TP-Link Archer AX11000 vs Netgear RAX120 vs Asus GT-AX11000

[Draghmar]

Hi
I had Asus AC66U for about 10 years but it simply died. Why? Have no idea. I did tried to revive it (like I did couple of times already) but I failed. So I have to buy new piece of hardware.
I have only few major features that router has to fulfil:

1. Link aggregation.
2. At least 2.5Gbit port for WAN and LAN.
3. WiFi AX is a bonus.

All other features are already built-in in the current gen routers. That's why I found those three: TP-Link Archer AX11000, Netgear RAX120, Asus GT-AX11000 and now I wonder if there's something that would shift advantages to one of them. What I'd like to ask you is your personal view on them. I can take my own conclusions but I need data to have something to analyse in a first place.
My favourite is Asus but it's also the most expensive one. Netgear is the cheapest one and also the one I have no experience at all. I always considered TP-Link as being budget option but that could be because I had only the cheapest solutions from them that had often restart because of the traffic.

A little bit about my network.
I'm from Poland. I have home server that works as a web server, file server, media server and playground. It's based on ArchLinux and sits on Supermicro motherboard with two LAN ports (hence the link aggregation). And that is the most important part. Beside that there are few wireless clients (phones, laptop) and few wired client (like my desktop). So I don't have some huge network demands. But still I'd like to get something that is the best I can afford.

 

[Trip]

The RAX120 has the most potential on the wireless side (being a Qualcomm platform), but the firmware from Netgear these days is routinely so poor that I would only run OpenWRT and that's at least a year off. So that's out. The GT-AX11000 will likely never be supported by Merlin (explainer), so I would avoid as well. That leaves the Archer AX11000, which may be the most stable stock solution.

An alternative way to spend your $400 would be discrete components. Since you're adept enough at setting up Arch on SuperMicro hardware, I presume pfSense or OpenWRT wouldn't be too hard for you to deploy on a PC with multi-1Gb and dual-10Gb cards. Then you can wire in your server on multiple ports with LACP, and wire in discrete wireless, be that a less-overpriced AX all-in-one in AP mode, or centralized AC Wave 2 wifi APs (Omada, UniFi, etc.).

 

[Draghmar]

Oh, I didn't know that Merlin won't support this series...that's a bummer.
Yeah, I've read somewhere that Netgear firmware has its issues...And you're only confirming that.
Oh man, I so don't like TP-Link name. I think it's because 'TP' part reminds me of this one company in Poland that had monopoly on the Internet many years ago...those were dark times. I need to read more about this particular router. Maybe it's actually good?

I was thinking about building router many times. Especially when there was this router-ready soft called...Vyatta...from what I remember. But I'm not sure I have enough time and willingness to start this task. I've already have some things I wanted to do and can't get them started But I will look at this. Even if for sheer fun of checking it out.