M
microchip
Guest
It has new features software-wise, iirc a more powerful CPU and of course the Quantenna chips (2 of them for the 5 GHz band).
In depth review by RMerlin: http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=18415
How many of those who finally have stable AC68s are going to the 87?
- Thread starter hungarianhc
- Start date
It has new features software-wise, iirc a more powerful CPU and of course the Quantenna chips (2 of them for the 5 GHz band).
In depth review by RMerlin: http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=18415
Or... the routers get crippled over time for the sole purpose so you will buy a newer and faster router. Only that new router will also get crippled over time.
Thus the vicious circle of life continues.
M
microchip
Guest
hmm, but won't this affect their image? If they keep doing this and more and more people notice there's a problem over time, it will definitely scare away enthusiasts like us.
That said, I know quite a few people who buy a router, set it up and never update its firmware. Then they make the next decision based on their previous experience with a brand and if the price is right, chances are higher they'll go for the same brand
Thats why you do it over time in small increments. Boast about new features and better security that people eat up like its free candy, while slowly nurfing the router.
DaveMishSr
Very Senior Member
I have no immediate plans to step up to the RT-AC87U. First, it's too damn expensive. I'm sorry but I refuse to pay nearly $300 for a router. Second, I do not have any AC2400 clients (are any available?) so for me there is no performance advantage to be had, at least initially. Third, Asus is finally getting the AC68U running pretty well and their new firmware is way cool. Once Merlin gets his hands on the source code we will be all set. Fourth, the new enhancements Asus has in the pipeline will be supported by the AC68U. In other words the router I currently have should support everything the AC87U can do now, as well as that which it will be able to do in the future. Lastly, if I want a four antenna router I can go with the AC1900 entry from Linksys.
So there really is no reason for me to upgrade other than rush to the biggest and brightest router to come along and then potentially suffer through its roll-out as we did with the AC68U. No thanks.
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hungarianhc
Regular Contributor
Looks like most people are in the same boat as me... we have waited so long / updated our firmware so often just to finally get to a great, stable experience with the AC68U that we're going to take a little break now.
I know I'll have zero benefits from the new chipsets / antennas, but the new qos w/ DPI looks the most interesting to me. That's actually a killer feature for me. My media collection is sync'd via bittorrent sync to some family members in other cities, I run Crashplan on every machine, including the NAS, to back up all my stuff in the cloud, etc... There's a lot of bandwidth usage there, but I want my internet / streaming / gaming experience to be rock solid with zero hiccups. Thus, the QoS is most interesting to me...
I know I'll have zero benefits from the new chipsets / antennas, but the new qos w/ DPI looks the most interesting to me. That's actually a killer feature for me. My media collection is sync'd via bittorrent sync to some family members in other cities, I run Crashplan on every machine, including the NAS, to back up all my stuff in the cloud, etc... There's a lot of bandwidth usage there, but I want my internet / streaming / gaming experience to be rock solid with zero hiccups. Thus, the QoS is most interesting to me...
They probably mainly did it because at this time, Quantenna are the only ones with a Wave 2 chipset available.
What he's saying here is that since the source of the problem is Broadcom and not Asus (despite what you might want to believe), you will have similar issues with OTHER manufacturers as well. There are still plenty of Netgear R7000 owners who are also having stability issues.
The blame goes to those who have the power to fix an issue, not to those you want to blame just because you feel like shifting the blame to someone else.
There is little point in upgrading from a one year old RT-AC68U to an RT-AC87U right now. As pointed out, there are no clients available yet to take advantage of the 4x4 radio.
Right now (which means July 23rd 2014), the only real benefits of the AC87U over AC68U are:
* 25% faster CPU (useful for VPN users, people who cannot use HW acceleration with an Internet connection faster than 200-300 Mbps)
* Better QoS, new network security features (which might or might not trickle down to the AC68U)
* Slightly faster SMB speed (in good part due to the faster CPU)
This is a nice upgrade for an N66 or AC66 user. Potentially interesting for an AC56 owner. But not worth the price for an AC68U.
Basically, that means you would have spent around 500$ on routers within the last 12 months.
Right now (which means July 23rd 2014), the only real benefits of the AC87U over AC68U are:
* 25% faster CPU (useful for VPN users, people who cannot use HW acceleration with an Internet connection faster than 200-300 Mbps)
* Better QoS, new network security features (which might or might not trickle down to the AC68U)
* Slightly faster SMB speed (in good part due to the faster CPU)
This is a nice upgrade for an N66 or AC66 user. Potentially interesting for an AC56 owner. But not worth the price for an AC68U.
Basically, that means you would have spent around 500$ on routers within the last 12 months.
<-- Has/had N66U, AC56U, AC68U, and now AC87R
I jumped on the 87R after seeing it posted a couple days ago and ran over to best buy to grab one. Coming from my 68U the first thing I noticed was the much stronger connection to my 56U that was setup as a media bridge. Normally it would fluctuate between a 450ish link speed to one in the mid 500's. After setting up the 87R in the exact same spot as the 68U the 56U was reporting a 866Mpbs link speed. Since though I have swapped out my 56 for the 68 as the media bridge and that also maxes out a 1300 link speed. Now moving movie encodes to my media server on the 68 side transfer at around 80MBps and the rdp connection doesn't drop. Before they would transfer around 55ish MBps and the rdp connection to my media server would drop out until the transfer was over.
I think so far the jump to the 87R is much bigger/better than the jump from the N66 to AC56/68.
Now is that worth $300 for this router or the $650ish I spent over the last year, no, but tech is my hobby and I dont mind spending money on the latest and greatest. I'm going to donate my AC56U now to my parents when I travel back to the east coast in two weeks and get them setup with it. Sold the N66U to a buddy for $20 a couple months ago.
For anyone that can afford it I dont think they will be disappointed. I haven't had any issues yet besides disabling WPS via the on/off under the WPS tab. If you hit that switch your wireless settings will get reset. You just have to hide the ssid and then that will disable WPS.
Granted all this rambling could just be me trying to justify the cost with myself
It is a really damn nice router though.
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NightOwl326
Senior Member
Granted all this rambling could just be me trying to justify the cost with myself
Yep....odds are!
Which is fine, at least the cost of routers isn't anywhere near top end CPU/GPU prices.
Couldn't agree more, most laptops don't even ship with wireless AC support or even dual band. I know you can buy USB solutions but its a pity to buy a sleek new laptop and have a big USB adapter sticking out the side.
Not true. Qualcomm Atheros (QCA) 4x4 chipset is sampling. I've seen demos.
But Quantenna has been working on 4x4 wave 2 much longer than QCA.
Gotcha, thanks.
In that case, Quantenna was a much easier solution, since Asuswrt doesn't support Atheros - only Broadcom and Ralink.
Not sure what low end laptops you're looking at, but anything in the mid and high end comes with 802.11ac these days. Even all the new smartphones (Windows, Android) are coming with 802.11ac. Not sure what iPhone has (and don't care ).
The reason I decided to make the leap is that I got my son a new laptop for college and got a new laptop for myself at work, as well as new phones (summer is tech refresh at my house), and they all have 802.11ac built in.
That's interesting that you can tell what flavor wireless adapter is in these devices. Manufacturers usually don't make it easy to find this information.
What were the new laptops you bought and what are the wireless adapters inside?
You can see all the specs online. New MSI laptop from Newegg for my son. New Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for me at work. New Samsung Galaxy S5 for my son and my wife, and new Nokia Lumia 1520 for me. All have 802.12ac with specs all available online.
If you look on websites such at Costco, Best Buy, Staples, etc etc etc. Most of the time they will list the wifi cards that a laptop comes with.
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