ax11000 or ax88u or ax89x

[steel_3d]

I've pretty much narrowed it down to these three. Which one do you guys recommend?

I have Spectum 400Mb/20Mb internet and Tmobile tm-ac1900 aka ac68u currently. It works ok, but speeds are not blazing, occasional disconnects, occasionally need to reboot router (every few weeks or months). Most common issue is that devices lose internet and I need to switch to the other band's ssid to get internet back. Also most of the time half my DLNA devices (even wired) or chromecasts are not visible, or disconnect randomly. House is 3000sqft. I have a desktop in the upstairs office and a work macbook pro that get about 200Mbps down, 15 up, sometimes more, sometimes less. Just did a test and got 133/16. Pretty inconsistent. I haven't tuned the setup much, sort of out of the box.

Anyways, I'm sick of the issues, want something fast and most of all stable! Money's not really an object.

I want fast speeds to my office, especially because my office desktop is essentially my NAS/backup drive. Don't want to bother with separate NAS for many reasons. If I can get 500-800Mbps for backups, it'll be plenty good for me. Hard wiring is not really an option. Usb3 HD attached to router could be an option, but I heard usb3 affects wifi signal? I don't really have crazy requirements for bandwidth other than backup. Don't need gigabit internet, but I would like to max out my measly 20Mbps upstream at least for work.

My router's not too close to my office. Signal goes through a floor and some walls. Not easy to move router, and my speeds are not bad enough to really warrant moving, so I want to maximize speed as is with a new router. Also I feel like a mesh would just slow things down with the extra hop, especially without tri-band, and no great place to put the second router that's not in the office anyway. Mesh seems pointless. MoCA over coax might be an option if I really need it. Or maybe power line junk? Let's not get into that now. Let's try to improve wifi speed with the router where it is first.

ax11000
pros:
-tri-band, so I can use the 5g 2 radio for AX only at 160MHz, with my PC the only client, and use 5g 1 for max compatibility with ac and legacy clients.
-lots of antennae that articulate
-probably fastest option in case I need a mesh in the future, given the extra radio for backhaul
cons:
-stability?

ax88u
pros:
-Merlyn (is this really a pro in terms of stability and speed? I really prefer to keep it simple and stock unless the payoff is big.)
-small size
cons:
-no tri-band
-not many antennae, not sure if this will affect signal coverage in my two story house

ax89x
pros:
-newer
-fast in tests
-lots of antennae
cons:
-no tri-band
-huge, and I don't think antennae can tilt sideways, so not sure how it will fit in the cubicle in my entertainment center that's only 8" tall
-stability?

Also, which PCIe AX card should I get for my PC? Are all Intel ax200 cards equivalent? Will I get slightly better compatibility with the asus card with asus router and asus threadripper motherboard?

Thanks!

 

[Gouldin]

Well, you've summed the routers up quite decently.
I find the tri-band to be the most flexible.

89x is cool, but I can't see me upgrading my Nas to 10gb anytime soon as as I don't feel like upgrading to ssd's in a new for a speed boost.

Ax88 probably the best choice if cost, 8 ethernet ports and Merlin support are needed.

If not then I'd argue the ax11000 is the best all rounder for flexibility and it does still have a 2.5gb port.

 

[Trip]

Backup Speed - While your AC clients may be able to link at 500Mb/s PHY rate or higher, the USB write ceiling will bottleneck your throughput well below that. But I'm sure you realize that, having considered all the benefits of a NAS already.

QoS - With 20 Mb upload, you probably want to run SQM, in one form or another. Broadcom's closed-source kernel drivers mean that fq_codel via Merlin may have limited success. OpenWRT on Qualcomm would likely yield the best outcome, but it would take you away from Asus and AiMesh, which I sense may be a deal-breaker. If not, I'd look at a Netgear R7800 with OpenWRT.

Wifi Topology - Might you consider a pair of lower-spec Asus boxes in AiMesh, or another whole-house product, right from the start, as opposed to a single over-amplified array? Depending on the layout of your place and your client population/locations, it may net you more usable endpoint bandwidth, for similar or lower cost. That said, I do understand the sentiment of not wanting to have to create a wired backbone or monkey with wireless mesh right now.

 

[steel_3d]

Thanks for the tips. I'm leaning towards ax11000 unless I'm giving something up on stability. Is it considered stable? I've seen reviews both ways.

Trip, can you elaborate on your reasoning for SQM as it relates to 20mbps UL? Note that I'll rarely be saturating my upload, unless I'm actively uploading something to work servers. Nothing else really uses UL on my network. I also don't game almost at all. Don't really care about latency, just bandwidth the few times a day when I need it. I also doubt buffer bloat would affect my few video chats.

 

[Gouldin]

I've found the latest firmware to be rock solid.

A few users reported issues on the last couple of firmwares, not heard anything bad about this one. (I've not found any issues in terms of stability)

 

[Trip]

Trip, can you elaborate on your reasoning for SQM as it relates to 20mbps UL? Note that I'll rarely be saturating my upload, unless I'm actively uploading something to work servers. Nothing else really uses UL on my network. I also don't game almost at all. Don't really care about latency, just bandwidth the few times a day when I need it. I also doubt buffer bloat would affect my few video chats.

Got it. Now that you clarified your traffic needs, I doubt it will be as important an issue (if you were dealing with critical VoIP, gaming and/or a lot of multi-user contention, different story, but that doesn't seem to be the case). I think you'll be fine enough with the AX11000 then. If it falls short, you can always re-purpose it as an AP.

 

[steel_3d]

Cool, I'll give the 11000 a shot. Thanks, guys!

 

[steel_3d]

Oh, we forgot about the PCIe adapter. Is there a best one, or are they all the same?