Even if your PC has the best hardware, your online gaming experience can be affected by an underpowered router. That's why many companies are producing high-end routers specifically designed to improve network performance during gaming. Save $50 off the regular price. [The model on sale is the Netgear Nighthawk XR1000 AX5400 gaming router, which includes Wi-Fi 6 support (not the latest 6E protocol), WPA3 security, a USB port for connecting drives to the network, dual-band Wi-Fi broadcast (both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks are available), and nearly all the other features one would expect in a high-end router. There are five Gigabit LAN ports on the back of the router.

There are also several additional gaming-related features. Netgear's bandwidth allocation (QOS) feature allows traffic from gaming devices to be prioritized so that network usage from other people and devices in the home does not interfere with online competition. The web panel can also display ping information for servers used by popular games.

We reviewed the Netgear XR1000 earlier this year and gave it 77/100 for its excellent Wi-Fi performance and feature-packed operating system. However, more ports (especially the USB connector) would have been nice. Netgear also charges a subscription for its security package.