Asus TUF Gaming BE6500: Specs
Wi-Fi Spec: BE6500
Variety of Antennas/Detachable: 6/No
Ports: 1 WAN/3 LAN 2.5 gigabit per second, USB 3.2
Processor/Reminiscence/Storage: Quad-core
1.5GHz/1GB/256MB
Wi-Fi chip: Qualcomm Immersive Residence 326
Peak 802.11be performance: 960.9 Mbps (at 15 ft)
Vary: 105 ft
Measurement: 11.9 x 6.7 x 8.4 x 2.4 inches
Estimated Annual Electrical energy Price: $18.65
It might not be the quickest wi-fi router round, however the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 (aka TUF-BE6500) makes a design assertion with a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 machine that appears like nothing else and makes probably the most of its 2.5 Gbps connections with wonderful wired Ethernet gaming connections.
The TUF-BE6500’s mixture of recreation acceleration software program and the power to run as a conventional standalone router or as a part of a mesh community offers the router excessive set up flexibility, whereas its potential to faucet right into a cell phone’s Web connection in emergencies makes it a winner for continuous gaming. It may even shield your rig with an additional layer of safety software program that others cost for.
Neglect about spending $500 or extra as a result of the TUF-BE6500 places worth first at simply $200. It’s additionally one of many uncommon networking units with a 3 12 months guarantee that ought to get you into the Wi-Fi 8 period. My Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 evaluation will assist you determine if that is the greatest gaming router to your residence community or if it’s price looking at one other one of many greatest Wi-Fi 7 routers as a substitute.
Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 evaluation: Pricing and availability
Whereas Asus lists the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 at $260 on the company’s online store, it’s an actual discount at Costco and different locations the place it may be had for as little as $200. This undercuts the worth of a lot of its opponents within the Wi-Fi 7 gaming universe by tons of.
Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 evaluation: Design
Somewhat than trying like a spaceship or a generic tower, Asus designers centered on an natural design aesthetic for the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500. Wedge formed, the black machine has cutouts on both sides that makes it appear like a Formulation 1 steering wheel.
Greater than beauty, the TUF-BE6500’s open areas assist dissipate warmth that alongside with grilles beneath and an inside aluminum warmth sink, assist preserve it from overheating and not using a fan. It topped out at 110 levels Fahrenheit and doesn’t want MSI RadiX AXE6600’s use of unique graphene coated warmth sink fins.
At 11.9 x 6.7 x 8.4 x 2.4 inches, it’s small in comparison with different gaming routers, just like the MSI RadiX AXE6600 or Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500. The unit’s six antennas prolong the peak by 6.4 inches and may be aimed however not simply changed.
Its rubber ft gained’t scratch the furnishings and the TUF-BE6500 may be wall mounted too.
In comparison with the undulating mild exhibits that others placed on, the router’s row of 5 LEDs alongside the underside are delicate to the purpose of being unnoticed. To see what’s occurring contained in the router, I wanted to lean over its edge. There are lights for energy, motion on the two.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands in addition to for the WAN enter and the downstream wired community.
Along with its energy port, the TUF-BE6500 has 4 2.5 Gbps Ethernet connections, considered one of which is taken up by the incoming broadband sign. That leaves three downstream 2.5 Gbps wired connections that to some will appear to be at the very least one quick. For others, will probably be sufficient. The router has a USB 3.2 port for connecting an information storage machine that may transfer upwards of 5 Gbps with the appropriate drive.
Powered by Qualcomm’s mid-range Immersive Residence 326 Wi-Fi chip, the TUF-BE6500 must be loads for residence players searching for just a little benefit on-line. Constructed round a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, the router has 1GB of RAM and 256MB of storage. The dual-band design makes use of 2X2 streaming for the two.4GHz band and 4X4 streaming for the 5GHz band to maneuver a theoretical 6.434 Gbps.
That stated, it does with out entry to Wi-Fi 7’s 6GHz band with its ultra-wide 320MHz knowledge channels for shut up knowledge blasting. Doing which may have doubled its throughput. Nonetheless, it brings collectively Wi-Fi 7’s 4K Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and Multi-Hyperlink Operations.
The TUF BE-6500’s low latency design makes knowledge packets fly forwards and backwards and consists of gaming accelerators that may present a bonus on-line. Plus, in case your Web connection goes down throughout a League of Legends bout, the TUF-BE6500 can shortly swap over to a backup cell phone’s on-line connection by plugging it in with a USB cable.
Not like different routers that ignore safety for the sake of the sport, Asus consists of its AiProtection Professional software program. Along with the power to make use of the router as a VPN server, the defenses embody steering away from malicious websites, blocking contaminated machines from spreading their hazard and periodically working a safety evaluation with suggestions. The most effective half is that whereas Netgear and others cost for one of these service, Asus consists of it without spending a dime.
Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 evaluation: Performance
Though not in a position to compete with tri-band Wi-Fi 7 routers, the TUF-BE6500 was a great primary Wi-Fi router based mostly on intensive testing with Keysight’s IxChariot network benchmark set to simulate 10 data-hungry customers. It, nonetheless, did higher as a wired router with the power to maneuver 4.653 Gbps over a 15 foot Ethernet cable – double the pace of routers costing way more. That stated, it hit a peak of 1.150 Gbps of wi-fi throughput at shut vary. Nonetheless, it must be loads for many gaming and residential makes use of.
Its Wi-Fi motion at on a regular basis distances was underwhelming with a throughput studying of 960.9 Mbps at 15 ft. This was properly off the tempo set by dearer units, just like the TP-Hyperlink Deco BE63 (at 1.821 Gbps) or the Netgear Orbi 773 (1.721 Gbps). It was neck and neck with the MSI Roamii BE Lite at 970.3 Mbps.
The TUF-BE6500 moved 336.1 Mbps at 50 ft, half the extent of a few of the others, however barely forward of the TP-Hyperlink Deco XE75 at 318.5 Mbps. It was center of the pack at 75 ft with 189.4 Mbps at its disposal, placing it between the Deco XE75’s 299.1 Mbps and the Roamii BE Lite’s 172.8 Mbps.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Asus TUF BE-6500 |
MSI Roamii BE Lite |
TP-Hyperlink Deco BE63 |
Netgear Orbi 773 |
TP-Hyperlink Deco XE75 |
|
15 ft |
960.9 Mbps |
970.3 Mbps |
1.821 Gbps |
1.721 Gbps |
1.220 Gbps |
|
50 ft |
336.1 Mbps |
470.5 Mbps |
610.7 Mbps |
391.1 Mbps |
299.1 Mbps |
|
75 ft |
189.4 Mbps |
172.8 Mbps |
58.1 Mbps |
199.2 Mbps |
318.5 Mbps |
|
90 ft |
27.9 Mbps |
46.7 Mbps |
17.1 Mbps |
54.2 Mbps |
23.7 Mbps |
With the take a look at system 90 ft from the router, it delivered 27.9 Mbps of knowledge, placing it, once more, proper in the midst of the pack. The TUF-BE6500 had a variety of 105 ft however fell wanting filling my 3,500 sq. foot residence with wi-fi knowledge.
Once I set the gear as much as ship knowledge throughout a 25 foot room, by a wall and into an adjoining room, it yielded an appropriate, however not stellar, 659.1 Mbps. Against this, the Roamii BE Lite’s 920.8 Mbps was higher.
It did an incredible job of being a normal all-around router over two weeks of each day use. Capable of fulfill a number of knowledge hungry customers without delay, it simply handed my saturation take a look at the place 4 methods had been shifting gobs of knowledge. Along with an Acer Swift Edge 16 exhibiting 4K movies, a MacBook performed Spotify music and an HP Dragonfly performed the BBC WorldService radio feed. All this was occurring whereas an HP Envy desktop moved knowledge onto and off a networked RAID server. All of the audio and video got here by with out artifacts, drop-outs or skips.
The router’s 13.3 watt energy use matches the consumption of others in its class. If the TUF-BE6500 is left on 24/7, count on to pay $18.65 a 12 months to make use of it in case you pay the nationwide common of 16 cents per kilowatt hour of electrical energy.
Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 evaluation: Setup
It’s straightforward to set the TUF-BE6500 up with a related browser or with the Asus Router app for both Android or iOS. I selected the app method with my Galaxy S24 cellphone that began with a welcome display screen.
Not like others, it didn’t require an account, however you may wish to set one up anyway as a result of it permits distant monitoring and operations. I picked the TUF-BE6500 from a photograph checklist.
It instantly discovered the brand new router, however there’s additionally connection data linked to a QR code underneath the router, simply in case. I tapped “Get Began” to start the precise set up.
The app shortly detected my Web connection and I added a brand new LAN title and password. There’s a provision for establishing a parallel 2.4GHz IoT community.
After including native log in data, the TUF-BE6500 set itself up, upgraded its firmware and ran a community optimization routine to streamline connections.
It ended with a display screen exhibiting its key connection knowledge and supplied to reserve it. The router took 10 minutes to get going and labored on the primary try.
Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 evaluation: Configuration
Whereas utilizing the app may be very visible, the browser interface is deep with a number of customization choices. The interface’s Community map’s general darkish look is highlighted with gold outlines and a central blue part.
It requires a number of scrolling and setting the browser to 67% is a pleasant compromise. A giant bonus is that the interface supplies extra related performance knowledge than most different routers with general reminiscence utilization in addition to CPU utilization figures for all 4 processing cores and color-coded wired port connections.
Its left facet is dominated by an extended checklist of tab hyperlinks that embody configuring it as a VPN server, Wi-fi and Web settings. There’s a solution to rerun the setup routine to begin contemporary.
The Site visitors Analyzer tracks the info stream based mostly on the consumer or app, making it a multi-purpose device for monitoring the community’s performance. It must be turned on on the prime of the display screen.
On the AIProtection tab, I discovered a pleasant appraisal of the safety state of affairs and locations to activate the defenses or customise them. On the different excessive, the Sport Increase part has a number of gaming goodies; extra on that later.
There’re thorough port forwarding directions with profiles for widespread video games to match the info stream with the on-screen motion. Then again, it lacks forwarding protocols for widespread gaming consoles.
Whereas it labored properly as a conventional router, the TUF-BE6500 may be a part of an AiMesh community. The interface has locations for present nodes and including shoppers in addition to optimizing the info stream.
In case your broadband connection goes unhealthy, it takes lower than a minute to make use of an Android or iPhone as a cellular Web connection for fail-safe gaming. After plugging the cellphone into the router’s USB port, the USB part of the house web page displays the cellphone’s connection. Click on on it to ascertain the connection.
The fundamentals apart, the TUF-BE6500’s Superior part has a slew of choices, together with utilizing any of 4 VPN server settings, together with WireGuard. It may hook up with a number of VPN servers without delay with Asus’s VPN Fusion software program.
Against this, the app solely works in portrait mode that’s nice for telephones and never so nice for tablets. Its interface is simply as darkish, though there’s the selection of three different themes, together with a brilliant white one.
The Residence display screen has a distinguished Actual-time visitors window that exhibits up- and obtain speeds, whereas the present networks and IP handle are above.
Alongside the underside is entry to the router’s configuration and choices with 5 tabs. They’ll present a listing of units, the Perception part let me impose the safer https protocol whereas the Household space had particulars for utilizing the parental controls.
The Settings tab is the gateway to a large assortment of connection data and choices, mirroring the browser’s tabs with QOS, LAN, WAN and firmware improve. The USB tab is a necessary cease for establishing an exterior drive as a Samba media server.
Asus’s three 12 months guarantee on the TUF-BE6500 is great in comparison with the 12 months or two of protection for the competitors. It consists of life-of-product assist, as a substitute of Netgear’s 90 day assist coverage. Along with the anticipated downloads of firmware and the guide, the positioning has a great assortment of FAQs for frequent issues.
Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 evaluation: Gaming
The Sport Increase part has heaps for players – critical or informal. This begins with community recreation acceleration that enhances entry to networked knowledge.
(*7*)
There’s additionally the Cellular Sport Mode that may flip your cellphone or pill right into a gaming powerhouse. It’s a part of the Asus Router app and has a fast three-step port forwarding routine for eight widespread video games and the power so as to add guidelines for others.
Lastly, like opponents, the TUF-BE6500 has entry to the Avid gamers Personal Community’s WTFast to seek out the very best location globally to recreation. It requires registration, although.
Its devoted Ping interface can ship time packets for round-trip evaluation. Not like others, it provides the selection of 17 totally different diagnostic designations.
Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 evaluation: Verdict
By balancing economic system with primary Wi-Fi 7 know-how and probably the most importantly, high-end gaming options, Asus has created a unicorn of a gaming router that may assist blast aliens or pace up Mario Kart with out killing a whole paycheck doing so. The dual-band router supplies sufficient wi-fi throughput for many however I ponder what its performance would have been like if Asus engineers had included the high-performance 6GHz band. We’ll by no means know however the TUF-BE6500 sarcastically units the tempo with wired Ethernet connections that simply outperform dearer routers. In different phrases, get these Cat 6 cables prepared to your subsequent gaming session.
The TUF-BE6500 tops this off with a gang of gaming assist, together with boosters, entry to the GPN WTFast community and the power to make use of a cell phone as a backup Web connection. For the paranoid gamer (and who isn’t as of late), the TUF-BE6500 provides further on-line safety and VPN compatibility.
Worth is the very best half, regardless in case you’re chasing aliens or being chased by zombies. With different gaming routers costing twice the Asus TUF-BE6500’s $200, it’s for individuals who wish to recreation laborious with out the chilly laborious money.
