The Arris SB8200 and Netgear CM1000 are the first to adopt the new DOCSIS 3.1 Technology (with the Motorola MB8600 Zoom, launched just a few months ago) and offer a grouping of up to 32 download channels and 8 download channels. Each of these devices promises to give you the opportunity to use the fastest speed plan available from your Internet service provider.
The DOCSIS 3.1 standard was designed as an alternative to fiber optic technology and currently supports at least 10 Gbit/s for downstream and 1 Gbit/s for upstream (using 4096 QAM), so people were very excited and expected that these cable modems would actually be able to reach (or
In truth, there are not many people who have access to data plans with a download speed of 1 Gbps, and neither the Netgear CM1000 nor the Arris SB8200 can break the Gigabit barrier for the usual consumer (the SB8200 can do this with Link Aggregation, which is probably not available That being said, The Arris SB8200 and the Netgear CM1000 will offer some relief in areas with many overloaded nodes, offering transparent Gigabit performance to those who can afford it. So let’s see which is the best cable modem.
ALSO WATCH: ARRIS SB8200 VS MOTOROLA MB8600
Design
As usual, Arris has pretty much adopted the same design model as the last three generations of the surfboard family, with the expected white plastic cover covered with a matte finish. The edges have remained rounded and the thick plastic strip still wraps around the rectangular center piece, so that the SB8200 as a whole is almost indistinguishable from previous generations of Arris cable modems. The NETGEAR CM1000 also retains much of the design lines of its predecessor, but has also added some major new improvements that set it apart from the crowd. Therefore, the CM1000 has a polyhedron-shaped cover (similar to a jet-cut gemstone) covered with a black matte finish with slightly curved edges.
While the Arris SB8200 still has that cheerful look, with its colored LEDs that shine on the white plastic (the LEDs are less bright, so no backlighting bleeds this time), the Netgear CM1000 takes a more serious position and manages to be the most elegant device. In addition, Netgear took the possibility of overheating very seriously (which is common on any powerful device) and almost completely covered the CM1000 with small triangular cutouts. This has certainly improved the airflow a lot and manages to keep the device surprisingly cool. Arris has also taken some precautions to ensure good ventilation and, just like the CM1000, has covered the SB8200 with lost recesses that should improve air circulation (despite this, the SB8200 runs a little warmer than the CM1000).
To extend the life of any of the above cable modems, be careful not to clog the vents (do not place them on one side and do not place them too close to a wall) and although the SB8200 can be mounted on the wall, I do not recommend doing so because it can impede the circulation of One important differentiating factor is the size of these Modems: the SB8200 is small and compact, measuring 5.24 x 5.24 x 1.65 inches, and although it not being a heavy equipment (it weighs 2.1 pounds), the four rubber feet help a lot to prevent the modem from moving. The CM1000 is larger (it measures 8.8 x 5).4 x 5.9 inches), it is lighter than the SB8200 (weighs 0.84 pounds), which means that it can be easily thrown off the table (despite its support, which should slightly increase the stability of the device). So you have to be careful where you position it.
Now on the front panel of the SB8200 you will find four LED indicators indicating the status of power supply, reception (Green – DOCSIS 3.0 / blue – DOCSIS 3.1), sending (like the receiving LED) and online. There are also a few status lights on the front of the Netgear CM1000: power (Red indicates that the modem could overheat), downstream, upstream, Internet (flashing means that the device is syncing with the CMTS) and Ethernet (green–a 1000 Mbps connection / solid yellow – a 10/100 Mbps connection). On the back of the CM1000 you will find all the necessary ports and buttons: a recessed reset button, a Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, the coaxial cable connector, the power button and the power input.
The back of the SB8200 is slightly different because, although it has the expected recessed reset button, the coaxial cable connector and the power connector, it also has two Ethernet ports with two LEDs each (yellow means a 10/100 Mbps data connection and green indicates a GigE data connection). At the moment you can’t really use the second Ethernet Port, but in the future it has the potential to support speeds of up to 2 Gbit/s against the CM1000’s maximum of 1 Gbit/s (using Link aggregation). It can also act as a fail-safe system or connect two separate devices at once.
