Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Very disappointed with the Nighthawk X6 so far. Wireless range through walls isn't boosted noticeably compared to the prior Netgear router I was using, the Netgear N600. Administration interface is consistent with the N600. The X6 definitely looks cool, but aside from looks, I'm not seeing much here to say that it's worth $300. Even worse, while attempting to download files via Sabnzbd (a file download manager), if I allow the application to download without limitation, it typically maxes out my internet connection (50mbps or ~5-6MB/s). On my N600, this behavior was handled just fine. On the X6, though, the router will consistently stop functioning completely after a matter of minutes of full connection usage. What's ridiculous about this, is that it's not like I have an amazing internet connection that the router can't handle. This router is supposed to be able to handle gigabit connections, yet it can't even handle 50 megabit... Once the router fails to function, I can't even access the router control panel, as the network is completely non-functional. The only resolution is to restart the router. This has occurred every time that I've sustained max bandwidth on my internet connection for (at least) several minutes. I'm returning the existing unit to Amazon for a replacement, and I'll give it one more shot. If the replacement has the same behavior, I'll be getting a refund. And just a note, I did contact Netgear support about this issue. Live Chat was useless, as it kept me "on hold" waiting for a CSR for ~30 minutes, then told me no one was available. I then called in, got a call center in India apparently (or at least that region). The CSR had poor english, I had to explain the situation multiple times. He had me reset the router settings (which I did), and afterwards, the problem persisted (as expected). His recommendation was an RMA or return to store, for which obviously returning to Amazon is the better option, since Amazon should send me a replacement before I have to send back the original unit. UPDATE (7/22): I've received a replacement for the Nighthawk X6, from Amazon. I installed the replacement, restored my prior unit's settings to the new unit. I then rebooted my computers (to start fresh), and then started up Sabnzbd on my tower PC. That PC is running wired ethernet to the router. Any other computer on the network is using wifi. With Sabnzbd running, I started up multiple file downloads, each with multiple connections per file, and configured Sabnzbd to download without any limitations (meaning, it was able to use the full capacity of my ISP connection). My internet connection is a home connection that maxes out around 55mbps (around 5-6MB/s). Once Sabnzbd surpassed 4.5MB/s, any other open connections on the network shut down/disconnected (video conference stream, voip audio connection). Additionally, any pages that I attempted to visit or view, any domains I attempted to ping, etc, all failed. I attempted to view various web services that I have enabled on other local network computers, none were accessible. I also attempted to view the router administration page, again it was not accessible. This is entire unacceptable. While my internet connection may be at full capacity, which would understandably cause too much congestion for other data feeds to run consistently over my WAN connection, the fact that the entire network is brought to a standstill (non-functional) suggests something is completely wrong with the router. This has occurred across two pieces of hardware, which suggests to me that the software is where the issue lies (or else there is a solid flaw in the hardware). My usage of the router is exactly how I used the previous router that I had installed, the Netgear N600, which worked flawlessly in this regard (I replaced that router as it's performance started to degrade recently, after ~2 yrs of ownership). I've contacted Netgear as they've requested, with the above updated info. Ball is in their court now. UPDATE (7/23): Netgear support was pretty much non-existent. Sure, it's easy to get a level-1 CSR that spouts the same generic troubleshooting steps, but good luck getting anyone that understands what they're actually trying to troubleshoot. In my own testing, running Sabnzbd with ~60 open connections at ~3MB/s is stable-ish on the R8000, but once the download speed is increased to ~3.5-5MB/s, the network becomes unusable to other machines. There are no log events that would suggest a firewall rule is being triggered (such as NAT filtering, DOS, etc). It seems the router is simply unable to cope with this type of traffic. I'm sending the router back to Amazon for a refund, and will revert to using my old Netgear N600 until I get an alternative router, likely the high-end option from ASUS, as I've heard good things about that brand of router. UPDATE (7/30): Netgear advanced support contacted me a day or so after I returned the router. I sent them details of my usage, but informed them that I had returned the router, and I've not heard back. Another update: Replaced the Netgear R8000 ($326 w/ tax) with an ASUS RT-AC68U ($233 w/ tax). I had some initial issues with the ASUS router during setup, as the management interface would intermittently stop responding. I rebooted the router, updated the firmware, and it started functioning consistently for me. I updated the ASUS to have my custom network settings (10.0.0.x, google DNS, reserved IPs), it's running superb. Tried same test of Sabnzbd running at full tilt, while also on a Skype voip conference call, while also running a Time Machine backup over network using the router's USB 3.0 Time Machine functionality (attached external 1TB drive). Everything is working perfect, no stutters, issues, no network outage whatsoever. This further verifies that the Netgear R8000 simply cannot cope, whereas the ASUS router exceeds my expectations (primarily because I have QoS disabled, yet the voip call is not interrupted or degraded, despite all available WAN bandwidth being used by Sabnzbd). The ASUS router also has some excellent administration tools for viewing load usage (CPU, memory, network {wan, lan, wireless 2.4g, wireless 5g}), which is a feature that any high-end router definitely should have. Considering the ASUS router is almost $100 cheaper, this is an all-around win for me. The support of network-based Time Machine backup is a feature I was unaware of as well, so that's a bonus in my eyes. The ASUS router is highly recommended.