For years ASUS has held off into introducing its ROG brand into other product segments, saving it primarily for the performance components e.g. motherboards, GPUs as well as complete systems like gaming notebooks and pre-built desktops. That changed recently when ASUS has decided to fully embrace is ROG branding and introduce it a much wider range of products including keyboards, mice, headsets and other gaming peripherals. When we reviewed the ASUS RT-AC88U router, we mentioned how its touches of red and black had that hint of ROG in them without being branded as a gaming product nor falling under the ROG family. It was indeed a performance product, certainly one of the most powerful in its time but as technology progressed it was displaced by a new king, the RT-AC5300. Bearing the same design hints from an ROG product along with a more modern feature set than the RT-AC88U, the RT-AC5300 was the flagship router from ASUS but from out of nowhere, the ROG brand introduced the new flagship of ASUS’ consumer networking line: enter the ROG RAPTURE GT-AC5300.
Note the difference in naming. RT-AC5300 (ASUS), GT-AC5300 (ROG)
While its easy to assume that ASUS has just slapped an ROG logo on the older model and tweaked a few settings, it does actually go further than that. The ROG RAPTURE GT-AC5300 goes beyond a simple logo change and actually receive some beefy hardware upgrade as well as a firmware facelift. The original RT-AC5300 has a Broadcom BCM4709 dual-core chip powering it under the hood with 512GB of memory and 128MB NAND flash storage. This works in tandem with the BCM4366-powered radios for its tri-band setup. The ASUS ROG RAPTURE GT-AC5300 on the otherhand receives an upgraded Broadcoam BCM4908 quad-core SoC running at 1.8Ghz (the RT-AC5300 ran at 1.4Ghz) and doubles the RAM and storage with 1GB RAM and 256GB NAND flash. Still retaining a tri-band configuration, the RAPTURE GT-AC5300 does also get upgraded in this aspect with a BCM4366E powering its two 5Ghz band and one 2.4Ghz band. The GT-AC5300 is capable of 1Gbps via 1024QAM on its 2.4Ghz band and 2.16Gbps with 1024QAM on both its 5Ghz bands. The GT-AC5300 retains the same look and antenna arrangement as its predecessor with 8-antennas surrounding the square body of the router. Finally the GT-AC5300 offers a total of 8 LAN ports, two of which are dedicated gaming ports and another two capable of link aggregation which doubles the bandwidth to-and-from the router when used with link aggregation-capable (bonding) devices.
Closer Look
Similar to the newer ROG products of this release year, the ROG RAPTURE GT-AC5300 is packaged in a relatively large, cardboard box with full colored print. The signature ROG styling is splashed on the packaging with a shot of the product in the front. The back of the box highlights a couple of features of the router with detail information on what they are.
Inside the packaging we have the GT-AC5300 router itself, eight antenna, a power brick, multiple outlet cords, and documentation.
As mentioned, the GT-AC5300 shares a similar mold with the RT-AC5300. The primary difference is the logo swap, with the ASUS logo being replaced by the ROG logo on the center of the router as well as the red highlight trims being changed to metallic bronze.
The rear edge hosts all the I/O for the GT-AC5300. This includes the DC port, the power button, two USB3.0 ports, a WAN port (blue) and the 8 LAN ports (black). There is guide on the upper part of the LAN ports which denote which number the port is as well as their function. LAN1 and LAN2 are dedicated LAN ports and LAN5 and LAN6 can be used in conjunction with a bonded connection (link aggregation) for a compatible client device.
One edge has the function lights which display the status of the router e.g. power on, WIFI antenna status, WAN status, etc.
There are a couple of buttons on one edge of the RT-AC5300 as well. These are for quick functions including a WiFi toggle buttton, a WPS button and a LED toggle button.
The included antennas screw-in and once tightened, will lock themselves in via friction with rubber grommets on the end of the male thread. The antennas have 2 points of articulation: they can rotate on 1 axis and have a 90-degree bend, with a 45-degree stopping point so you can angle it mid-way of a total bend.
Product Video
Web Interface
Gaming Features
- From the navigation panel, go to General > Game Boost.
- Create a free WTFast account via https://www.wtfast.com/
- Log into the WTFast account.
- From the WTFast Rules list, create the profile for the device that you want to use WTFast GPN on.
- Select a GPN server according to your location or select “Auto” and “Apply” settings.
- Enable GPN profile BEFORE you launch the game.
Traditional Features
Performance
Even under heavy network load we manage to pull a good sub-900Mbps on the wire on both read and write tests. If you’re heavy on networking file-sharing, this is a good sign. Moving over to the wireless line, signal does drop through the wall on this connection so we’re not getting the full potential of the wireless band but still, on a real world scenario, I don’t see anyone cozying up next to a router for the best signal. We’re pulling around 300Mbps on the 5ghz band under unrealistic load and the router is still pulling through although the range does dampen our performance a bit.
ASUS AiMesh
- Go to administration > Set to AiMesh node
- Wait for the unit to reset and restart.
- Go to your main router’s Network Map and hit Search on the AiMesh panel.
- If you’re setting up a Wifi-to-Wifi connection, make sure the routers are within 3 meters of each other.
- If you want to hardline your AiMesh node to an AiMesh router, connect a LAN cable from the router to the WAN port of the Aimesh node.
User Experience & Conclusion
If there’s ever going to be a big complaint about this router its always going to be the price so let’s get that out of the way. At $400 or Php24,000, it is simply far from any of its contemporaries and while its closest competitor may have a similar feature set, it doesn’t boast the same hardware so the possibility of anything keeping up with the Rapture ROG GT-AC5300 during load is highly debatable. Then again, if you’re in the market for something like this, you’re a no-compromise kinda person.
With that out of the way, you do get the best in class performance from the ROG GT-AC5300 gaming router. While throughput may be matched by other routers, the gaming optimization and other performance features do give this router the advantage. Having the peace of mind that having 20+ devices connected to your network, busy with their own thing, cramming your network traffic, and you still get great ping times, good enough to keep you on the top of those global leaderboards. It is exactly these kinds of situations where the Rapture GT-AC5300 shine. Its also got the traditional stuff down including security features to maintain your networks integrity and keep you at ease that nothing is going through. Other features like Dual WAN, Guest Network and Port Forwarding increase the scope of usage of the router to more than just a home router and make it a decent SOHO/business router.
If you’re the kind of person that has a large, busy network in your home or business and want utmost performance without compromise, the ASUS ROG RAPTURE GT-AC5300 is certainly a great choice. It may have a price premium, but if you’re a gamer then there’s that air of confidence that if you’re lagging and it ain’t your PC and it ain’t your router, then it’s something else.
The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 is a uncompromising titan of a router packed with more gaming features as it has antennas. This is definitely the choice for champions.
ASUS backs the ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 with a 3-year warranty. We give it our B2G Gold Award and B2G Editor’s Choice Award!