ANY of your private information to their server at their own discretion and SELL your private usage information to whoever they wish. Really? LOL. And if you are a big fan of ASUS Merlin firmware (which I am) you may forget about it using any ROG series routers since they are NOT supported by Merlin and will never be supported in the future.

Es el mejor router que he comprado, super facil de configurar y tiene muchas funciones para administrar los dispositivos conectados.

I've had this router now for little over a week and so far it hasn't given me no trouble at all. If anything changes later, I'll re-review the router, but so far it's been stable and well worth the price. tried 3 other routers, each having a unique feature that I like, but this one seems to have all those unique features all in one. The router hasn't dropped any connections since I've set it up, unlike it did when I first turned it on... But that was my fault as I didn't read the instruction sheet where it says to "First update the firmware" As for the size of it, being large doesn't bother me since I've come from a Linksys EA9500 which is also large.. I find the signal strength is a tad bit weaker than my EA9500 but doesn't hinder me using the WiFi in anyway accept when out on the balcony, but that could also be due to channel interference since I live in a building. Setting up (Out of the box) was a little finicky since it needed a firmware update for the router to run properly but once the router had the firmware installed, it ran like a charm... No dropped WiFi connections, ran smoothly etc.. Ran like a router should.. Customizing the router features will take longer than normal as there's a ton of them. So all in all, Yes, it's a bit pricey, Yes, for me it does run smoothly, and Yes, I'm happy with it.. It's fully customizable (Well almost.... No RGB).. .but I think I can survive without that.. .

I got this one as I got fed up with all other routers I tried. The signal strength anywhere in the house is 100% (some spots get 90%) and get perfect coverage , no more lag in gaming even over WIFI and now all 10 WIFI devices in the house coexist happily and without slowing down each other when one needs more bandwidth. The router has plenty of options to streamline your gaming experience. The installation was simple enough - plug in the router, plug in laptop or PC for the first time install and it does update the firmware automatically. I was up and running within 5 min of unboxing the device.