Linksys WRT32X Gaming Router Review

Linksys has been in the market for creating networking products for a long time and they are always looking at upping their game for home enthusiasts and gamers alike. Their newest Wi-Fi solution, the Linksys WRT32X, is their latest  Wi-Fi router specifically targeted to the gaming industry with Killer Networking built in to help gamers maximize their network bandwidth to give the best possible gaming performance.

Linksys WRT32X Gaming Router at a Glance

When I first heard about the Linksys WRT32X, I was a bit hesitant about looking at it because I personally do not have any Killer Networking components that would utilize the Killer Prioritization Engine built into the unit itself. With this review I was offered to borrow a MSI GT82VR Titan SLR Gaming Laptop that does have Killer Networking components and will utilize the WRT32X to its full potential. I can tell you now that even if you do not own any Killer Networking components, the Linksys WRT32X can still work beautifully for you!

What’s in the Box?

I like how box contents are kept fairly minimal these days. Linksys has kicked it up the notch when it comes to packaging the WRT32X as, when you first open the box, the router is safe and snug in its well crafted home.

Pull the router out and the quickstart guide and antennas await you.

Pull that insert out and you will find the power supply and Ethernet cable.

Specifications and Features

The Linksys WRT32X is packed full of features and has a long list of specifications. The main target audience for a Wi-Fi router like this is the gaming industry sector, and the hardware within the WRT32X will be able to keep up with those demands.

• Killer Prioritization Engine
• Customized Gaming Firmware and User Interface
• 1.8 GHz Dual-core CPU
• 4 High-Gain Antennas
• MU-MIMO Technology
• Dual-band – 2.4GHz and 5GHz
• Tri-Stream 160 – Use of 160MHz bandwidth for more data throughput
• 4 Port Gigabit Switch
• eSATA Port
• USB 3.0 Port
• Advanced Wireless Security
• Easy Setup
• Compatible with OpenWRT

New Router, Familiar Design

When it comes to the Linksys WRT32X, it does share many cosmetic traits with the rest of the Linksys WRT family. If you have or have ever used a Linksys Wi-Fi router, then you will feel right at home with the WRT32X.

The big difference I would think is the colour. The majority of Linksys WRT products I’ve used or have seen have been more along the blue and black colour palette, whereas the WRT32X is all black. No, not the New Zealand rugby team, but the housing, antennas, feet… everything is black in colour.

I think this makes it look great for a gaming setup, if that is such a thing. It is entirely made from plastic, but most Wi-Fi routers are these days, which I think is a shame. A router of this size in a metal housing might be a tad heavy, but for me, it would have added to the appeal of the physical design. I wish more consumer networking hardware were made with metal enclosures.

Along the front size of the WRT32X, you have the LED status area. When the router is powered up and doing its thing, the LEDS glow blue and show you exactly what is happening: Internet, Wireless, Wired and more.

Rotate the Linksys WRT32X to the backside and you see all the connection ports you can access: four gigabit switch ports, one gigabit WAN port, a USB 3.0 port, the eSATA/USB2.0 port, the reset button, and the power switch.

I have always liked when Wi-Fi routers come with power buttons. A simple toggle switch like the one on the WRT32X or the push-button variety that others have is a simple feature that’s decidedly useful. A graceful shutdown would be ideal, but if I want to plug in the router without powering it on first as I set up all the other cables, this is good. It also allows for an easy reboot mechanism if you cannot access the router’s UI.

One design aspect that is missing from the Linksys WRT32X is the ability to hang this on the wall. If I think about it, I do believe all Linksys WRTs are like that; they are designed to sit on a flat horizontal surface. The status LEDs and ports in their current positions wouldn’t be conducive to being hung on a wall. That doesn’t bother me and it probably won’t bother most people either.

Setting Up the Linksys WRT32X

Setting up the Linksys WRT32X is similar to other routers on the market but if you want to utilize the Killer Prioritization Engine, you do need to have it to a speed test on your network connection to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or you can insert the values manually. Other than that, the setup is like the typical Wi-Fi router setup.

If you have a Killer Networking enabled computer, the Linksys WRT32X will automagically detect that so there really is not much extra you need to do to get yourself up and online.

When you first log in to the Linksys WRT32X, you are presented with the setup wizard. Here you can set up the basics such as Internet Connection type, SSID, and admin passwords. You can skip the wizard if you feel comfortable with setting up a Wi-Fi router or you can just follow the prompts. I had to manually enter a Static IP as my test setup is not directly attached to a modem.

Once you have completed the setup you can go and tweak other settings as needed.

Nice to Haves

There are a couple things about the Linksys WRT32X UI that I like and wish more manufacturers would offer.

First of all is the ability to name the network devices that the router itself sees. Sometimes it will read their NetBIOS name or no name, but it will always show the device’s IP address. You can then edit the name so that it means something to you. I love being able to easily see what is on the network but I love being able to label them. Not many routers will let you do that! This helps with seeing who is currently connected to the network and who I might have to change network priority to.

That’s where the network prioritization comes into play. Everything starts in the “Normal” group. Of course, those with Killer Networking components are given highest priority if turned on. But then it is easy to just move the devices from Normal to High or Low. That’s it: a drag and drop Quality of Service (QoS) in a way.

A feature that is not incorporated into the Linksys WRT32X’s web UI but is in the Killer Control Center app is the ability to see the wireless environment. This helps you manually configure the Wi-Fi on the WRT32X to give you the best performance possible.

In the above image, you can see there are a lot of overlapping 2.4GHz Access Points in the area. The Linksys WRT32X has set the 2.4GHz channel to 1 so that it has the least amount of interference. The majority seem to be using channel 11. Perhaps one day Linksys could incorporate this functionality into their web UI for their routers.

Then comes the 5GHz band. The upper channels are clearly interfering with each other and you can see that the Linksys WRT32X has chosen channel 153. If I noticed any issues, I can look at this graph and then adjust the 5GHz band to be in the lower channels and avoid possible interference. Again, I wish more Wi-Fi routers on the market would show this sort of thing. It is extremely helpful, but is more of an intermediate feature.

Killer Networking and Linksys

Linksys has partnered up with Killer Networking for this product. Killer Networking offers high-end networking cards for gaming enthusiasts. Typically, a network card relies on the computer’s own CPU for processing packets. This means that at times, the network traffic has a potential to yield to other tasks that the CPU is dealing with.

Killer Networking took this into consideration and adds a dedicated CPU to their networking hardware and bypasses the Microsoft Windows TCP/IP stack in order to process the network packets faster without as much interruption. This translates in hopefully lower server response times and potentially higher frame rates as well.

Inside the Linksys WRT32X is the Killer Prioritization Engine. This coupled with a Killer Network Ethernet or Wi-Fi card can help reduce server response times while gaming or help ensure your streaming applications don’t hiccup when the rest of the network starts to bog down. Think of this as a hardware driven Quality of Service in which you don’t need to configure yourself. The Linksys WRT32X can auto-detect computers on your network that have Killer Networking components and automatically give them the highest priority in terms of handling traffic.

It may look great on paper but how does it really perform? What happens if you don’t have Killer Networking components on your computers? I take a look at both of those as well as general performance of the Linksys WRT32X with its AC3200 dual-band wireless technology.

Throwing Data at the Linksys WRT32X

The setup for my tests here is a bit more complex than other tests I have done with Wi-Fi routers on the market, mainly because of the added Killer Prioritization Engine. To test the feature of the Killer engine, I need to make use of the MSI GT32VR Titan SLI gaming laptop that was loaned to me that has Killer Doubleshot Pro, which supports both Killer Gb LAN and Wi-Fi 802.11ac dual-band technology.

A consideration when making use of the Killer Network Prioritation Engine or another Quality of Service (QoS) type feature is your Internet connection. It is easier to see the Killer Prioritzation Engine do its thing when you have a minimum download speed of 10 Mbps. Unfortunately for me, I have a 5 Mbps download speed, which will be a bit trickier to see the engine prioritize the network packets accordingly.

If you are not entirely sure what your Internet speeds are, there are a few ways to go about it. You can check SpeedTest.net or you can utilize the speed test within the Linksys WRT32X as well. I did find that in my initial tests, I kept getting different results, but I do know we have a 5 Mbps down with a 1 Mbps up. I also have the option of going to my ISP’s own speed test, which tests the connection to the modem itself without my network potentially interfering.

Included with the MSI laptop and the included Killer networking equipment is the Killer Control Center. Here you can also do a speedtest and have it automatically configure the Linksys WRT32X as well. I tried playing with the numbers but ultimately I just manually entered the 5Mbps down with the 1Mbps up for my tests.

On to the Tests!

There are a few tests I want to do with the Linksys WRT32X. The first one will be testing the Killer engine in terms of network latency, the service response time usually given in milliseconds (ms). The lower the number, the better you can act within the game and faster you can get your kills.

Test 1: Network Latency with the WRT32X and Killer

In order to test the Killer Prioritization Engine and network latency, I made use of Team Fortress 2 (which is free-2-play now). TF2, being a Valve game, has the ability to display more than just FPS (frames per second) and I will be looking at the network latency and other network statistics it can provide. Here we hope that while playing TF2 and toggling the Killer Priority Engine on and off, we will be able to see the server response time fluctuate to our benefit.

I lost my screenshots and video clip but I did manage to see my network latency start at 70ms when the Killer Priority Engine was off and then it dropped to 42ms when the Killer Priority Engine was turned on. When I turned off the feature, the response jumped back up to the 70-80ms range. That’s pretty impressive, actually roughly improving the connection to the server with a 30ms decrease in response time!

Test 2: Streaming HD Videos

The second test will be streaming videos on the MSI laptop while also streaming other videos on other computers on the network. For the videos, I make use of YouTube gameplay videos at the 1080p60 resolution. I also start up Netflix on the PlayStation 4 and watch Sta Wars: Rogue One at 1080p as well. Typically, 1080p videos require a decent download speed and since our connection has a maximum of 5Mbps, this test can also get a little tricky but should be a good way to see the Killer Prioritization Engine running as I move the priority around.

The MSI streams a recent uploaded footage of Dark and Light which was recorded at 1080p60. YouTube is great as it allows those who care to see the geeky side of a video stream. You can see while steaming the gameplay video that my connection speed is roughly 5Mbps (5435Kbps).

The desktop, which is streaming a gameplay episode of Stranded at 1080p60, has a different story. Here you can clearly see that the connection speed is a measly 55Kbps and in fact the video took over 2 hours to complete the 20mins.

While this is all going on, the Netflix stream of Star Wars: Rogue One kept playing with some buffering happening. Netflix was reporting it was being streamed at 240p which is well below the 1080p resolution. When I turned off the Killer Priority Engine on the MSI laptop, the Netflix stream would recover and go back to being 1080p. When I moved the priority around manually via the Linksys WRT32X web interface, I could get the YouTube stream on the desktop to pick back up to 1080p too.

When you have a Killer networking component or a computer that has Killer networking gear inside of it, it automatically is picked up by the Linksys WRT32X and is given highest priority with network traffic. If you need to disable the prioritization, then you just turn off the feature and it will fall into the same listing as the other devices on the network.

Test 3: Laptop Test

It is always good to check the bandwidth you can get when making use of your portable devices. In this test, I make use of a Dell Latitude E7470 with its Intel Dual-band 802.11ac AC1200 wireless card. With the single 5 GHz band, there is a theoretical speed of 867 Mbps.

With the laptop tests I make use of iPerf3 and its ability to send data between endpoints. To see the maximum throughput, I send datagrams via UDP over a 120 second (2 minute) period.

The Linksys WRT32X with the Dell Latitude averages 554.79 Mbps when sending UDP packets.

Now I’ll test the 2.4 GHz band with the same protocol and time period

The Dell Latitude averaged 86.28 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band. To maximize your performance, ensure that devices that need the extra bandwidth are on the 5 GHz band, whereas devices that might not need the bandwidth but perhaps need to be placed further away from Linksys WRT32X are on the 2.4 GHz band.

Test 4: Smartphone Test

Since different mobile devices can have different wireless components, it is always a good idea to check laptops and of course the most (typically) used mobile device most people have: a smartphone. In my case, I will utilize my iPhone 7 with its 802.11ac support.

First up, let’s look at the 5 GHz band.

The average on this test was a bit lower than the Wi-Fi throughput test on the Dell laptop. Various factors can be in play such as interference, channel, bandwidth of the channel and distance to the Linksys WRT32X too. Though I’m not going to knock the slower result on the smartphone, it is still within a decent range for the 5 GHz band.

Next up, we have the 2.4 GHz band.

The average speed was faster on the iPhone 7 than my Dell Latitude, but again a variety of factors can come into play. So that both the laptop and iPhone 7 had similar speeds with the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band, I am content with the results I saw with both.

Final Thoughts

When I was first asked to look at the Linksys WRT32X, I wasn’t sure how I could utilize such a router without the Killer networking components. Luckily I was loaned the MSI GT83VR Titan SLi laptop which does have Killer networking components built in.

I am glad to say that I have been totally using the Linksys WRT32X since receiving it and it has now become my main Wi-Fi router. I thought I would be not able to fully utilize it, because my computers lacked the Killer networking cards, but I am happy to say that I can still use the priority engine without Killer networking gear. The custom Web UI that Linksys has given the WRT32X makes moving the priority of the attached devices a breeze.

Speaking of the Web UI, Linksys went with a custom design specifically for the WRT32X. It is simple and easy to use. It also translate beautifully over to a mobile device such as a tablet or smartphone. In fact I like using it remotely sitting on the couch and changing the priority of what we’re doing.

The physical design of the Linksys WRT32X is like that of all the other WRT models on the market except for being all black in colour. The front status LEDs area easy to see in any lighting circumstance too.

The Linksys WRT32X being a dual-band Wi-Fi router ensures that all your wireless devices can be used to their full potential with room for upgrades as well. There is not much on the market now that can push the limits of the WRT32X with its AC3200 capabilities, but it is nice to know that you won’t need to upgrade in the near or even distant future.

Are there any downsides to the Linksys WRT32X? The only downside I really see to the WRT32X might be the cost to some. If you have a computer that has Killer Networking gear, then it is worth the cost when you of course pair it with the WRT32X, but if you do not, then the cost might be a bit high for some people.

The cost does put it among other high-end consumer Wi-Fi routers out there and the price also does reflect the power behind the Linksys WRT32X though, which includes a 1.8 GHz dual-core CPU, 256MB Flash and 512 DDR3 RAM. Plenty of internal power to help keep your streams and gameplay running as smooth as possible.

If you’re looking for a gaming Wi-Fi router that will ensure your gaming experience is not overtaken by someone watching Paw Patrol, then I would recommend adding the Linksys WRT32X to your home Wi-Fi network. It’s available now for $299.