Thinking of buying a ASUS AC5300 Tri-Band WiFi Gaming Router is this a good choice for me?

[JOE.G]

We are not huge gamers in my home, Kid's will play a little. I am just looking for a router that will allow people to stream and surf and what not with out getting over loaded. Range and speed is what I am looking for. I am obviously not to familiar with this stuff some I turned to you guys for guidance. I am not stuck on the 5300 it's just one of my choices.

 

[avtella]

Wifi Range and speed: R7800 especially with 5Ghz, the Synology RT2600AC uses the same hardware internally and so performance is close to the R7800 and with better firmware. These Qualcomm QCA9984 WiFi chipset based devices have working HT160 for theoretically double bandwidth on single and dual antenna HT160 5Ghz ac clients like newer laptops (ie Alienware & XPS 13/15 and Inspiron G series) and phones. Also MU-MIMO actually works well unlike Broadcom based routers.

The Asus AC86U has better VPN performance but a little worse 5Ghz performance than the above two, it also has decent firmware and so is probably the most well rounded unit. Just make sure to disable MU-MIMO as this is a Broadcom unit.

I'd narrow down to these three.

 

[JOE.G]

Thank you I plan to purchase one in a couple weeks. I want to research the RT2600 a bit more. Now all of these will run older equipment also? Older Laptops and such? Plus handle all of the newest ones also?

 

[avtella]

Yep.

 

[speedingcheetah]

I have the AC68U on Merlin firmware. It is far better performance than when it was on stock.
Is there really any advantage to getting the AC86U?
The 68U already maxes out gig wire speed for LAN fine. My best wifi device supports 866 link rate...so the higher AC standards are of no use to me.
I don't use VPN. I live in a small apartment, so range is not an issue.

I want to upgrade my Grandparent's old N56U router...was thinking of getting the 86U for myself, then giving them the 68U....But I see no point is spending the extra $ for the 86U. The 68U is still being sold new for good price, (though I wonder if its a newer H/W version now? Mine is A1. Is there any thing that details the difference in H/W version of the models??)

 

[JOE.G]

So I am leaning toward at this point the 5300 or the 86U, As far as Aimesh goes , If I picked up a slightly cheaper ASUS router such as the 68 u or something along those lines do you think I could use the Mesh set up if the routers were about 100 to 120 foot apart in separate buildings with either a wall or window between them?

 

[JOE.G]

So I ended up going with the ASUS RT AC5300, I am hoping I made the right choice, My Plan is to pick up the 86U next and use this as a AIMESH system.

Can you guys please give me a hand with set up as far as anything I should turn on or off and change when I hook it up. I just want fast smooth running internet. Thanks you