Asus AX88U on sale

[Makaveli]

Hi all,

The AX88U is on sale right now and I have that itch to purchase new hardware.

For those of you that already own it what are you thoughts.

1. Performance
2. Features
3. How it runs on Merlin
4. Script performance: Diversion, NTP merlin, etc

The only thing i've seen that is abit of a disappointment is the kept the WAN Port @ 1Gbps. Not a huge issue for most i'm on a 1Gbps fibre connection but my ISP does offer 1.5Gbps.

I do love that it comes with 1 GB of ram.

And I think I asked this question before internally is it two 4 port switches combined to make it 8 ports or just 1 8 port switch and is there a difference performance wise.

 

[Val D.]

The AX88U is on sale right now and I have that itch to purchase new hardware.

What's the price?
I see RT-AC86U on sale for CAD200 in two stores.

 

[Makaveli]

Best buy has the AX88U on sale right now for $363 CAD

Which is the cheapest i've seen it most places its selling for $450 CAD.

 

[Val D.]

Not a great sale price. The regular price was $400 last week.

If you don't have any AX devices, RT-AX88U won't give you any performance gains over RT-AC86U.

 

[Mutzli]

Best Asus router available. Works great with Merlin and it offers plenty of RAM for all kinds of scripts. I had several Asus routers before the AX88U (AC88U, AC86U, AC68U and AC87U) and this is the router I had the least issues with. If you have WiFi 6 devices it will be an amazing experience. I just updated my PC's to WiFi 6 and my new OnePlus 7 Pro phone support it as well. I get download speeds of 1.2Gbps almost everywhere in the house. So yes, I definitely recommend one over any other Asus router.

 

[heysoundude]

Not a great sale price. The regular price was $400 last week.

If you don't have any AX devices, RT-AX88U won't give you any performance gains over RT-AC86U.

I agree - an upgrade now is jumping the gun somewhat. the price will come down still more when there are more AX devices.

 

[RAH-66]

The only thing i've seen that is abit of a disappointment is the kept the WAN Port @ 1Gbps. Not a huge issue for most i'm on a 1Gbps fibre connection but my ISP does over 1.5Gbps.

ax1100 with 2.5Gb wan port https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_GT-AX11000

 

[Val D.]

an upgrade now is jumping the gun somewhat

Was WIFI 6 standard finalized?
If not, this makes all current AX routers pre-release draft standards devices. Too early to give ASUS $400, I think.

ax1100 with 2.5Gb wan port https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_GT-AX11000

Not supported by Asuswrt-Merlin though.
Probably a good router, but limited to what ASUS decided to offer in their firmware only. And way too expensive also.

 

[heysoundude]

Was WIFI 6 standard finalized?
If not, this makes all current AX routers pre-release draft standards devices. Too early to give ASUS $400, I think.



Not supported by Asuswrt-Merlin though.
Probably a good router, but limited to what ASUS decided to offer in their firmware only. And way too expensive also.

I may be mistaken, but I believe so...or am I confuzzling “agreed to” with “finalized”?

EDIT: UPDATE https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-certified-6

These are all excellent points. Well worth considering for the OP before they satisfy their need for speed by splashing some money around.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Makaveli]

Not a great sale price. The regular price was $400 last week.

If you don't have any AX devices, RT-AX88U won't give you any performance gains over RT-AC86U.

i'm coming from 68U class hardware not from the AC86U. Been on that for about 4 years now so I felt now is a good time.

So dual core @ 1ghz to Quad at 1.8ghz plus Encryption engine etc it is going to be a big boost.

256mb of ram to 1GB.

No AX devices currently but I use a vpn etc so the other upgrades are needed.

I've been doing my due diligence all week on this product reading reviews and go thru the forum looking at posts from users that own it. So this isn't a last min decision, when I get a hardware itch and set my mind on it I tend not to wait.

The deed is done I stopped by best buy on my way to the Gym.

 

[Val D.]

The deed is done I stopped by best buy on my way to the Gym.

BestBuy has 30-day return policy, as far as i remember.
Why don't you get one RT-AC86U also and compare the two?
Then you can decide which one is a better device for your specific needs.

 

[Makaveli]

BestBuy has 30-day return policy, as far as i remember.
Why don't you get one RT-AC86U also and compare the two?
Then you can decide which one is a better device for your specific needs.

That is not a bad idea actually I will consider that.

 

[Val D.]

That is not a bad idea actually I will consider that.

My only concern is the reliability of RT-AC86U. I keep a spare router at all times.
Mine is running OK, but we have a forum member here on SNB with 5 x RMA units.

 

[CaptainSTX]

That is not a bad idea actually I will consider that.

Before adding an AC86 to the mix check the year that it was manufactured. The 2019 model year may have solved the issues some people have with the 2018 model year.

 

[Makaveli]

My only concern is the reliability of RT-AC86U. I keep a spare router at all times.
Mine is running OK, but we have a forum member here on SNB with 5 x RMA units.

Based on what I've seen on the forum there is issues with certain AC86U plus I need the 8 lan ports hence why I choose the AX88U.

Will keep all of this in mind if I pick one up thanks for the heads up.

 

[Val D.]

I need the 8 lan ports

Don't waste your time then. RT-AX88U is the right one for you. Congratulations!

 

[miroco]

This could be worth considering if OpenVPN is central to your or anybody else's setup.

"The downside to OpenVPN is that in its current architecture, it is not scalable. It runs as a monolithic process and cannot run multi-threaded. This means that if you have a beefy processor with 8 cores OpenVPN will use 1 of them."

https://www.clearos.com/resources/documentation/clearos/content:en_us:kb_o_openvpn_performance

"The RT-AC86U BCM4906 and the RT-AX88U BCM4908 are basically the same CPU (Cortex A53), except one is a dual-core package, and the other is a quad-core package."

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/r...13-is-now-available.57860/page-32#post-513976

How about an RT-AC86U + a dumb switch?

 

[elorimer]

Amazon is US$325 new and US$260 refurb.

 

[Makaveli]

Amazon is $325 new and $260 refurb.

$325 USD on Amazon.com

Amazon.ca its $425 CAD.

How about an RT-AC86U + a dumb switch?

I thought about this but would prefer to go without a switch.

If I'm going to put a switch in it would be enterprise grade switch and that would be 2x the cost of the AX88U.

 

[elorimer]

"The downside to OpenVPN is that in its current architecture, it is not scalable. It runs as a monolithic process and cannot run multi-threaded. This means that if you have a beefy processor with 8 cores OpenVPN will use 1 of them."

Slightly curious about this. With 5 client instances and 2 server instances, isn't each running in its own thread? I recall some time ago Merlin had tuned this so the clients and servers balanced out over two cores. Would something similar happen with 4 cores?