So far, the wifi 6 router products with built-in docsis 3.1 cable modem offered by netgear are nighthawk cax80 and cax30. Netgear cable modem routers combo become main competitors for most popular arris surfboard series.
In this article:
Netgear Cax80
Netgear nighthawk cax80 is an all-in-one device, a wifi-6 router with built-in docsis 3.1 cable modem. In general to create high speed wifi 6 network you require docsis 3.1 cable modem plus wifi 6 router. This router required gigabit wan port to support high speed internet plan from your provider. With netgear cax80 you don’t require separate cable modem; it comes with built-in cable modem on the machine board.
Netgear cax80 vs cax30
After this nighthawk cax80 had been around in the market for a while, netgear added another similar product introduction – nighthawk cax30. What is the difference between the previous netgear cax80 and this newer model netgear cax30?
You can refer to table 1 below that represents spec comparison between netgear cax80 and cax30.
Different network segment
Netgear cax80 works at the middle range of ax6000 network segment. The lower segment is entry level ax1800 or something higher of up to ax3000 or ax4200. Netgear adds cax30 that works at ax2700, slightly below common ax3000 network segment. To me it seems not common to have cax30 with ax2700 instead of ax3000. Later you can compare with arris g36 that also comes with ax3000 network segment.
Cax80 comes with ax6000 with 8 data streams (4×4 mu-mimo) each band, on the other hand cax30 does ax2700 with 6 data streams. Cax80 is like combination of netgear rax80 ax6000 wifi-6 router with docsis 3.1 cable modem such as netgear cm2000, or Arris S33. On the other hand, netgear cax30 is like combination of netgear rax40 ax3000 wifi-6 router with netgear cm1000 docsis 3.1 cable modem.
Multi Gig Ethernet
The other difference is the high speed 2.5Gbps Ethernet port embedded on cax80 (1x) plus 4x 1.0 Gbps lan ports. You can compare to netgear cax30 series which only comes with 4x Gigabit LAN ports. Both machine boards come with the same USB 3.0 port you can attach a USB hard disk to share as disk storage across the network.
Thanks to the lan ports both products can support link aggregation when you require multi-gig lan port. Cax80 is ready with 2.5Gbps port and when more multi-gig port is needed you can configure two lan port for teaming port (link aggregation). What this multi-gig lan port is used for? When you need to connect high speed NAS product that supports two Gigabit lan ports and link aggregation, you can configure either cax80 or cax30 to support link aggregation.
Take a look table 1 below for spec comparison between these two products cax80 and cax30.
Table 1 Netgear cax80 vs cax30
| Netgear cable modem router | Netgear cax80 | Netgear cax30 (s – for armor subscription) |
| Wifi technology | Simultaneous dual band ax6000 wifi 6 with 8 streams | Simultaneous dual band ax2700 wifi 6 with 6 streams |
| Signal rates | 1.2Gbps @2.4GHz 4×4 4.8Gbps @5GHz 4×4 | 0.9Gbps @2.4 GHz 3×3; 1.8Gbps @5GHz 3×3 |
| Built-in DOCSIS 31 cable modem OFDM 2×2 + 32×8 Channel bonding | Yes | Yes |
| Ethernet ports | 1x 2.5Gbps Ethernet LAN port; 4x 1.0Gbps Ethernet LAN ports, dual gigabit Ethernet port aggregation | 4x 1.0Gbps LAN Ethernet Ports, dual gigabit Ethernet port aggregation |
| 1x USB 3.0 for storage device | Yes | Yes |
| Processor | 1.5GHz Dual core processor | 1.5GHz dual core processor |
| Dimension | 10.4 in x 8.5 in x 4.3 in / (264 mm x 215 mm x 110 mm) | 10.0 in x 8.3 in x 4.3 in / (254 mm x 211 mm x 110 mm) |
| Weight | 2.55 lb (1.16 Kg) | 2.10 lb / 0.95 kg |
Wider coverage
What if you need to add wider coverage with this Cax80 or cax30? Netgear is ready with its wifi 6 range extender, you can add Netgear eax20 ax1800 range extender or you can add similar ax6000 technology – the Netgear eax80 range extender.
The other model that Netgear offers is Orbi cbk752. Unlike cax80 and cax30 that combines wifi-6 router, Orbi cbk752 is combination of mesh wifi 6 router plus DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem. Orbi cbk752 consists of Orbi cbr750 router and one Orbi cbs750 satellite.
Cbk752 is like combination of Orbi rbk752 with built-in DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem delivering total bandwidth up to 4200Mbps.
Netgear cax80 vs Arris Surfboard G36
Today you can find few models of all-in-one wifi-6 routers with built-in cable modem from various vendors including Arris, Netgear, Motorola or Asus. The new products introduction by Motorola is mg8725, and you can also find arris with its twin products arris surfboard g34 and g36. The major difference between these two series is that arris g36 comes with multi-gig 2.5Gbps port while g34 doesn’t.
So what is difference between netgear cax80 and arris g36? Please refer to table 2 below for spec comparison between netgear cax30 and arris g36. The spec comparison between cax80 and cax30 has been discussed above, so comparing cax80 ax6000 with arris g36 from my point of view is not fair.
Same Network segment
Like netgear cax80 with ax6000 network segment is common, so is arris g36 with ax3000. You can see that netgear cax30 is designed with uncommon ax2700 segment instead of ax3000 like arris g34 or g36. So with slightly different network segment, you can recon those two products work at the same segment.
LAN Ports
If you require multi-gig 2.5Gbps you may consider netgear cax80 or arris g36. Cax30 doesn’t come with 2.5Gbps port; however you can combine two lan ports to create a teaming port with its link aggregation feature support. It looks complicated for folks with non savvy tech. Moreover, if you require high speed NAS product to support your wifi network environment, arris g36 with 2.5Gbps port is preference knowing that today you can find bunch of NAS products come with 2.5Gbps port, even two ports that support link aggregation as well.
Spec comparison table
Table 2 below gives you details of spec comparison between netgear cax30 and arris g36.
Table 2 Netgear cax30 vs Arris g36
| Gateway Model | Netgear cax30 | Arris Surfboard G36 |
| Wifi router | Simultaneous dual band ax2700 wifi 6 with 6 streams | Simultaneous dual band ax3000 wifi 6 |
| Signal rates | 0.9Gbps @2.4 GHz 3×3; 1.8Gbps @5GHz 3×3 | 1,200Mbps @2.4GHz; 4×4 1,800Mbps @5GHz 3×3 |
| Built-in DOCSIS 31 cable modem OFDM 2×2 + 32 x 8 Channel bonding | Yes | Yes |
| Ethernet Ports | 4x 1.0Gbps LAN Ethernet Ports, dual gigabit Ethernet port aggregation | 1x 2.5Gbps LAN Port; 4x Gigabit LAN ports |
| USB Port | 1x USB 3.0 port for share storage | N/A |
| Dimension | 10.0 in x 8.3 in x 4.3 in / (254 mm x 211 mm x 110 mm) | 10.87 in x 9.92 in x 3.31 in (276 mm x 251,9 mm x 84 mm) |
| Weight | 2.10 lb / 0.95 kg | 3.15 pounds / 1043 gram |
| Price | $299.00 | $329.00 |
Instead of cax30, you may find different label on netgear cax30s with the ‘s’ addition, this refers to the inclusion of one year netgear armor subscription. This is a kind of network protections against any wild internet threats. Prices on online stores such as Amazon, Bestbuy or else are always fluctuating over time, click the product’s link below to learn more details in Amazon (#ads).
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Previous model of arris product is arris surfboard sbg8300 which is so popular before arris released these twin models of arris g34 and g36 ax3000. And the latest product is Arris G54 wifi 7 cable modem combo.
Arris surfboard sbg8300 is still based on legacy wireless ac standard with total aggregated bandwidth of up to ac2200. When you have already upgraded your connected devices with latest wifi 6 technology you may consider arris g34 or g36 that come with wifi 6 instead of surfboard sbg8300 which is still based on legacy wifi5.