Netgear R7000 vs TP-Link C7

[Jakk89]

Hi,

A friend of mine is looking for a router so that he can finally put a service provider enforced modem/router into just modem/bridge mode, and he's looking at the R7000 for 170cad + tax, which is a decent deal.

While the R7000 is the best router in the 1900 range, I feel it is a waste to spend that kind of money on a "first-wave" AC router, especially when his household, and most people, will be using N mostly, so I thought I'd recommend a cheaper router in TP-Link C7 instead. I'm not sure this is the best advice since he won't change routers in the foreseeable future if one works well (enough).

Which router do you guys think is the smarter move? $170 for a R7000 vs about $80 for the C7 (all in CAD, if that matters).

 

[System Error Message]

Stability is not too bad but i modified my asus ac68u with a fan and it became very stable with full uptime despite overclocked to 1.4Ghz. I always use 3rd party firmware on my consumer routers. tp links i heard only do well on basic features but not more than that and that 3rd party firmware on tp-links get some sort of restriction like disabled wan port, slow performance, etc.

The R7000 would be much faster and with better working features but i would install 3rd party firmware for their stability and do necessary modification for it to be stable.

When it comes to wireless AC, 3 links for AC is good enough since the best laptops would have up to 3 links of AC. Anymore is basically good for using WDS and range extenders to reduce the performance penalty from using WDS.

It is also true that the new AC routers degrade quickly. When i first got my ASUS router it worked reliably but after a few months it started to hang and the hanging got more frequent. USB fan solved the problem. I also noticed that some features such as power savings for wifi cause the router to hang too(usual wake from sleep bug?).

 

[microchip]

I cannot talk about the R7000 but I'm a happy owner of the C7 and can recommend its stability and (routing) performance. It had issues in the past with Apple devices but this has been improved in the latest firmware according to the changelog. I cannot confirm that since I don't own any Apple devices.

If you do not need advanced features like VPN, SSH, and such, I don't think you can make a mistake by going for the C7. WiFi range on the C7 is moderate considering its internal antenna's. AC range a bit above average according to reviews.

 

[RogerSC]

I have an R7000 that's doing well with the stock firmware, stable and great performance. Personally, I think the first wave versus nth wave isn't the issue, the issue is what bandwidth do you need for what you want to do, and the wireless coverage that you need to have. And what you can spend, of course. I'm not aware of clients faster than wireless-1900AC at the moment (or quad-stream or whatever). One thing I can guess though, is that they'll be more expensive when they do appear. Which makes it more important to get one's arms around what one really needs, so you're buying enough to serve your current needs, with some headroom for the future.

Anyways, answering your question for me would be first to decide what bandwidth and wireless coverage that you need. Then to see what kind of throughput and wireless range that you see in reviews of wireless routers like those on this Web site. The router ranker here is also useful in comparing router performance. If things don't perform as well at your place as you expect from reviews (and advice), then you can return your new router and try again *smile*.

Wireless-1750AC is most likely enough bandwith, but make sure that you're getting the wireless coverage that you need. A wireless access point (AP) or two could help with that if you want (or need) to go that way. A big reason why I went for the R7000 wasn't the wireless-1900AC as much as the great wireless coverage that I need and get with it.

 

[youpii]

Hi,

A friend of mine is looking for a router so that he can finally put a service provider enforced modem/router into just modem/bridge mode, and he's looking at the R7000 for 170cad + tax, which is a decent deal.

While the R7000 is the best router in the 1900 range, I feel it is a waste to spend that kind of money on a "first-wave" AC router, especially when his household, and most people, will be using N mostly, so I thought I'd recommend a cheaper router in TP-Link C7 instead. I'm not sure this is the best advice since he won't change routers in the foreseeable future if one works well (enough).

Which router do you guys think is the smarter move? $170 for a R7000 vs about $80 for the C7 (all in CAD, if that matters).

Another issue to consider is range & frequencies.
In my building, 2.4GHz is totally overcrowded: my tablet sees around 20 overlapping networks from my neighbours so I wanted to switch to 5GHz.
But the range with 5GHz is much shorter and that's why I got the R7000 with the large external antennas.

 

[azazel1024]

The C7 has the same 5dBi external antennas that the R7000 has. Okay, not the SAME antennas, but both have 5dBi external antennas. The difference is that the C7 is single band only (5GHz) with internal 2.4GHz antennas and the R7000's antennas are dual band.

If you look at the SNB performance charts, the C7 and R7000 are pretty darned close in performance at range on 5GHz.

If you need longer range on 5GHz, bigger antennas.

 

[stevech]

Another issue to consider is range & frequencies.
In my building, 2.4GHz is totally overcrowded: my tablet sees around 20 overlapping networks from my neighbours so I wanted to switch to 5GHz.

The NUMBER OF detected SSIDs is no indicator that there is overcrowding. This is because the mere presence of an SSID says nothing about how often the channel is used heavily.