ASUS RT-AC1200GU WiFi Router Review

Closer Look at the ASUS RT-AC1200GU

The dimensions of RT-AC1200GU are 20.60 x 15.00 x 3.50 cm or 8.11 x 5.91 x 1.38 inches. The construction of the outer shell and antennas is completely plastic. RT-AC1200GU is passively cooled. On the bottom of the unit are vents to keep internal PCB cool.

In the back of the RT-AC1200GU I found power connector, OFF/ON switch, USB 2.0 connector, reset pin hole, One WAN connection and Four LAN connections and WPS button for easy setup. On the top of the unit are status indicators for the activity of the device.

PCB is mounted to the shell via screws. As I have mentioned the antennas are made from plastic and they are also mounted on plastic connectors. Antennas connect to PCB by small antenna cables. Two of the antennas are for 2.5 GHz and two are for 5 GHz connections.

Board layout is simple and straight forward. While examining the board I saw a flux residue on the back of the board. No solder drip or over soldered components were found.

Here are some of the chips that I found on RT-AC1200GU PCB.

Mnova MS0134 is a 10/100/1000 transformer, it is widely used in switches. Here I found two of these transformers that support the LAN connections. MNC G2436CG is also a LAN transformer however in this case it is used for WAN connection in RT-AC1200GU.

WINBOND W631GG6KB-15 is a DDR3-1333 SDRAM module. This particular chip has timing of 9-9-9 and has capacity of 16Mb. System on chip is provided by MEDIATEK MT7621AT. The chip is a powerful one as ability to control devices that are PCIe and USB 3.0 based. MT7621AT has two cores and clocked at 880MHz.

WI 1 Channel is controlled by MEDIATEK MT7603EN. MT7603EN offers 802.11 protocols B G and N. WI 2 Channel is controlled by MEDIATEK MT7612EN. MT7612EN offers protocols A B G N + AC.

On board flash is provided by SPANSION FL128SA1F00. This chip offers 128MB 3.0 Volt Flash Memory.