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Forum Discussion
Orbi RBK853 (upgrading from RBK753S)- Comparison tests thread (speed and signal strength)
Well, I only recently upgraded from an RBK53 to an RBK753S (AX4200) and certainly did not expect to upgrade again so soon. However I have since gotten an internet plan speed upgrade for a nominal monthly additional charge:
Old: 400 Mbps down (10 Mbps up)
New:1200 Mbps down (35 Mbps up)
Given that my ISP overprovisions 1200 Mbps to 1,440 Mbps down (20% extra), I decided to buy an Arris S33 D3.1 cable modem with a 2.5 Gbps port ($10 reward certificate) which will connect to the 2.5 Gbps WAN port on my new RBK853 (753S does not have a 2.5 Gbps port) which I found for $250 off.
[I will sell my Motorola MB8600 cable modem and return my Orbi RBK753S for a full refund (still within the return period)].
I ran signal strength and speed tests for the RBK753S all over the house so that I can compare them with the results on the RBK853.
I will post the results here. But even if the improvement is not that much, the main reason for going from the 753S to the 853 was to get the 2.5 Gbps WAN port to ensure I have access to my full 1440 Mbps across connected devices, especially when downloading and streaming on several devices simultaneously.
Link aggregation is not ideal and some modems have / had stability issues with it (due to ISP not supporting it properly on some or or several D3.1 modems).
PS: Too bad they did not include at least one 2.5 Gbps LAN port on the Orbi. :(
Will try to post preliminary results later tonight or tomorrow.
6 Replies
Update - I have the RBK853 set up already.
The Orbi app (for setup) hung near the very end of setup (sigh) when it was on 'looks like everything is working / okay (or somethong to that effect) so 'let's finish' portion. While it was hanging, I kept hitting 'wait' on the app not responding prompt (instead of hitting 'close app') for several minutes, then I hit 'close' app.
Seems it still finished getting set up luckily. No app errors, both satellites found and the internet is working fine.
Initial testing using the RBR850 to directly run Speed Test via Orbi app is 1,406.9 Mbps (my plan is 1,200 Mbps)... :)
Of course since the RBR850 only has a 2.5 Gbps WAN port and NO 2.5 Gbps LAN ports (shame!), I will not be able to (currently) get more than about 950 Mbps from any single connection (gigabig LAN limitation including overhead).
But at least I can be downloading at a full 950 Mbps via LAN port ethernet connection and still have the other 456.9 Mbps available for the rest of the network (without the need for link aggregation - LACP).
I will run some wifi tests tomorrow etc., but until the Dlink DWA-X1850 Wifi 6 AX USB network adapter comes out, I will not get close to 1 Gbps, let alone 1,407 Mbps. Even 866 Mbps theoretical maximum (which is what my current Netgear A7000 USB adapter is rated at) is going to be tough).
I canot edit my reply anymore...
PS:
OMG I stand corrected!
I did not think it was possible, but just got 855.44 Mbps out of my Netgear A7000 (AC1900) wifi USB adapter with my RBK853 AX6000.
With my Netgear RBK753S I never got more than 585.81 Mbps (not bad either to be honest) with the same adapter in the same exact position, in fact I tested it right before switching the 'old' 753S router out for the 853.I also just tested the A7000 wifi speed (now that I have the RBK853) with another laptop on the other side of the house) and got up to 646 Mbps down vs. 475 Mbps down when I had the RBK753S.
Ya thats one thing were waiting on is for router mfrs to start including 2.5 or higher speed LAN ports on the LAN side. Only way of getting past 1000Mpbs currently is on the 5Ghz side and you need a 4x4 mimo device to achieve that on 5Ghz AX. So in some ways it's not cost effective or realistic for most home users to pay for anything over 1000Mpbs from there ISPs since most LAN side speeds seen in HW is only 1000Mpbs. Been asking and waiting for speeds over 1000Mpbs on the LAN side for years now for the home consumer. I see if slowly graduating on the WAN side. There are HW considerations as well on the consumer side that is a factor in being able to handle 2.5 or higher speeds.
- True, although keep in mind you can still use over one gigabit per second, just not on one single device.
Meaning you can still spread it across the network. With my 1440Mbps of provisioned bandwidth, I can use the full 940 Mbps of a 1 gigabit ethernet connection for a large download for instance and still have another 540 megabits per second for the rest of the devices in the house.
So in that sense it is still good to have over 1 gigabit per-second provisioned.
I may try the Killer link aggregation which comes built-in with my killer Wi-Fi adapter and killer Lan connection. I don't believe there is any extra cost for this.True, bandwidth spread cross the network will work. It's just the conenct rate vs acutal bandwidth seen on 1 device will have many factors in seen anything over 1000Mbps on the down. Something that currnent consumer home products have not quiet yet broken into though we are seeing some cracks. I bought a 2.5 and a 5Gb USB 3.0 to Ethernet adatpers off amazon for fairly expensive cost and a 2.5Gb ethernet PCIe adapter for my desktop a few months ago. So we are seeing some support starting to appear. 10Gb I feel is still a ways off. Really need HW and CPU devices to be able to handle that kind of speed though my in wall cabling is ready for it.
