GT-AX6000 or RT6600ax

[smr.dny]

Hi everyone,

Looking to purchase a new router and my choice has come down to either a GT-AX6000 or RT6600ax. Between the two, which would you say overall would be the better pick? I’m looking to use the router for a couple of years at least.

 

[Tech Junky]

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They've already got WIFI 7 which doubles the speed to 320mhz / ~5gbps for a single 2x2 client. With overhead ~3gbps is more realistic with an AX411 M2 card. Well, not really since the AX411 doesn't technically classify as wifi 7 but, could conceivably hit those speeds since it's 2.4/5/6 capable.

AFAIK both of your options are the same thing and spending less would be my personal priority unless there's a niche feature provided by one of them you absolutely want.

 

[Tech9]

Between the two, which would you say overall would be the better pick?

What recommendation do you expect to get asking this question in mostly Asus users forum?

 

[smr.dny]

What recommendation do you expect to get asking this question in mostly Asus users forum?

Well it doesn’t hurt to ask, someone may have both or work in a job where they use the Synology

 

[jsz]

My experience with the GT-AX6000 was lackluster, granted my environment/walls/large metal appliances are likely the issue.. QAM and throughput were the trade off with my older AC router.

@ Same 25-30FT distance on both. Stationary intel AX210 card:
GT-AX6000 = lower QAM modulation, but higher throughput.
GT-AC2900 = higher QAM modulation, but lower/weaker throughput due to older design.

Line of sight performance was top notch (if not the best i've used) at least when moving stuff around, but I need a specific location. YMMV.

Can't comment on RT6600x, but I do know that the main 5G radio is a newer Gen 2 4x4 Qualcomm "SoC". Physical chip is bigger than newer A7 Radio's Broadcom has.

Physical hardware supports 4096 QAM, but disables radio down from four streams to two streams.. I don't think Synology "activated" this feature.

Makes me wonder if it's A53 based in conjunction to the main A53 1.8ghz IPQ6018

The other 5G and 2.4G radios are a weaker 2x2 design that likely leverages main CPU for load/processing.


Personally? I would have preferred if Synology went 4x4+4x4 instead of 4x4 + 2x2 + 2x2 triband.. but I'm biased towards higher end designs... The current setup is superior for wireless backhaul between two units.

 

[smr.dny]

My experience with the GT-AX6000 was lackluster, granted my environment/walls/large metal appliances are likely the issue.. QAM and throughput were the trade off with my older AC router.

@ Same 25-30FT distance on both. Stationary intel AX210 card:
GT-AX6000 = lower QAM modulation, but higher throughput.
GT-AC2900 = higher QAM modulation, but lower/weaker throughput due to older design.

Line of sight performance was top notch (if not the best i've used) at least when moving stuff around, but I need a specific location. YMMV.

Can't comment on RT6600x, but I do know that the main 5G radio is a newer Gen 2 4x4 Qualcomm "SoC". Physical chip is bigger than newer A7 Radio's Broadcom has.

Physical hardware supports 4096 QAM, but disables radio down from four streams to two streams.. I don't think Synology "activated" this feature.

Makes me wonder if it's A53 based in conjunction to the main A53 1.8ghz IPQ6018

The other 5G and 2.4G radios are a weaker 2x2 design that likely leverages main CPU for load/processing.


Personally? I would have preferred if Synology went 4x4+4x4 instead of 4x4 + 2x2 + 2x2 triband.. but I'm biased towards higher end designs... The current setup is superior for wireless backhaul between two units.

Great information, thank you. Still not sure which one to get. I wonder if the RT-AX86U Pro would be worth waiting for.

 

[Marcus Yansen]

Ax-86u pro unless u gonna get above 1.5 gb internet or need more than one multi gig port but price a factor too - if both similar price as result of black Friday then gt-ax 6000

 

[jsz]

Great information, thank you. Still not sure which one to get. I wonder if the RT-AX86U Pro would be worth waiting for.

GT-AX6000 is the better option.. 2x 2.5G ports, and 4x4 2.4G.

AX86U PRO lacks second 2.5G Port and uses 3x3 2.4G chip. Basically the cost down variant of newer gen 2 BCM hardware.

MSRP on AX86U PRO should be $300+.. which makes no sense if GT-AX6000 is hitting those same prices right now (sales).. MSRP on GT-AX6000 is $400.

If the AX86U PRO performs better, I would argue it's due to the raised design profile more than any "improvement" on hardware design. GT-AX6000 will sit lower on the same kind of surface.

The Synology is interesting, but I cant really comment on how it performs relative to "good routers".

I'm personally interested in a AX89X price drop for 8x8 config (teamed 4x4 5G chips) but its an older gen 1 QCA design and I really would hate to spend over $250 since Netgears version has dropped down to $225 a few times.

 

[Marcus Yansen]

Gt-ax 6000 is better if u have use for it’s extra configs albeit its more future proof as an access point later on, otherwise having a porsche without a highway to drive it on makes it worthless investment - but if their prices were close. I’d get the gt-ax6000 ofc - gt ax 6000 has some really great sales going on it right now in some countries

 

[Tech9]

its more future proof as an access point later on

Not good for an AP to something more serious. No VLAN support.

Good for an AP on a teenager party. May flash some lights to make them happier.

 

[Crimliar]

Maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick here, but to make the RT6600ax worthwhile, you'll really need clients capable of using it's 5.9GHz channels.

 

[smr.dny]

Just ordered the GT-AX6000 from Newegg for $272.99.

 

[uwish]

New firmware for the AX6000 was just released this AM

 

[bluzfanmr1]

Just ordered the GT-AX6000 from Newegg for $272.99.

As did I and I'm looking forward to the upgrade from my 6 year old RT-AC66U_B1.

 

[jsz]

Good price. Better than the Amazon deal for $299 last month.

Wish mine worked better in my environment. Build quality/feature set was quite nice.

 

[Sky]

I just finished bringing Synology RT6600ax #1 of 2 online at our HQ, replacing our old Asus RT-AC87R's. I have to agree Asus' line has the better bang-for-the-buck, etc. That said one might ask why we chose to go with RT6600ax's, which seems to be the point of this thread. So here it is:

Initial Decisions​

Ours is a small business with limitations in both budget and personnel, hence the fancy consumer routers for SMB/SOHO pressed into service.​

1. The personnel working with our Synology NAS's have been rightly very impressed by Synology's technical support. Their phone techs, which admittedly can take some time to get through to, are top notch: 9/10 times they can have the right answers; 10/10 they are patient, professional, and will work with the user at the user's level; and 10/10 times they do what they say they will do — sometimes they even go above and beyond reaching back to an old question, contacting the user about it and giving them a better solution. Their online techs are also top notch. We have not encountered better technical support from any vendor ever, regardless of how much we were paying them.
2. Our personnel have become very familiar with the UX from the Synology NAS's. This familiarity led to a belief that skill set would readily transfer vs. trying to learn yet another way of doing things.
3. Synology has proven they listen to suggestions, issues, etc., and they act upon them. Issues requiring a fair amount of engineering to fix may take some time, but they do get addressed, and suggestions are sometimes implemented. To sum 1+2+3: In a world of deaf vendors, including Asus, Synology not only listens with both ears, they brings a stethoscope and a recorder.
4. Major concern: penetration protection vs Asus' Trend Micro relationship and Asus continued FW updates for a very long time, much longer than other consumer-oriented vendors who usually bail around year 2 or 3.
5. Driver: no FW updates for the AC87 in over 12-months (EOL / end of life).

So our experience with the vendor played a huge part in the decision process because we are basically leveraging the vendor's expertise vs. hiring more personnel or paying ad hoc outside personnel.​

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The hardware was secondary to the vendor's reputation and our direct experience with them. While the Asus hardware was favored for a variety of reasons, the RT6600ax presented as a solid, well-built, well thought out device that would meet our needs now and most probably going forward for the next 5- to 7-years. Synology also seems to be leaning harder into the business purchaser, small, medium, and large while Asus is solidly entrenched in the consumer/prosumer niche. The information we were able to glean about the hardware before getting our hands on it supported this viewpoint for both vendors.​

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In the end, the combination of reputation, build quality, and business focus won out.​

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After Purchase​

The hardware was as-expected, no surprises — a good thing. Setup presented itself as more complex than anticipated due mostly to how long it's been since we onboarded a new router. Setting this up was my task. Skills from the Asus devices did not smoothly translate to the Synology, but skills from the Synology NAS UI were helpful navigating the 6600ax and did save some time and effort.​

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I did run into a few hiccups along the way, but not much. I did use phone TS a couple of times and they preformed excellently, as expected. Synology makes use of Proofpoint's Threat Protection, incorporating their ET Open product at no charge and no subscription, and optionally the ET pro product ($900/unit/yr). This product appears far more sophisticated and business oriented than Asus' implementation of Trend Micro's solution, even though TM obviously has very sophisticated and business oriented solutions available. In the ET open product has far more adjustability than the old Asus' did. (I can't comment on the new ones.)​

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SRM 1.3.1-9346 Update 2 (Synology Router Manager) just allows the admin a lot more granularity in access and control over the way the router than the Asus. To me it was kind of like young Arnold Schwarzenegger building himself up to compete vs Arnold as Conan the Barbarian. It is just designed to do so much more with this thing through the UI right out of the box.​

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The 6600ax has some packages you can load up from their Package Center. It comes with VPN built-in like Asus, but it can use PPTP, OpenVPN, and L2TP/IPSec. VPN Plus Server is a free package with two free licenses per router in the USA. I haven't played with it yet, but it looks promising. You can also use it as a RADIUS server, DNS Server and media Server. We loaded up Safe Access (nanny service), Threat Prevention and VPN Plus Server.​

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Major Faux Pas: the RT6600ax only has one USB 3.1 port and to use Threat Protection, you have to provide your own USB device plugged into that port. I knew this going in, promptly forgot it, then had to scramble. Now you can do a lot of other things with whatever you plug in there so once you kind of figure it out it's not a problem, and the USB can go to something like 5TB, so you have a lot of room to play, but the Asus has that Trend Micro thing onboard and you don't have to attach anything to make it work.​

I hope this explains some of why someone might choose the RT6600ax over the Asus offering(s). The Asus was an excellent hobby, this promises to be an excellent work horse.

Sky

 

[Tech9]

The Asus was an excellent hobby, this promises to be an excellent work horse.

Short and accurate. Thank you for sharing your experience.