Foreword
If Nighthawk AX4 (review link) is Netgear’s entry-level AX router, then the Nighthawk AX8 (official website link) that comes to the Koolshare review room this time is It belongs to the mid-range level among AX routers owned by Netgear. Nighthawk AX8 is carefully designed and uses advanced technologies such as OFDMA, MU-MIMO, 160MHz channel support and 1024 QAM to provide four times the data capacity of previous standards, significantly improving network efficiency. Let’s take a look at its performance
JD.com purchase link
▲Nighthawk AX8 is equipped with a 64-bit 1.8GHz quad-core processor and is designed to transmit thousands of images with almost no CPU load. terabytes of data. 160MHz channel support doubles the speeds offered by 80MHz channels, delivering gigabit transfer speeds to compatible devices
▲Technical specifications
Unboxing
▲Packaging On the front of the box, the model AX8 is prominently located at the top
▲The advantages of Nighthawk AX8 are explained on the right
▲Nighthawk AX8 uses 8 data streams, OFDMA technology, and quad-core 1.8GHz Processor
▲The technical specifications of the router are marked on the left side
▲The bottom of the packaging box introduces the back IO interface of Nighthawk AX8
▲Open the outer cover Packaging, inside is a white inner packaging box
▲Open the inner packaging box, which contains the Nighthawk AX8 router and accessories
▲List of accessories
▲Installation The power adapter after attaching the plug
▲The power adapter specification is 19V 3.15A. What I got this time is the AUS version of Nighthawk AX8. The plug of the National Bank version will not be like this
▲Category 5e unshielded cable
▲The router body and the location of the antenna Can be folded. The folded part hides four high-performance antennas
▲The antenna part is connected to the bottom through metal hinges, which is relatively strong. The feeder extends all the way into the bottom case
▲Install the antenna part
▲The front of the Nighthawk AX8 router looks like a spaceship
▲Back IO The interfaces from left to right are LED light switch, Reset button, two USB3.0 interfaces, 6 Gigabit LAN ports (5LAN, 1WAN. LAN4 and LAN5 support port aggregation), power switch, and power DC jack
▲The bottom opening is conducive to heat dissipation
▲The WPS button and WiFi switch on the top cover
▲The top cover is also made with openings, which is conducive to the small internal space Fan air intake and heat discharge
▲Appearance after tearing off the plastic film
▲Family portrait
Summary: Nighthawk AX8 has a clever design in appearance , a domestic manufacturer has previously launched a router with a similar appearance. The difference is that the antenna position of Nighthawk AX8 can be folded.
In addition, Nighthawk AX8 is equipped with 5 Gigabit LAN ports, of which LAN4 and LAN5 support port aggregation, which can achieve faster file transfer
Disassembly
▲Remove the bottom shell
▲You can see that the feeder is fixed to the motherboard with tape
▲Take off the PCB motherboard from the top cover
▲The front of the PCB motherboard, covering the front is A whole piece of heat dissipation armor, with a fan in the center to assist heat dissipation
▲The front of the PCB motherboard after removing the heat dissipation armor and shielding cover
▲The CPU uses Broadcom's BCM4908, four cores , 1.8Ghz frequency. The RAM uses Samsung K4B4G1646E-BYMA, the specification is 1866Mhz, the capacity of a single chip is 512MB, two chips are 1GB
▲5G wireless chip, BCM43684 from Broadcom, supports 802.11ax and 160MHz frequency Wide, supports 4x4 MU-MIMO, supports 1024QAM, the highest rate is 4800Mbps
▲ Some 2.4G wireless chips also use Broadcom BCM43684, supports 802.11ax, supports 40MHz bandwidth, supports 2x2 MIMO, supports 1024QAM, The maximum rate is 1200Mbps
▲BCM54612E, energy-saving Ethernet (IEEE 802.3az) gigabit transceiver, providing support for WAN port
▲At a glance on the back of the PCB motherboard
▲W29N04GV, Flash chip, from Winbond, size 512MB
▲Simple diagram of the chip
Summary: From the disassembly point of view, Nighthawk AX8 uses BCM4908 (CPU quad-core, main Frequency 1.8GHz) BCM43684 (2.4G 2x2 1024QAM) BCM43684 (5G 4x4 1024QAM) full Broadcom solution. BCM4908 has 5 PHYs, responsible for LAN1-LAN5. The WAN port uses an independent PHY chip BCM54612E. The wireless part has an independent external power amplifier circuit PA and a low-noise power amplifier receiving circuit LNA, which can effectively increase the transmit power and reduce noise interference. Except for USB3.0, which is the ancestral black tape shielding method, other main chip areas are metal shielded, covered with thick heat dissipation armor, equipped with fans to assist heat dissipation, and have excellent workmanship
Firmware
▲Firmware main interface, the upper left corner shows the firmware version
▲Internet settings section, you can set WAN port LAN1 port aggregation, double the bandwidth
▲Wireless section, region optional , choose Australia or the United States to get the strongest transmission power
▲Enable AX.
Smart Connect can also be enabled to merge the SSIDs of 2.4G and 5G into one
▲The maximum speed of 2.4G can reach 1200Mbps
▲The maximum speed of 5G can reach 4800Mbps
▲Advanced settings—Beamforming, Mu-MIMO, AX, etc. can be enabled in wireless settings
▲LED light settings
▲LAN4 and LAN5 of Nighthawk AX8 can also be aggregated
Test
Test platform hardware part:
PC1 network card: Intel i350t2v2, PCE-AC88, Intel AX200
PC2 network card: Intel i350t2v2, PCE-AC88, Intel AX200
Software:
Windows 10 Pro installs all required patches, related to system firewall
Endpoint 9.50
IxChariot 6.70
This test used the following test script:
High_Performance_Throughput.scr. This script is used to test the maximum transmission bandwidth
Let’s first understand some related terms of the routing test results:
Throughput, that is, routing throughput, represents the amount of data that the routing can process per second. . The higher the data, the better
Test environment:
The test is conducted at home to simulate the real situation of daily use
Instructions:
Using V1.0.1.56_1.0.23 firmware, the router turns on WPA2 encryption
▲NAT single thread and ten threads
▲LAN TO LAN one-way single thread and ten threads
▲LAN TO LAN two-way single thread and ten threads
4X4 80Mhz throughput test. The network cards used here are PCE-AC88 and Intel i350t2v2
▲Topology diagram
▲5G TO LAN uplink single thread and ten threads
▲5G TO LAN Bidirectional single thread and ten threads
▲5G TO LAN downlink single thread and ten threads
▲5G TO 5G one-way single thread and ten threads
▲5G TO 5G two-way single-thread and ten-thread
2X2 AX throughput test.
The network cards used here are Intel AX200 and Intel i350t2v2
▲Topology diagram
▲5G TO LAN uplink single thread and ten threads
▲5G TO LAN bidirectional Single thread and ten threads
▲5G TO LAN downlink single thread and ten threads
▲5G TO 5G one-way single thread and ten threads
▲5G TO 5G two-way single thread and ten threads
▲Data summary
▲Chart summary
USB read and write test
Convert EX1 in NTFS format Hang on the USB 3.0 interface to test the reading and writing speed of the Nighthawk AX8's USB 3.0 interface
▲Wired reading speed 113MB/S
▲Wired writing speed 112MB/S
▲Use PCE-AC88 network card, wireless reading speed 131MB/S
▲Use PCE-AC88 network card, wireless writing speed 57MB/S
▲Use Intel AX200 network card, wireless reading speed 166MB/S
▲ Using Intel AX200 network card, wireless writing speed 70MB/S
Signal test
▲Test environment For Jiangsu Telecom's 100M broadband, contracted for 500M downlink and 50M uplink
▲Speedtest test
Select the United States as the country code for Netgear Nighthawk AX8, and 100 for the transmit power control
The location of NETGEAR Nighthawk AX8 is shown in the picture above, and the approximate area of ??each room is explained
A: 11 square meters
B: 15 square meters
C: 15 square meters
D: 40 square meters
E: 12 square meters
F: 5 square meters (toilet area, load-bearing wall to signal The quality attenuation is a bit severe)
G: 7.5 square meters
The test tool is S10, the test software is WiFi Magic Box and Endpoint 9.6 SP1, IxChariot 6.70. Restart the router before testing
▲2.4G, 5G signal strength and downlink throughput test at position 1
▲2.4G, 5G signal strength and downlink throughput at position 2 Volume test
▲2.4G, 5G signal strength and downlink throughput test at location 3
▲2.4G, 5G signal strength and downlink throughput test at location 4
p>▲2.4G, 5G signal strength and downlink throughput test at location 5
▲2.4G, 5G signal strength and downlink throughput test at location 6
▲2.4G, 5G signal strength and downlink throughput test at location 7
▲Data summary
▲Chart summary
Summary
▲As the second AX router in the Nighthawk family, Nighthawk AX8 adopts the full Broadcom solution of BCM4908 BCM43684 BCM43684, with solid workmanship and excellent heat dissipation. The WAN port and LAN1 port support aggregation, making 1000M broadband useful. LAN4 and LAN5 also support port aggregation. When multiple clients access, you can feel the performance improvement brought by port aggregation.
Nighthawk AX8 also performs very well in terms of wireless throughput. The throughput of the 2x2 160Mhz AX200 wireless network card has exceeded the PCE-AC88, which makes me look forward to the arrival of the 4x4 160Mhz AX wireless network card. In addition, Nighthawk AX8 USB3.0 reading and writing is also very conspicuous. It seems that the tape shielding does not have a big impact on USB3.0 performance. All in all, this is a wireless AX router with unique appearance and powerful performance, worthy of choice by network enthusiasts