Upgrading to RT-AX88U Pro

[NS156]

Hi all,

Been running an old AC87U for many, many years. I know it was plagued with issues when it was first released, but it worked fine for me on Merlin, so I just lived with it. The past few years its stability has been declining, as after a month of uptime it would just stop working and would need to be power cycled, but I lived with it. Lately it just can't handle too many clients using it and stops working with some of them (fine on wired, wireless is where the issues are).

Figured I'd replace it with the AX88U Pro, as it seems to be highly regarded. I did see there is a BE88U, but I'm not sure if there are improvements that make it worth £100 more than the AX88U? Other than the inbuilt switch and WiFi 7, is it that much faster SoC or something?

Also, are there any issues with the AX88U I should be aware of? I remember reading something about 160MHz mode or something... is that fixed by now? Is it preferable to use Merlin still these days or is default ASUS fine?

Thanks.

 

[Jbennett360]

I don't think the BE88U is worth the extra over the AX88U Pro to be honest.

Performance looks similar

 

[jksmurf]

I don't think the BE88U is worth the extra over the AX88U Pro to be honest.

Performance looks similar

I think that one in the Youtube review has 8 ports so it is not actually the RT-AX88U Pro version; I am not sure the extra CPU power would make much difference to this review though.

See a previous thread on the RT-AX88U vs RT-BE88U here.

[EDIT] Correction, as @Jbennett360 correctly points out, the 8 in a row Ethernet (Gig) port unit in the video is actually the RT-BE88U. ASUS went from an 8 port (Gig) RT-AX88U to a 4 port (Gig) RT-AX88U Pro to a 8 port (Gig) RT-BE88U.

 

[bbunge]

If you do not need the extra ports, the AX86U Pro is a better buy.

 

[NS156]

Needs to be wall mountable, so self standing ones are not an option.

Thanks for the advice. Any thoughts on the other questions I had?

 

[Jbennett360]

I think that one in the Youtube review has 8 ports so it is not actually the RT-AX88U Pro version; I am not sure the extra CPU power would make much difference to this review though.

See a previous thread on the RT-AX88U vs RT-BE88U here.

I know, it's the BE88U. The video shows comparisons between the two in the chart sections

 

[Jbennett360]

If you do not need the extra ports, the AX86U Pro is a better buy.

Or the extra 2.5Gb port

 

[jksmurf]

I know, it's the BE88U. The video shows comparisons between the two in the chart sections

My apologies you’re absolutely correct, I missed that in the video, just briefly saw the back of the unit with the 8 ports and thought odd, that looks like the non-pro RT-AX88U, didn’t realize that was the RT-BE88U. I have the RT-AX88U Pro with the 4 ports.