MB7420

The modem works as advertised and I had no issues with getting it provisioned from TWC. It took all of ten minutes from unboxing, disconnecting the old modem connecting this one and having it provisioned. I called the technical support as I was unboxing and disconnecting and it was simple and painless to get the new modem on line. No initial difference in speed but none was expected. Only difference seems to be during peak times I now seem to get my full rated speed and no evening slowdowns. Time will tell if this will continue as it is up to the bandwidth the cable company provides. I upgraded from an older version of this modem. My cable provider will be increasing speed shortly so I wanted to be prepared. The previous one would have been able to handle the upgraded speed but based on reviews this seemed like it would give me an advantage as is has more channels available to get the maximum speed. Anyone on my "node" who has an older modem or probably the one from the cable company is not going to have as many channels available to I should get better performance. This should "future proof" me for at least the next five years. It is a good investment considering it will pay for itself in 9 months. I had my current modem for 5+ years and no problems. I will sell it at a garage sale and make some of my initial investment back on that too.

Pros: Fast, Works without a hitch, Pays for itself in 9 months Cons: The diagnostics page could be formatted better I purchased this when I upgraded my TWC service. I am subscribed to the TWC 50/5 "Ultimate" package and I'm getting 124/6 so no complaints there. The only annoyance was dealing with TWC support for activation. I use TWC's phone service, so I kept the old TWC modem for the phone. So of course they kept activating and deactivating the wrong modem at first, but I stayed on the line until they sorted it out. Since then (just over two weeks) the modem has been up nonstop with zero errors, zero outages, etc. 16 down channels and 4 up channels all bonded, I'm amazed I can get this level of service out here in the sticks (Hudson Valley NY). One fun fact about TWC -- if you use their modem for phone only, they won't charge you for it. So when I brought in this modem and relegated the old one to phone only use, they let me keep it but stopped charging me $10/month. Good deal. The only possible complaint I have about this modem is that the web page is a little basic. It shows what you need to know, signal strengths etc, but the formatting on the log entries isn't great and some entries get truncated. It's a minor thing but it's the only downside I could really think of so I figured I'd mention it. The way this thing performs I wouldn't trade it over that. Overall, highly recommended. Performs flawlessly, works beautifully with my TP-Link C7 router, gives me rock-solid stable service faster than I am paying for.

This review is being written the same day I got the modem, so don't rely on it for long term impressions. The setup process went fine and the modem works correctly. I'm getting the speeds that I pay for, same as what I had previously. I purchased the modem because my provider is in the process of upgrading their network, and when the upgrades are complete I'll need a 16 channel modem to remain on my current plan with the new speeds they'll offer. I wanted to write this review to provide some useful data for anyone else considering this model, because it's something I wish I could have found documented for newer modems before I purchased it. First is the heat produced by the device. I've attached a photo taken with a thermal camera, showing the modem after being in use for 2 hours. It reads 111 degrees Fahrenheit at the hottest point. (Approx. 44 degrees Celcius) This means that the modem is warm to the touch, but not hot. I also measured the idle power consumption of the modem using a kill-a-watt device. This is with the modem connected to the network and some devices connected via a router having some connections open, but no active downloads or streaming occurring. Idle power consumption averaged at 7.7 Watts. I like the modem itself, although I'm not sure at this point if I'm going to keep it. Compared to my previous modem, (SB6141) both the power consumption (5.9W vs 7.7W) and heat output (98F vs 111F) are higher. On the plus side, it offers twice as many channels and twice the maximum speed. Considering the performance bump, the difference between the two devices likely means the MB7420 is actually better from a performance per watt perspective. If you need the kind of speed this modem is capable of, it seems like a very good option.