<p>OK, I'm hoping there is a fellow nerd out there who can help me on this. Apple release the new iMacs today which feature Gigabit Ethernet ports standard. I just purchased an airport extreme wirless/hardline router combo, but found out that it was updated today to feature Gigabit Ethernet as well. I know the connection in the USC dorms is supposed to ridiculously fast, I've heard close to T3 speeds, but will it make a noticable difference to return the Airport Extreme and get the new gigabit Ethernet version to go with the new iMac? Is there enough bandwidth running into the dorms that it would make a noticable difference?</p>
<p>Can someone in the dorms run a bandwidth test to see what type of speed we're talking here? It would be immensely helpful. Thanks.</p>
<p>I never really tested it, but I would guess it's regular old 10-base-T. If you're lucky, you might get a 10/100, though you probably won't get that maxed out. </p>
<p>I know that a lot of the modern labs are wired for gigabit and it's just a matter of owner of said lab allocating money (i.e. research $$$) to pay ITS for the bandwidth. </p>
<p>More likely for you to use gigabit is for local networking. It's nice when you have two computers with gigabit because you can just run a cable between them and transfer files really fast (and for macs, you don't need to put them in target disk mode like with firewire)</p>
<p>Alternatively if you're thinking possibly of LAN parties or anytime connecting more than 2 gigabit-capable machines together, then investing in a gigabit capable router might make sense. Plus it's more future proof.</p>
<p>But no, you're probably not going to notice a difference, especially over the wireless connection (unless the new one has wireless-N and the old one doesn't, in which case the new is probably a better idea)</p>