Linksys Brings Top-End AC Routers To Market

[sfx2000]

AC1900 class is the sweet spot of the market right now. Although if you have a lot of 5 GHz devices in simultaneous use, AC3200 routers are worth a look.

There is tremendous bang for the buck in the AC1750 class sector... in 5GHz, it's the same level of performance as AC1900, and in 2.4GHz, the experience is likely going to be the same (N450) as most Wireless Adapters don't support TurboQAM

And FWIW - there's the 3 stream 802.11n sector for dual-bands, and sub-100USD prices - for most folks this is more than enough.

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[L&LD]

sfx2000, I think the AC1900 class routers are superior to the AC1750 class routers.

Saving a few dollars for the usually older hardware excluded.

 

[sfx2000]

sfx2000, I think the AC1900 class routers are superior to the AC1750 class routers.

Saving a few dollars for the usually older hardware excluded.

How? Just because it is a bigger number?

In the AC1750/AC1900 class - the chips and the router SOC are pretty much the same... and nobody will know the difference.

I would agree however, that the current crop of AC1750/AC1900 class devices will run a bit better than the N900 class.

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[L&LD]

The chips and SOC are not the same, at least not in the products that are actually superior.

And the drivers make a difference too, even with the same underlying hardware.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...oes-an-ac-router-improve-n-device-performance

Starting with 2.4 GHz downlink, we see impressive gains from ASUS' AC1900 and new AC2350 routers. The newer NETGEAR R8000 AC3200 turns in the next best performance with a 165% gain. The least improvement was provided by Linksys' top-of-line WRT1900AC, with only 58%.

In addition, if you click the link above, the graphs tell the story very well: AC1900 class routers are the best bang for the buck, even with N class clients.

 

[htismaqe]

in 5GHz, it's the same level of performance as AC1900

FWIW, my experience with several AC1900 and AC1750 routers in my environment disagrees STRONGLY with this statement.

I found that all of the AC1900 routers were moderately to significantly more powerful than the AC1750 routers, especially in terms of throughput at long ranges.

 

[RMerlin]

The main benefit of the AC1900 vs AC1750 devices is quite often they are based on a much faster CPU (at least with Asus, and other manufacturers based on the Broadcom platform). This will make a difference when running a VPN server, or sharing a USB disk through the router.

The AC number doesn't tell the whole story.

 

[sfx2000]

The main benefit of the AC1900 vs AC1750 devices is quite often they are based on a much faster CPU (at least with Asus, and other manufacturers based on the Broadcom platform). This will make a difference when running a VPN server, or sharing a USB disk through the router.

The AC number doesn't tell the whole story.

Agreed... with 256MB of RAM though, trying to run a VPN Server and/or NAS, Media Gateway/Backup type of functionality is, well, fun to try, but ultimately a poor performing solution compared to dedicated elements.

The average AC1900 class router has less resources available to it than a 2 year old iPhone or an equivalent Android device... food for thought..

For most folks, it's really a cost exercise - as the AC1750 class performs very well, and the AC1900 class, when one focuses specifically on Routing/NAT/AP, there's perhaps a dime's worth of difference at best.

The cost delta can be fairly significant, and if one is just doing basic router/AP/NAT - the AC1750 class right now is a tremendous value - they've some down in price where the N600 class was a year ago in many cases.

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[sfx2000]

On Another tangent...

Would be interesting to see the four big Linksys routers head to head, as they all represent different approached...

EA9600 - vanilla Broadcom AC1900 chipset - 3*3:3 radios - oldest device in this set...

WRT1900ac - AC1900 on Marvell - 3*3:4 radio config

EA8350 - AC2400 on QC-Atheros with Quantenna on the 5GHz

EA9200 - AC3200 Broadcom XStream solution

In the reviews - the models are never cross mentioned - but considering that Linksys pretty much uses the same code base, going head to head would reveal differences in the chipsets themselves...

And then throw a couple of different clients against it - the reference Intel AC card is one, but right now, the best AC laptop client out there is the current 2014 Retina Macbook Pro - either on MacOS or Win81...

hmmm...

 

[htismaqe]

Agreed... with 256MB of RAM though, trying to run a VPN Server and/or NAS, Media Gateway/Backup type of functionality is, well, fun to try, but ultimately a poor performing solution compared to dedicated elements.

The average AC1900 class router has less resources available to it than a 2 year old iPhone or an equivalent Android device... food for thought..

For most folks, it's really a cost exercise - as the AC1750 class performs very well, and the AC1900 class, when one focuses specifically on Routing/NAT/AP, there's perhaps a dime's worth of difference at best.

The cost delta can be fairly significant, and if one is just doing basic router/AP/NAT - the AC1750 class right now is a tremendous value - they've some down in price where the N600 class was a year ago in many cases.

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The problem is that I am one of those users - I'm not using media streaming, USB/eSATA drives, or any of that. I'm using the router and wireless functions only.

And, especially with wireless, the AC1900 devices I tried (pretty much all of them) SIGNIFICANTLY outperformed the couple of AC1750 routers I tried.

I don't know if it's the amplifiers, the codebase, or what but the wireless range and especially throughput at range that is just flat-out superior on the AC1900-class routers.

 

[RMerlin]

Agreed... with 256MB of RAM though, trying to run a VPN Server and/or NAS, Media Gateway/Backup type of functionality is, well, fun to try, but ultimately a poor performing solution compared to dedicated elements.

256 MB of RAM is more than enough for OpenVPN. As for the CPU power, an RT-AC68U can hit over 50 Mbps in tunneled throughput, which is more than enough for most home users.

As for NAS usage, keep in mind that many entry level NAS also only have 256-512 MB of RAM themselves. It's not enough for high performance, but it can get the job done for light usage (meaning no more than one concurrent client). The real issue there is the storage subsystem that is quite often subpar, especially with Broadcom's hardware. The WRT1900AC's Marvell controller benefits from Marvell's extensive know-how and IPs in storage technologies.