Motorola SB5120 Surfboard Cable Modem Docsis 1.1 and 2.0 Certified USB

by Motorola

Product Details

Product Manual [1.83mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 3 x 6 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009K9FZW
• Item model number: 505788-006-00
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (270 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #741 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #13 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Networking Products > Modems
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 5, 2005

Product Description

Motorola's next-generation SURFboard SB5120 Cable Modem incorporates the latest DOCSIS 2.0 Advanced Time Division Multiple Access (A-TDMA) and Sychnronous Code Division Multiple Access (S-CDMA) technologies to provide up to three times greater upstream capacity than DOCSIS 1.0/1.1 systems. Packed with power, the SB5120 is interoperable and backward compatible with DOCSIS 1.0 and 1.1 for a fast and timely transition - operators can deploy the SB5120 today without a service interruption.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

227 of 230 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No longer manufactured by Motorola, November 16, 2007

By 

J. D. Hayes (Hampton Roads, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Motorola SB5120 Surfboard Cable Modem Docsis 1.1 and 2.0 Certified USB (Personal Computers)

Recently I started looking for a modem to replace my aging Motorola SB4100. Based on the good reviews, I decided to buy the Motorola SB5120. Unfortunately, I found the SB5120 extremely hard to find (Amazon did not have it in stock at the time). The SB5101 however was in stock everywhere for about $50. Out of frustration, I contacted Motorola to ask about availability and the significant differences between the 5120 and the 5101. The Motorola technician that I talked to told me that the reason the 5120 is scarce is that it is no longer manufactured. He also explained that the difference between the two modems is the internal chipset. The 5120 is a TI and the 5101 is a Broadcom. He also said that there is no difference in performance; both are capable of 38 Mbps downstream and 30 Mbps upstream (limited by the cable company's tiers and number of users on the net).

Finally, I asked him which he preferred (since I could still track down a 5120 if I was willing to pay enough...). He stated unequivocally that he preferred the SB5101 and the Broadcom chipset. He also stated that the speed on the modems is artificially capped by the cable companies so that they can sell tiers of service. This modem, he said, has a lot of available overhead so as the broadband companies compete and raise their level of service, this modem can handle it. Finally, he told me that there is a new DOCSIS standard (3.0) recently approved; the 5101 modem is upgradeable to DOCSIS 3.0 should the cable company choose to do so.

That said, I followed his recommendation and bought a 5101.

73 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding modem!, December 16, 2005

By 

Gene Pope "gene" (Trout Creek, MT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Motorola SB5120 Surfboard Cable Modem Docsis 1.1 and 2.0 Certified USB (Personal Computers)

My old RCA modem for my [...] service turned flakey so I called Comcast to come out and see what was wrong. They replaced the modem with some no-name cheapie and I saw my download rate drop from 4 MBps to 1.2 MBps ! Yikes! I called their techs again and asked what happened. Their response: "The ping looks great, you can't trust those speed test websites (dslreports in this case) and modems don't make any difference in speed". Yeah, right. I immediately bought this Surfboard modem, replaced the no-name one, called Comcast to enable the MAC address and what was 1.2 MPs download immediately prior to the modem switch-out was now happily above 4 MBps and a totally solid connection! The cable modem makes a huge difference and this is a great one!

60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast, Reliable, Better Than Linksys, August 8, 2005

By 

Embedded Engineer "Networker" (Cary, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Motorola SB5120 Surfboard Cable Modem Docsis 1.1 and 2.0 Certified USB (Personal Computers)

Used the SB5120 to replace Linksys BEFCMU10 (Version 3.0). The SB5120 performs better and is much more stable.

I had performance and reliability problems using VOIP service over my Linksys cable modem. Under load the Linksys cable modem has high latency and performs poorly. The Linksys cable modem required a reset a few times a week. (Note: no problems with my Linksys VOIP router.)

With the SB5120 my VOIP connection sounds better and is more stable (no cable modem resets required). My overall latency is lower and WEB pages load much faster.

Packet forwarding performance is much better with the SB5120.