What's new

Router upgrade

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

Free2d

New Around Here
Hi,
Using N56U at the moment. Thinking of upgrading router to RT-AC68U or RT-AC87U.
Heard good thing about 68. As for 87 got few said software not stable.
FYI, i dont play games. Just need to connect large house for mobilephone, ipcams etc.
Please advice. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Any "upgrade" router will not do a miracle for the for a large home - use the N56U as Access Point on top of the new router - as I do with my N66U! :rolleyes:

The AC87U is still a good device with a perfect price/performance ratio and most users are happy with it - as I am - but this is not discussed in the forum; but in few specific cases (discussed a lot in the forum) it makes troubles. :oops:
 
I am happy with AC68U, but if you want AC68U, be sure to look for revisions of router such as A1,A2,B1,B2,C1,E1 as each has different specs(CPU frequency for EX, as well as WiFi stuffs). Do you have any problem with N56U? If not, paying for anything more than AC68U seems to be a waste of money to me. But the main thing that AC68U does NOT have is Smart Connect. If you want that feature, go for AC88U. If not, go for AC68U or AC1900P(kind of a revision of AC68U that has 1.4GHz CPU speed, only available at Best Buy)
 
issue with ac87 is the internal architecture, not the stability. Internal architecture is bottlenecked so in a high performance environment you will run into issues. No issue if you only browse the web and watch videos and game a little bit but if used on a 1Gb/s connection and/or using with lots of LAN traffic is where the problem really starts.

Your choices are the AC68U, AC87U, AC3200, AC3100, AC88U.

AC68U - tripple channel AC wifi, less hardware acceleration but does the job well.
AC87U - hardware acceleration for wifi, has internal bottlenecks but has MU-MIMO (not sure how well this works)
AC3200 - when you need to accommodate to lots of 5Ghz traffic in a small area, also has wifi hardware accelerated
AC3100 - broadcom's MU-MIMO, also has wifi hardware accelerated but with a better internal architecture than the AC87U. supports LACP
AC88U - the AC3100 with a realtek switch for an extra 4 ports but connects to router at 1Gb/s so 4 gigabit ports only share 1Gb/s to the router CPU. Supports LACP
AC5300 - same use case as the AC3200 but with MU-MIMO, faster CPU and more hardware acceleration. Supports LACP
Thats a quick summary of the asus routers. pick based on your budget and use case.

RMerlin assures me that the stock 4 ports on all the broadcom based asus routers arent limited by a 1Gb/s to the CPU. ASUS uses the switch part of the broadcom CPU but different brands vary on their design and selection of chips so while im not sure if the 4 ethernet ports on all those routers only have 1Gb/s to CPU @RMerlin says that each port doesnt share the same 1Gb/s link to CPU from switch chip part of CPU.
 
If one is firmly in the Asus camp...

* RT-Ac68 series is a good bet these days - strong performance with good 3rd party support
* RT-AC3100 - next best thing...

Stay away from the rest in that lineup - just sucks money there...
 
If one is firmly in the Asus camp...

* RT-Ac68 series is a good bet these days - strong performance with good 3rd party support
* RT-AC3100 - next best thing...

Stay away from the rest in that lineup - just sucks money there...
the AC3200 has also been a solid choice with wifi improvements over the AC68U such as better antennas. If you mount the AC3200 antennas on the AC68U you get better wifi performance.
 
the AC3200 has also been a solid choice with wifi improvements over the AC68U such as better antennas. If you mount the AC3200 antennas on the AC68U you get better wifi performance.
Don't you have NVRAM space shortage problem with that model? Or is it not that significant?
 
Sorry for hijacking the thread.

Basically, I am on the same boat and debating between AC88u and AC5300.
I do need the link aggregation support and might need the usb support for a 4G modem, hence I narrowed down the choice of a new router to Asus' lineup.

Reading the reviews on this website, it looks like the performance of the AC5300 was, generally speaking, inferior to the one of the AC88u - slower usb transfers, I think a worse wi-fi coverage, etc. Also, it looks like plenty of AC5300 died.
Maybe it was early days, as the firmware&board design weren't not good.

Provided that 50£ of difference won't change my life, which one would you suggest? I don't need the second 5Ghz network, but it might turn out to be useful in the future.

Please, suggest me one ;)
 
I connected the 68U in the middle of the house. Signal quite ok at the far side of the house. From 68U i wired to my old 56U non wifi to my bedroom. Need the extra LAN ports. So far acceptable.
88U is twice the price, maybe next time.
 

Latest threads

Support SNBForums w/ Amazon

If you'd like to support SNBForums, just use this link and buy anything on Amazon. Thanks!

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top