Deco X60 + Plusnet 500Mbps Fibre

[#1]

Hi guys, I'm due to have my 500 fibre installed in my new build home and I have a question about WiFi mesh. There's tons of options on the market but I've found myself Deco X60. Would it be enough to carry 500Mbps through 2 story home ? As me and my wife are gaming people who stream occasionally we would like to have the best possible connection. Unless Deco X60 is an overkill in my scenario, what would be cheaper and as good solution (Deco X60 currently 229.99)

Thanks

[#2]

Just an opinion but my experence of all WiFi systems is that they only deliver anything close to their rated speed when you are in the same room and very close.

A mesh system will improve matters but you are very dependent on how well the signal gets through walls.

What you actually need is cables to the places where connected devices are. I would expect a new house to have some provision for network cables in the build.

Otherwise, go for a well reviewed mesh system or buy it from somewhere that it can be returned to, but honestly, if you are expecting close to 500Mb/s in real world WiFi performance round a house I think you may be disappointed.

[#3]

@DeathRoll666 - Wi-Fi offers such a varied experience, it's nigh on impossible to determine whether or not those units (or any other for that matter) will give you headline speeds all over your property. There's all sorts of stuff that influences what speeds you'll be able to obtain, not least the capability of the devices that are connecting to the router.

It's all well and good having a piece of kit with a whole bunch of antenna and Wi-Fi 6/6E support, but if you're connecting devices with only 1-2 antenna of their own and no support for the newer Wi-Fi 6 standards, then they're not going to be able to make use of it.

Add to this all of the other factors outsdie of your control that can affect Wi-Fi performance, like neighbouring Wi-Fi/radio signals, RF interference, radar traffic, wall materials/obstructions etc.

Let's take a modern smartphone or mid-range laptop as an example. Both devices are likely to have 2x2 Wi-Fi radios. This means that the maximum physical rate they will connect to the Deco's at is 1200mbps. That assumes the devices are Wi-Fi 6 capable. If they're not (many aren't), then it will be more like 867mbps.

This 'physical rate' is not the same thing as actual throughput though. There's all sorts of overheads/factors that come in to play here, however broadly speaking (and this isn't particulalry scientific), you should roughly half the PHY rate to get an idea of real world experience.

Thus, I reckon the optimal speeds you're going to get using devices like those mentioned, will be somewhere in the region of 450-650mbps. This assumes almost perfect conditions though, i.e. very few obstructions, devices very close to the access point, not too many other devices competing for airtime and acceptable levels of interference.

In addition to what has been considered above, the X60 does not have a Wi-Fi radio for dedicated backhaul, so if you are planning on using the units in a wireless mesh, then further Wi-Fi resources/bandwidth will be 'stolen' from your devices in order for the access points to reliably pass traffic to each other back to your main router.

You shouldn't be surprised if some of your devices can only pull a few hundred mbps. Those a fair disatnce from an access point, and certainly those with only 2.4GHz radios are unlikely to even reach 100mbps. 

TL/DR: -

Do I think you'll get 500mbps Wi-Fi all over your house no matter what device you're using - No.

Is there an alternative solution that will offer this - No, probably not.

Is the Deco X60 suitable for a 500mbps full fibre connection - Yes, it looks like a reasonably good fit.

What can I do to ensure I'm getting the best wireless performance out of my 500mbps connection - Use ethernet cabling to devices that matter. When setting up the Deco X60 mesh units, try to use wired/cabled backhaul if possible, rather than Wi-Fi.