Cisco Linksys E3000 vs E4200

So I will be moving to an apartment in a few months and will be living with some roommates. I figure I'll spring for a nice router so I can keep it when its time to move in a few years. My question is will there any noticeable differences between these two models.

The two people have PS3s, two people have netfilx, most likely will be streaming hulu too. One does video work on the youtube page and that's about all I can think off for uses.

I realize that to take advantage of these speeds your ISP needs to have a plan capable of transmitting those speeds and a router capable of making it wireless. My question is which one will be able to transmit steady speeds across walls, for all users, so no one will be experiencing hiccups. The only thing I will be doing is connecting to the internet and nothing more. All I really need is to play SC2 without disconnecting while my roommates are streaming netflix/ps3/hulu. Is the E3000 good enough or will the E4200 be enough of an upgrade to see noticeable differences. Thanks.

Thanks.

 

The E4200 is definitely better.. you can find a full review here:

Linksys E4200 Maximum Performance Dual-Band Wireless-N Router Review - Search Results - CNET Reviews

I personally recommend it

 

It's not that easy- both use exactly the same CPU however E4200 also utilizes a firmware trick that improves routing throughput- this is pretty irrelevant for home users though.
Wi-Fi is better on E4200 especially 2.4GHz band.

While E4200 is definitely better it not something one is likely to notice unlike the price difference which is almost $50.

Given the choice of E3000 or E4200 I'd buy Netgear WNDR3700

 

so my new computer has a intel 6300 card. will there be less hiccups if my computer is on the 5ghz and everyone else's is on the 2.4?

 

Just anecdotal of course, but last night I replaced my dying router with the E3000. I'm able to achieve an A on pingtest.net while bittorrents are going full blast. Was pleasantly surprised that great gaming was possible while downloads were going.

Previously, if anyone in the house was using torrents, I'd just give up on gaming.

 

Yes if 2.4GHz is overcrowded. That said E4200 excels in 2.4GHz band- it's not the best in 5GHz (mind you it’s still good).

 

Someone correct me with I'm wrong, but I think torrents with gaming really depends on how the p2p is configured. If upload speed is limited, ping isn't affected as much. It's unlimited upload speed that kills your ping, at least from my experience.

 

That's true Forge, but if your router doesn't have enough RAM to and CPU power to deal with numerous connections in real time it doesn't really matter how do you configure P2P- gaming will be terrible anyway.
So apparently shadowyani upgraded from a router that was a lot worse hardware-wise.