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 Home -> Reviews -> Internet Gaming Modem
Internet Gaming Modem By John "Award" Del Percio, August 2, 2000
. .
Manufacturer : 3Com/US Robotics
Interface : Internal PCI or External
Table of Contents

· Introduction
· Closer Look
· Facts
· Final

Conclusion

The 3Com/USR Internet Gaming Modem has certainly renewed my faith in the normal modem, and made me far less interested in cable modems and DSL. While not exactly the 100k+ connections that ISDN and above connections can provide, it is certainly providing everything I need at the moment for web surfing, gaming, and downloading. At least until broadband is standard, anyway. The modem has boosted my gaming performance by quite a bit. If you're interested in actual ping times etc., try reading a lab report (3Com's website has a link to a rather nice one), but my purpose here was to tell you what sort of performance gain you'll actually get, not to recite a list of case-specific statistics. Statistics will vary from case to case, and there is no precise gauge that will tell you exactly what sort of performance tweak you'll get. From what I was able to tell from my personal experience, though, you will definitely see a performance boost. Even if statistically, the numbers aren't off by that much, those extra few seconds of jitter-free movement may very well mean the difference between getting the kill, and going insane from lag-freezes, packet loss, jittering, disappearing enemies, spontaneous death, drop outs, and other daily annoyances that modem gamers face.

Rating

Personal Note

 Reviewed by John Del Percio
QUALITY
90 %

A solid modem.

Honestly from the first time I heard of the modem, I always doubted it. It seemed entirely illogical that it actually could work. Now I must eat my words. It worked rather well, and made the future of my online gaming life (or lack there of) a bit more certain. I'll likely be more tempted to try multiplayer games for more than a short period of time. One little note of advice. In the past, many people, namely in regards to Linux, but not entirely, have told me time and time again to only get US Robotics modems, and anything else is a waste of money. I always chose to ignore this bit of advice in hopes of finding something a bit less overpriced (and yes, as good as the USR modems are, I still stand by the fact that they are a bit overpriced), but after this experience, I can say one thing for certain. When someone tells you to get USR modems, they're not kidding. Do it.

Overall Rating

 
   
 
 


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