@KeithyNB 

 

When you add X60s to your Deco mesh, they will give as fast WiFi as X60s can at your house, and your M4/S4 should keep delivering same WiFi speeds as today.

 

There is big unknown: how well will X60s perform at your house. That depends on distance between Main and Satellite X60, walls and other obstacles between them. Hard to say beforehand if they can or can't bring speed improvements you expect from them. Worst case they won't deliver much faster speeds M4/S4 do.

Make sure you get X60s from the place with easy return policy that is at least 4 weeks long.

 

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Having answered your main question, I wonder if you considered all other options you may have:

 

1. To squeeze maximum WiFi performance from Deco mesh, which is important fo gamer, you should run it in Access Point mode, with your Virgin Media router as a router (not as modem).

 

2. Can you get Ethernet cable from Main Deco place to your son's bedroom? Even if it requires efforts and expenses, as long as it is possible he will appreciate it. Especially because with Ethernet cable in his bedroom you can just get single X20 (cheapest of all Deco X-series), wire it to Ethernet cable, and save money on Deco hardware. If his gaming console has Ethernet port, you won't be needing new Deco hardware at all.

 

3. Another option is if his bedroom happened to have TV cable outlet, and that TV cable terminates close to where Virgin modem/router is. It would be possible to get Internet access through TV cable, using adapters. If this is the case, let me know and I can provide you with more info on that topic.

 

4. If wired Ethernet in his bedroom is not an option, consider a pair of tri-band Deco nodes, they might work better than X60 exactly because of dedicated backhaul. Check prices and availability of Deco X68 in your region, these are similar to X60, but tri-band. I would have recommended X90s as they are tri-band, too, but unless there is holiday sale or such - they are most expensive.

Still, check pricing of a pair of X90s, just in case. Also, with X90s, if they can't deliver speed and latency your son expects, no other Deco X-series model can. 

 

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Final recommendation. Deco X60/68/90 may deliver stronger WiFi signal that M4/S4 do. You may get better WiFi coverage with these units. Because of that, you might need to reshuffle your M4/S4 after you deployed pair of Deco X60/68/90. I would recommend, after adding new Deco X-series to your Deco mesh, to just power off all M4/S4 and see where are places with bad WiFi signal left at your house.  Then, reposition M4/S4 to cover these places.

  @Alexandre. 

Thank you for your speedy and comprehensive reply.

We have been looking at getting an ethernet cable to my son's bedroom and for a while, we had one coming out of ourliving room, going up the stairs and into his bedroom.

We put up with tripping over it for a while, but resorted to putting a M4 node in his bedroom, wired to his PC.

Now we have the 1GB, I'm looking again and yesterday, considered the best way to get a cable up there. 

Unfortunately drilling up through the ceiling is fraught with problems, so I am looking to maximise the WIFI speed potential.

I have ordered new Cat 6 cables to connect the Deco to the VM Hub 4 and to a switch to make sure that is not a bottleneck.

Doing more research, I think I favour a couple of tri-band Decos rather than the X60.

My choice seems to be X90 (expensive), X68 (still expensive and seemingly diccifult to get at the moment) and the M9 Plus.

The M9 Plus seems well tried and tested and is a decent price.

Might that be a suitable buy to use as my main hub and a satellite for my Son?

Would it help get the most from my 1GB connection?

Thanks for your thoughts.

  @KeithyNB 

 

I have gigabit Internet and Deco mesh which consists of Main Deco M9 Plus, Satellite Deco M9 Plus and two more Satellite Deco M5s (which are similar to M4/S4 you have). I can speak based on my experience. 

 

These are speed tests I ran with all Deco units I have, in different configuration, and best results that I've got:

 

M9 Plus Main, Ethernet wired: 630 Mbps

M9 Plus Satellite, WiFi backhaul (tri-band): 490 Mbps

M5 Satellite, WiFi backhaul (dual band): 230 Mbps

 

As you can see, at my house, and with hardware I tested, tri-band Deco M9 is twice as fast as dual-band Deco M5. You can't get gigabit WiFi speeds with Deco S4/M4/M5/M9 series. They are WiFi 5. Still, even with 4K streaming on TV or tablet or PC monitor, utilizing less than 100Mbps per device, these speeds are more than enough for almost any household.

 

If you have gaming PC wired to Satellite Deco (as you should), having Deco with WiFi 6 becomes less important. Just trust me on that, but if you want, I can give you long version why is that.

Which means, it is OK to start with the pair of Deco M9 Plus first (but still, mind return policy!). Also, your S4/M4 are WiFi 5, M9 Plus are WiFi 5, too, which means they will better fit to your Deco WiFi mesh. 

 

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Slightly out of topic of this forum. For a gamer it is not just Internet speed that is important. It is packet loss, latency, internet speed - in that order. 

 

Perhaps, your son is complaining of unsatisfactory gaming experience because of latency or packet loss. Getting Deco with WiFi 6 might not help. Trying M9 Plus is still recommended. Yet, be mentally prepared to revisit Ethernet cabling again. Wired will always beat wireless as a general rule, and for a gamer wireless (almost) always is not good enough.

 

Also, I suggest you check signal source on Satellite Deco M4 in your son's bedroom. You can do it in Deco app, and for a Satellite M4 you should see something similar to that:

 

 

Signal Source reports where Satellite Deco is connected to, and it is usually Main Deco, and signal strength of that connection, which is Deco backhaul link.

 

There should be at least two blue bars. If there is less than two, or they are yellow/red, or you only see 2.4GHz but not 5GHz - that means this Satellite Deco is too far from Main Deco for a good backhaul link. That is where problems may be coming with unsatisfactory gaming experience, and before spending money on new hardware it will make sense to try to find better place for Satellite M4 in his bedroom.

 

As a general rule, you should check Signal Source for all your other Satellite Deco, those with weak backhaul link may need to be repositioned to provide better WiFi services elsewhere at your house.

Thanks again Alexandre, I will invest in the M9 Plus. Amazon have a 2 pack for £170.