Your internet connection is a crucial component of your PC gaming experience, and the router you have is just as important as your ISP’s advertised speeds. The right gaming router can make the difference between lagging out in online games and coming out ahead, and right now, one of Linksys’ top models is on sale.
The Netgear Nighthawk AX12 was released last year for a whopping $499.99—entirely too much money for any router, unless you have a warehouse with hundreds of PCs all streaming Netflix at once. Netgear realized this pretty quickly, as the router quickly dropped to around $400, and now Amazon-owned Woot is selling it for $299.99.
This router supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz connections. The former can reach speeds of up to 1.2Gbps, and the latter can reach up to 4.8Gbps. It also supports many newer standards that are just starting to become commonplace, like Wi-Fi 6, WPA3 network security, and 8×8 MU-MIMO data streaming. All of that means that you’ll get the best speeds possible with newer PCs (or wireless cards), but it will work just fine with older devices too. There are also five Ethernet ports on the back for wired connections—four 1Gbps and one 6Gbps.
The Nighthawk AX12 has a few nice software features as well, including integration with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, parental controls with a website filter, an optional guest network, and even two USB 3.0 ports that you can plug drives into. That’s right, the router also functions as a NAS.
While we haven’t reviewed this specific model ourselves, the router has received good reviews from other outlets. PCMag called it “a solid choice for users looking to take the 802.11ax plunge.” Most of the router’s criticism came from its initial high price, but that’s obviously less of an issue now.