ASUS Intros RT-AX89X AX6000 Gaming Router with Dual 10GbE Ports

[btarunr]

ASUS today introduced the RT-AX89X, a massive, arachnid-looking, high-end gaming router with no less than 8 antennae. Its WLAN component is as impressive as its wired networking one. On the WLAN side, you get an 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) set up with up to 4,804 Mbps over the 5 GHz band + up to 1,300 Mbps over the 2.4 GHz band, adding up to 6,104 Mbps in dual-band mode. Even over the older 802.11ac standard, the router offers up to 4,333 Mbps (5 GHz) + 1,000 Mbps (2.4 GHz). The WLAN component offers the latest security features, including WPA3-Personal and WPA2-Enterprise.

The wired networking setup of the ASUS RT-AX89X includes two 10 GbE uplinks, one 1 GbE WAN uplink, and eight 1 GbE LAN downlinks. The 10 GbE ports can be individually reconfigured as LAN downlinks. Also on offer are two 5 Gbps USB 3.1 type-A ports that can take in USB cellular Internet dongles, and USB mass-storage devices, such as flash drives, external storage devices, etc. The company didn't mention the router's signal strength in dBi, but rates it for "very large homes." The company didn't reveal pricing.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Makaveli]

This thing will be $500-600 easy and is fugly.

 

[Keullo-e]

This looks like Leoric's crown from Diablo III

 

[Crackong]

Headcrab

 

[stanleyipkiss]

They have 2 10gb ports but one is SFP.
Also, can one port be a WAN and anther local LAN?
I can get 2.5 - 5 GB internet so I could use one port for my Internet and another to connect to a 10gbe switch.

 

[lluvia]

This thing will be $500-600 easy and is fugly.

Would have kept this to myself...
You find that your internet connection failed in the middle of the night. You go check on your router and find that all the Ethernet cables are unplugged. The next second, you see something dart out of the corner of your eye. You turn to look at it, spotting an unfamiliar router instead of a small animal that you expected. Walking closer, you recognize that it's the aesthetically displeasing AX6000 you saw on TechPowerUp earlier that day. It looks likes someone moved your Ethernet cables to this router. You think to yourself that it is whoever set up this a harmless and ineffective prank wasted a lot of money. After a few seconds of thought, you shrug it off, deciding to replace the cables back to your existing router. Who needs a router like this, right? As you lean down to remove the cables -- it springs up and latches on your face. Its antenna-like legs grip with enormous strength while the Ethernet cables swing around your neck to strangle you. As you start to suffocate, you regret that you overlook cable management, or else you might have survived by untangling them. Your consciousness starts to fade. You and it stop moving... the AX6000 awaiting the next foolish victim to leave a negative comment.

 

[Flanker]

itsy bitzy spider

 

[piloponth]

Right into box of shoes, because this thing is ugly af.

 

[R0H1T]

I have no idea why do these things have to looks like arachnids, what next Scorpions

 

[Blue4130]

Would have kept this to myself...
You find that your internet connection failed in the middle of the night. You go check on your router and find that all the Ethernet cables are unplugged. The next second, you see something dart out of the corner of your eye. You turn to look at it, spotting an unfamiliar router instead of a small animal that you expected. Walking closer, you recognize that it's the aesthetically displeasing AX6000 you saw on TechPowerUp earlier that day. It looks likes someone moved your Ethernet cables to this router. You think to yourself that it is whoever set up this a harmless and ineffective prank wasted a lot of money. After a few seconds of thought, you shrug it off, deciding to replace the cables back to your existing router. Who needs a router like this, right? As you lean down to remove the cables -- it springs up and latches on your face. Its antenna-like legs grip with enormous strength while the Ethernet cables swing around your neck to strangle you. As you start to suffocate, you regret that you overlook cable management, or else you might have survived by untangling them. Your consciousness starts to fade. You and it stop moving... the AX6000 awaiting the next foolish victim to leave a negative comment.

Haha you used to be a d&d dm previously, didn't you?

 

[silentbogo]

They have 2 10gb ports but one is SFP.
Also, can one port be a WAN and anther local LAN?
I can get 2.5 - 5 GB internet so I could use one port for my Internet and another to connect to a 10gbe switch.

That SFP port will come in handy if you want to use it along with a cheap(er) 10-gig switch. At first I thought it was just a combo port split in half, but apparently it's two fully-functional ports.
10Gbase-T should be compatible with 2.5G/5Gbase-T (it's the same layer, just slower clock speed).
Regarding dual-WAN, ASUS has been always good about it. I'm 100% sure it supports this feature, as most mid-to-high-end ASUS routers, and they even list it in spec as:

RJ45 for 10Gbps BaseT for WAN/LAN x 1

Full spec here:

RT-AX89X｜WiFi Routers｜ASUS Global

ASUS gaming routers provide the very best gaming experience, with an arsenal of features and tools designed to improve online gaming performance and give you the competitive edge you need to win.

www.asus.com

 

[ncrs]

10Gbase-T should be compatible with 2.5G/5Gbase-T (it's the same layer, just slower clock speed).

Actually this is not the case. 10GBASE-T pre-dates 2.5/5GBASE-T and there are products that are 10gbit but not 2.5/5-compatible like Intel X710. My point is that there also exist SFP+ 10gbit Ethernet modules that do only 10/100/1000/10g while others (like Mikrotik S+RJ10) will also support 2.5/5.
The entire point of 2.5/5 is compatibility with old cabling including Cat. 5e.

 

[silentbogo]

Actually this is not the case. 10GBASE-T pre-dates 2.5/5GBASE-T and there are products that are 10gbit but not 2.5/5-compatible like Intel X710. My point is that there also exist SFP+ 10gbit Ethernet modules that do only 10/100/1000/10g while others (like Mikrotik S+RJ10) will also support 2.5/5.
The entire point of 2.5/5 is compatibility with old cabling including Cat. 5e.

I'm absolutely sure ASUS uses Aquantia chips in that headcrab, which is fully compliant with 802.3bz. No one in their right mind would put X500/X700-series monstrosity into a consumer wireless router.

 

[ncrs]

I'm absolutely sure ASUS uses Aquantia chips in that headcrab, which is fully compliant with 802.3bz. No one in their right mind would put X500/X700-series monstrosity into a consumer wireless router.

They probably do, and those chips are Marvell now
My point was that saying "10GBASE-T is compatible with 2.5/5" is untrue because of previously released devices like the X710. Connecting such a card to this router via Cat. 5a cable will result in 1gbit/s instead of 2.5/5, for example.

 

[SamWarrick]

Would have kept this to myself...
You find that your internet connection failed in the middle of the night. You go check on your router and find that all the Ethernet cables are unplugged. The next second, you see something dart out of the corner of your eye. You turn to look at it, spotting an unfamiliar router instead of a small animal that you expected. Walking closer, you recognize that it's the aesthetically displeasing AX6000 you saw on TechPowerUp earlier that day. It looks likes someone moved your Ethernet cables to this router. You think to yourself that it is whoever set up this a harmless and ineffective prank wasted a lot of money. After a few seconds of thought, you shrug it off, deciding to replace the cables back to your existing router. Who needs a router like this, right? As you lean down to remove the cables -- it springs up and latches on your face. Its antenna-like legs grip with enormous strength while the Ethernet cables swing around your neck to strangle you. As you start to suffocate, you regret that you overlook cable management, or else you might have survived by untangling them. Your consciousness starts to fade. You and it stop moving... the AX6000 awaiting the next foolish victim to leave a negative comment.

A solid 5/7

 

[Caring1]

It also doubles as somewhere to store your basketball.

 

[kapone32]

This looks like it will be next router but realistically is this faster than the AX1600 for 5G WIFI?

 

[TheLostSwede]

They have 2 10gb ports but one is SFP.
Also, can one port be a WAN and anther local LAN?
I can get 2.5 - 5 GB internet so I could use one port for my Internet and another to connect to a 10gbe switch.

SFP+
And yes, one should be possible to use as a WAN port.
This seems to be how Asus pitches the two ports. Doesn't quite make sense to me, but hey.

I'm absolutely sure ASUS uses Aquantia chips in that headcrab, which is fully compliant with 802.3bz. No one in their right mind would put X500/X700-series monstrosity into a consumer wireless router.

ASUS RT-AX89X - TechInfoDepot

This device is likely an evolution of the ASUS GT-AX6000/ASUS GT-AC5400 development devices with an upgraded CPU. Many details for this device have been copied from the pages for those devices and are subject to change. Photos of pre-production devices show the RT-AX89X reusing the FCC id from...

en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com

They probably do, and those chips are Marvell now
My point was that saying "10GBASE-T is compatible with 2.5/5" is untrue because of previously released devices like the X710. Connecting such a card to this router via Cat. 5a cable will result in 1gbit/s instead of 2.5/5, for example.

You're aware that over short runs, even 10Gbps can run on Cat 5e, right?
But yes, 10Gbps doesn't mean Multi Gigabit support.

This thing will be $500-600 easy and is fugly.

Surprisingly not...

ASUS RT-AX89X AX6000 Dual Band WiFi 6 Router, 802.11ax - Newegg.com

Buy ASUS RT-AX89X AX6000 Dual Band WiFi 6 Router, 802.11ax 12 streams 6000Mbps , Lifetime Free Internet Security, supports AiMesh, MU-MIMO, 8 Gb LAN ports, Dual 10G ports (10GBase-T & 10G SFP+), VPN, Gaming & Streaming with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

I think ill stick to wanting Ubiquiti's Amplifi Alien.

 

[swirl09]

I must admit, I went with the winged style Nighthawk one purely for aesthetics - despite it being pretty much out of view. These spider-like ones are just too ugly.

 

[Mistral]

Headcrab edition? Make it happen!

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

That SFP port will come in handy if you want to use it along with a cheap(er) 10-gig switch. At first I thought it was just a combo port split in half, but apparently it's two fully-functional ports.
10Gbase-T should be compatible with 2.5G/5Gbase-T (it's the same layer, just slower clock speed).
Regarding dual-WAN, ASUS has been always good about it. I'm 100% sure it supports this feature, as most mid-to-high-end ASUS routers, and they even list it in spec as:

RJ45 for 10Gbps BaseT for WAN/LAN x 1

Full spec here:

RT-AX89X｜WiFi Routers｜ASUS Global

ASUS gaming routers provide the very best gaming experience, with an arsenal of features and tools designed to improve online gaming performance and give you the competitive edge you need to win.

www.asus.com

SFP+ isn't cheaper at all anymore than 10GBase-T (maybe for third hand enterprise hardware off of eBay, but your average consumer isn't going to do that, and if we want faster networking to become ubiquitous, 10GBase-T is the only way thatll happen because it's familiar) , and I really wish that the market would push 10GBase-T to consumers and drop this stupid SFP+ thing. You can now buy 10GBase-T NICs and switches just as cheaply as SFP+ now, so there's not really an advantage to SFP+ while there is numerous disadvantages. You can't run DACs through your walls, and SMF and MMF (fiber) is a much bigger Pain in the butt to run through your walls than CAT6a/7/8, and don't even get me started on how expensive transceiver modules are for fiber/SFP+. Perhaps the best thing about 10GBase-T and CAT6a/7/8 is that it's completely compatible with 5/2.5/1gig WITHOUT having to buy expensive transceivers.... Maybe I'm just partial to 10GBase-T because that's what I have, but there's absolutely no way you're going to convince me that for the vast majority of consumers, SFP+ is better than 10GBase-T... Consumers know what an ethernet cable is... You can buy a CAT6a cable anywhere.... You won't find a DAC or a spool of MMF at staples.

 

[watzupken]

Is that the best design they can think of? It looks hideous to put anywhere visible. It just looks like a dead spider.

 

[Devastator0]

This looks like Leoric's crown from Diablo III

100% this

 

[silentbogo]

SFP+ isn't cheaper at all anymore than 10GBase-T (maybe for third hand enterprise hardware off of eBay, but your average consumer isn't going to do that

How did you come up with that assumption? I can name at least 5 SMB switches under $200 new that have an SFP+ uplink(s), and only ASUS XG-U2008 on the copper side (which is also impossiburu to find anywhere outside US).
I've been eyeballing Mikrotik CRS305-1G-4S+IN for a part of my home network (basically interconnect for my server, NAS and workstation) for some time now. It's $149 MSRP, but it's been on a market for awhile and you can get it for ~$120-125 normally. Something like CSS326-24G-2S+RM is in the same ballpark, if you need more ports.
And since you've mentioned used parts, I'm gonna steer you in another direction: the reason SFP+ is there, is exactly for those cases, where it's either an enthusiast with a home lab or an SMB with existing hardware can get more options, like simply replugging their uplink from 1G copper to 10G SFP at the expense of buying a cable, or giving you more readily-available options if you want to buy a new/used/refurb switch.