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Asus AX router recommendation for friend.

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willyburz

Senior Member
Friend wants the best performing Asus AX router for max $150 budget, what should he go with? Trying to push him up to the AX86U, but doubt he'll bite past $150 on the pricing.
 
If not the AX86U which is my first choice, if you can find one, the AX68U is second at around $200.00. AX58U would be as low as I would go and there are post on this forum that folks are not pleased with its performance.
If you look at just the radios the AX86U is 4x4, the AX68U is 3x3 and the AX58U is 2x2. The more radios the faster WIFI.
The AC86U would be a great choice but is not WIFI 6.
 
RT-AX86U. Buy once, enjoy for the longest time. Cheaper in the long run, by far.
 
Same thoughts here, would get AX86U, if not than the AX68U. Good luck.
 
Ive bought AX-55 (its under 150$, ive got mine for about ~100) and im happy about this one. Working fine, have nice features (its working full speed for 1gb/s on ethernet cable, on Wifi 6 (5ghz) my Samsung S10 splits around 750 mbps in ooklaa speedtest). Only flaw is zero USB on this one, but if your friend can live without it its working really well

PS. Ive got bridge connected to this router (Tplink switch on 2.6 Ghz) and working just fine
 
Friend wants the best performing Asus AX router for max $150 budget, what should he go with? Trying to push him up to the AX86U, but doubt he'll bite past $150 on the pricing.
Convince him to spend the money and go for the AX86U. He'll easily get 3-5 years out of it. I've tortured mine several times and get the total of 1.4 Gigs my connection puts out. It handles it fine. I also have a friend who has one and has 10+ people connecting to it regularly, each with multiple devices and it takes it like a champ. Do not allow him to cheap out, he will regret it.
 
I'm not sure where you are located, but the Canadian versions of the AX55 & AX56U don't support DFS (if that's important to your friend). The AX86U does and I will find out next week if the AX58U does. Otherwise, I so far really like my 86U and the AX55 & AX56U seemed pretty decent before I returned them.
 
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Happy owner of RT-AX68U here :) Just got it, installed Merlin on it of course, and delegated existing RT-AC68U to the role of AiMesh node on the second floor using Ethernet backhaul.
Works like charm :)
 
ASUS RT-AX82U would be a happy compromise instead of buying RT-AX86U. The 82U does support 160Mhz channel width for faster link speeds. Galaxy S21 Ultra can reach 2.4 Gbps link.
 
ASUS RT-AX82U would be a happy compromise instead of buying RT-AX86U. The 82U does support 160Mhz channel width for faster link speeds. Galaxy S21 Ultra can reach 2.4 Gbps link.
That's also a pretty good idea.
 
AX82u is only a tri core CPU though, the AX55U is a quad core and $100 less if he is that budget tight
 
I paid $160 for an RT-AX58U to use as an AiMesh node. It's working great so far.
 
I paid $160 for an RT-AX58U to use as an AiMesh node. It's working great so far.
AX55 is cheaper, and a bit less powerful:

 

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