Xbox 360 Wireless N Adapter Review


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Xbox 360 Wireless N Adapter Review

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Sure, wireless n is great and everything, but if you told me I'd be streaming media between 2 and 3x faster through Microsoft's new Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter (802.11a/b/g/n) than their old a/b/g version, I'd never have believed you.

The Price

$100

The Verdict

If you upgrade to the new Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter from the old, 802.11g version, you won't notice any difference while gaming. But media streaming over your home network will see a legitimate speed increase.

For a moment, let's ignore Microsoft's traditionally ridiculous price for their Xbox 360 Wi-Fi adapters. Instead, let's just focus on performance.

Upgrading from 802.11g networking to 802.11n has a few key advantages: range is longer, speeds are faster and, since 802.11n sits on the 5GHz band, you won't interfere as much with 2.4GHz frequencies used by 802.11g and basically everything else in existence.

But there's one big thing that stops 802.11n from being any better than 802.11g for gaming: latency. Overall throughput may be faster on 802.11n (the pipe is bigger), but latency is really no less present than on 802.11g (it takes just as long for that first burst of water to come through). So those quick gaming commands aren't faster on n, and my multiplayer testing (Modern Warfare 2 and Borderlands...it was a real chore) confirmed it.

Media streaming, however, is where those big throughputs pay off. Using Connect360, I streamed HD episodes of Mad Men from my Mac to the Xbox. I timed from the moment I hit play to to the first frame of video playback. And the difference was noticeable.

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Buffering occurred between 2 and 3x faster, which was well beyond my expectations, despite how fast 802.11n is on a spec sheet. Clips went from taking as many as 15 seconds to playing (rounding up) to actually breaking the 5 second barrier. I'd love to have tested 1080P streaming over Live as well, but my DSL is the bottleneck in that scenario.

Yes, the Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter is still profanely expensive. No, if you have an older adapter (or you're just using some other solution), I wouldn't recommend the upgrade (nor do I think Microsoft is even marketing it that way). But it's nice to see a tangible improvement all the same.

gizplus3_04.jpg Streams intra network media between 2 and 3x faster

gizplus3_04.jpg Tiny formfactor still unique to the industry

giznormal_03.jpg No perceivable speed increases gaming

gizminus_04.jpg It's $100.

gizminus_04.jpg Costs half the price of a new 360

gizminus_04.jpg It'll set you back a month of dinners at McDonalds

gizminus_04.jpg I don't even want to think about what that is in White Castles

Source: Gizmodo

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I'm so glad my 360 just died apprently. And I mean died, it won't even power on lol

I was going to get this (actually the cheaper one from that other company which I won't name :D) but now, bah.

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I'm more interested in the improved range (Is there any). I get Low/Medium signal with the 54g adapter.

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i have a wireless N router

i just picked up a wireless N bridge ($120)

then connected it to my xbox

problem solved

so for an extra $20 i get to connect my Tivo, TV and my future PS3 :laugh:

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I really wish the PS3 would get a n add-on ...

Plug a wireless N router/bridge into your PS3 ethernet port and you've got an n add-on. The PS3 has a gigabit ethernet port in case you didn't know (1000mbps), 360 is only 100mbps.

Good to see MS supporting this, absolutely stupid they're going with that $100 price point again considering you can buy a whole router for less than that.

Edited by Audioboxer
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Surely anyone this serious about their gaming would have their 360 connected via ethernet?

surely this isnt always possible if the router/modem is not in the same room as the 360.

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Surely anyone this serious about their gaming would have their 360 connected via ethernet?

Surely I've had my PS3 and 360 on wireless since the day I've acquried them with no issues :rolleyes:

I grabbed the wireless N adapter last week since i use my 360 for streaming from my Windows Home Server, I'd completely agree with that review, it's spot on. I also got the adapter for $84 from Amazon so it wasn't quite as painful, but it is overpriced.

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surely this isnt always possible if the router/modem is not in the same room as the 360.

Mine isn't, router other side of the house but rather then pay the ridiculous asking price for the wireless adaptor I just bought a really long ethernet cable :p I won't be getting the wireless N one either, only got 1.5Mbit internet and when streaming media the 100Mbit ethernet does a fine job...why waste more money for little to no benefit.

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Mine isn't, router other side of the house but rather then pay the ridiculous asking price for the wireless adaptor I just bought a really long ethernet cable :p I won't be getting the wireless N one either, only got 1.5Mbit internet and when streaming media the 100Mbit ethernet does a fine job...why waste more money for little to no benefit.

Again, depends on your setup and needs. For me, the wireless N adapter was a good investment, and it would cost me quite a bit to string Ethernet from my router to my TV. And running a cable across your whole place only works if you have a small place or no woman :no:

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Plug a wireless N router/bridge into your PS3 ethernet port and you've got an n add-on. The PS3 has a gigabit ethernet port in case you didn't know (1000mbps), 360 is only 100mbps.

Yeah, but IMO they should have included it in the new version. It just seems weird that it's supposed to be cutting edge and N was left out.

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Surely anyone this serious about their gaming would have their 360 connected via ethernet?

I've actually thought about running cable from the room where my router and modem are into the main area where the 360 is. But in my case, the two are located about 10 metres away from one-another. For a lot of people, they aren't even on the same floor, so it becomes impossible. Sorry to beat a dead horse with this comment, but it's certainly worth mentioning.

As for the adapter, it's a shame that it doesn't speed up gaming at all, but support for 5 GHz is definitely nice. If nothing else, it brings you one step closer from getting rid of your 2.4 GHz band.

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Thanks for the review,

I want one of these to make my 360's upstairs usable as media center extenders over wireless.

Our room I have ran a temp ethernet cable, but its untidy, our lads room we have a 360 on wireless G and mediacenter extender is unusable. I think I will be geting 2 of these.

The alternative is 2 x WGA600N by linksys, but the down side is they wont power off when the 360 shuts off, so a slight trickle of power used, plus not as compact, they are cheaper though, another downside is no one has them in stock in the uk yet.

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Surely anyone this serious about their gaming would have their 360 connected via ethernet?

I would agree to a point, especially when it comes to local network 1080p streaming.

I have a gigbit switch upstairs with a Cat6 cable out of the window frame, down the front of the house and in through the Telewest cable hole through the front window bay. I only use WiFi for laptops & mobile phones e.g. iPhone & N95.

I think real men use cable. :D

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I think real men use cable. :D

I think you can't show me any actual data it makes that much of a difference, and it's quite ghetto having cables hanging down the front of your home (even if you staple it down, looks trashy).

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I think you can't show me any actual data it makes that much of a difference, and it's quite ghetto having cables hanging down the front of your home (even if you staple it down, looks trashy).

You're from the US, but if you lived in the UK everyone has cable running down the front of their homes, if it's not for Sky TV or maybe an aerial point having to be run externally or extra phone points...My old house had cables outside everywhere for Sky as we had 6 boxes hooked up throughout the place, was mental.

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We're talking a wire from your router here, I'm a bit miffed as to to what Sky/general cables have to do with anything? Unless of course you mean phone/internet access points, or you're just talking cables for the sake of it :p Either way, my upstairs is a loft convesion, so I have no real cabling up here (besides electricity), no phone access points, nothing. I happily used wireless for years until a new bathroom was being installed downstairs and it was an opportunity to drill a few holes upstairs, and run a cable through the new wall getting built downstairs.

If that cable ever fails I'm SOL mind you :p

From all my years using it, nothing wrong with wireless for gaming, I think those that are wired and have been for years still somehow persuade themselves wireless is still stuck in the 90s and hasn't improved. What wireless is utter pants for though is streaming HD movies that need consistent high bitrates passed between devices. Of course before the wire defence arrives, I'm not saying wireless is better than wired or anything of the sort, but it's definitely comparable if you're not living in a mansion and gaming half a mile from your quality branded router.

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Hehe Audio, I was just responding to his post about cables 'looking ghetto' in response to Aegern's post about running his cabling down the outside of his house...

I'm still not sold on wireless online gaming, but might pick up this new adapter as I'm moving again soon and it could come in handy, my laptop has been on wireless and hasn't had any issues but I haven't gamed on it, and in the past when I have gamed, the only time's I've problems is playing FPS type games wirelessly but on other games (say WoW on my pc) I never had any issues with wireless, even if perhaps the router was say...a few houses down the street :shifty:

The general capability of wireless these days is so much better than when wirless was first released and as we continue to make strides it will only get better of course :) but based on whats said, this won't see any decrease over cabled gaming on the xbox, but would most likely effect streamed items as said before.

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Plug a wireless N router/bridge into your PS3 ethernet port and you've got an n add-on. The PS3 has a gigabit ethernet port in case you didn't know (1000mbps), 360 is only 100mbps.

Good to see MS supporting this, absolutely stupid they're going with that $100 price point again considering you can buy a whole router for less than that.

technically ps3's NIC is faster, practically it doesn't make any difference.

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