Looking for help picking out a new router.

[anarchyx914]

Hello all,

I have read alot of reviews on this site, and have found it very informative. I am in a debate between a few routers, and trying to get the best bang for my buck. The routers I am considering are below:

- E3000 for $55
- E4200 for $109
- Asus RT-N56u for $129

I currently am running a Dlink DIR-655, and it isnt cutting it for h264 media streaming. It frequently sputters and stops to buffer for long periods of time over the network. My router is running a mixed g/n mode (I know this decreases performance) to allow my girlfriend to use her internal wifi on her laptop. I should really just get her a n-USB card.

Anyways, for my network, I have 2 primary PC's connected to it (mine -- which is all the bandwidth, and hers which she just uses for facebook, etc.). I also have several mobile phones, ipods, appletvs, etc connected, but usually dont use them when I am on my main PC.

So after my research, I gathered that the E4200 and Asus RT-N56u run 3x3 MIMO. I wanted to know how much of a real-world performance boost is this over the E3000 2x3 mimo (I think this is what the E3000 has).

My personal wifi card in my laptop supports 3x3 mimo, and I wanted to know if the speed increase is worth it for the e4200 or asus router. I am leaning towards the linksys routers simply so I can run DDWRT on them.

So to recap what I need in a router:

• Fast Wireless N Performance
• Fast Streaming of HD Content (H264)
• QoS For multiple devices

After all the reading on this site I cannot decide between those 3 routers. The thing that is making the decision so hard is the E3000 priced at only $55. Seems like a great deal.

Any input you have is appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[thiggins]

Three-stream N will provide higher throughput only with strong signals and only when used with three-stream capable wireless clients. Of the three routers you are considering, only the E4200 supports three-stream N on the 5 GHz band only.

You can use the Router Finder to find three-stream routers. Then use the wireless benchmarks in the Router Charts to compare performance.