Archer C7($87) vs. Asus RT AC68U($60) or ???

[Uellee]

(edit: The AC68U is the version with the T-Mobile firmware)

I am replacing a cheap old wireless Belkin N150 router and I don't think I need anything too extravagant. Our regular anticipated household use consists of 2 adults and and 2 toddlers potentially using a variety of the following devices. 1 wired desktop, 1 wired printer, 2 wifi laptops, 2 wifi smartphones, 1 tablet, and potentially 2 smart TVs. The most demand probably exists either while watching movies over wifi or uploading large amounts of family pictures to the cloud over wifi and an occasional torrent download over wifi. Our house is about 2,100 sq ft and we have a usable outdoor area of just over an acre. I know I can only get so much out of a single "mid range" router and I have no problem with that.

Through my wired desktop I can usually get about 50 down and 10 up, which is about what my provider advertises.

I do have an interest in possibly setting up some sort of super simple networked storage through USB but that is by no means a top priority.

I would appreciate any recommendations between the two routers mentioned or your suggestion to look at another option. I don't think I could really justify spending over about $130 as I doubt I would really appreciate any benefits.

Thank you for your input!

 

[microchip]

I'd definitely go for the AC68U. Far better firmware

 

[Uellee]

I'd definitely go for the AC68U. Far better firmware

...and comparable or better range vs the C7 I assume?

I understand I am probably not really getting anything out of the AC1900 vs AC1750 as I doubt any of my devices support 600 over the 2.4ghz signal.

 

[Uellee]

I'd definitely go for the AC68U. Far better firmware

ALSO...
It is the t-mobile version with their firmware, forgot to mention the first time around.

 

[thiggins]

I understand I am probably not really getting anything out of the AC1900 vs AC1750 as I doubt any of my devices support 600 over the 2.4ghz signal.

You are correct. If you had a lot of heavy use, you might see a difference from the extra processing power in an AC1900 class router. But with your load, I doubt it.

If you want a lot of feature bells and whistles, go for the ASUS. Otherwise the C7 or C8 is fine.
Performance ranking of AC1750 routers is here.

Either router is going to be a big improvement over N150.

 

[microchip]

The C7 has internal antenna's for the 2.4GHz band. I have it at home, along with the AC66U which just like the AC68U has dual-band external antenna's. The AC66U outperforms it at range every single time

 

[Uellee]

The C7 has internal antenna's for the 2.4GHz band. I have it at home, along with the AC66U which just like the AC68U has dual-band external antenna's. The AC66U outperforms it at range every single time

Thank you.

I purchased the T-Mobile $60 special version of the AC68U and plan to flash to the standard Asus firmware. Wish me luck!

 

[swetoast]

have to agree with @kvic the asuswrt firmware is a bit overhyped there are good firmware outthere that can outperform asuswrt

recently picked up a TP-link Archer MR200 and found the firmware in it kinda nice to mess around with so just saying AsusWRT is great without testing others is kinda blank check for ASUSWRT

 

[microchip]

have to agree with @kvic the asuswrt firmware is a bit overhyped there are good firmware outthere that can outperform asuswrt

recently picked up a TP-link Archer MR200 and found the firmware in it kinda nice to mess around with so just saying AsusWRT is great without testing others is kinda blank check for ASUSWRT

Overhyped or not, out of all stock vendor firmwares, there's no better one and no as flexible one either, especially if you run Merlin's one. The only vendor that comes close firmware-wise is TP-Link. Netgear firmware is just to cry about, same for D-Link. Linksys firmware is way too basic and restrictive, even though it looks visually good. My opinion, of course

 

[Uellee]

My router will come with the T-Mobile version firmware as far as I understand and I am assuming that I don't want to continue with that. It sounds like they are a bit behind the curve on updates and may have the QoS preset.

I understand Asus firmware is pretty good but not the best.

Since it sounds like I will be flashing anyway what is recommended? Just go with Asus stock intended for the ac68u or something different? Merlin, DD-WRT, other.

I would not claim to be any sort of a super power user but I do love to take advantage of different available functions and tinker around a bit but at the end of the day I don't ave any real high end demands.





.

 

[microchip]

I suggest starting with Merlin, which is a modified/improved of the stock one. If you need more, you can try Tomato or DD-WRT. Note that only Tomato provides "hardware acceleration" CTF support, needed if you have anything more than 300 Mbps speed. DD-WRT doesn't as it uses a different kernel

 

[wocram]

Since it sounds like I will be flashing anyway what is recommended? Just go with Asus stock intended for the ac68u or something different? Merlin, DD-WRT, other.

If you don't need extra options (like multiple OpenVPN clients) you can go with stock firmware, when you like more regular updates and added features, AsusWRT-Merlin is great.

I use Merlin firmware since I bought my modem 4 months ago and there have been 3 Merlin firmware updates since then!

 

[Alenknight]

I have both and tested both.
for PURE wifi... the TP-Link archer c7 will beat the ac68u. I've tested it in various antenna functions, with range, walls, and did a diagram. repeated a few times. the c7... is OVERALL... slightly better... but only by about 10% margin.

HOWEVER... the versatility of the Asus router.... is astronomically better.. so to me the ac68u is a far better router.

I think the internal antenna are the result of this extra oomph on the c7.
I even tried switching the antenna, and testing. same results.

also, once I loaded up the c7 with ethernet cables and started my whole house network weighing down on it (I have 40+ connected devices when you add the switches in).... the c7 failed miserably. it's fundamentally not a beefy system. It couldn't handle the multi processing.