Wanting to upgrade….. what’s my best option?!

[houghton19]

So if anyone has read any of my previous posts you may know I currently run a AC-RT5300 that has served me well for many of years (5-7 years I would say)

now as much as I would love to spend £600 on an GT-AXE16000 I can’t justify that without FTTP. I look at upgrading every couple of month and I always get drawn the the best/ most expensive.

So trying to keep costs down I’m looking at the AX5400 TUF or maybe the AX3000 strix. Both around the £150 mark and both still look like an update on my current hardware.

So my useage of the router is a general household, we have 4 people, 2 adults 2 kids.
device wise my mrs has a iPhone and work laptop. Kids have an iPad each, one has a phone and the other a firestick. Then me on the other hand I have a list a mine long, OLED tv, shield, z10 (upgrading to z11 soon) ps5 all of these are connected to the router or a switch that is by the tv, then in my room we have a firestick pro max that is used for about half hour every day.

so I like the look of the vpn fusion so I can have the shield and z11 connected to a vpn at all times and recorded onto a HDD connected to to the router.

although the routers I’m looking at have upgraded hard ware like CPU and RAM, they don’t have Tri-band, but again go from WiFi 5 to 6.

So I’m wanting to know am I going to notice any improvement or will losing the tri-band make a difference? Any other router in that rough price that may be better?!

Thanks

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Just finished a lengthy discussion about this very topic! Lol

Thread 'Logical upgrade to go from AC86U to AXE11000? Change my mind! ' https://www.snbforums.com/threads/logical-upgrade-to-go-from-ac86u-to-axe11000-change-my-mind.81334/

 

[houghton19]

I read that just after I posted. It said similar. Still didn’t get an outcome.

 

[leerees]

A dual band router will be fine for a modern household as long as it offers a strong 5ghz 160Mhz 4x4 AX channel. A setup of this type will offer 2.4Gbps.

WiFi 6 is really good at managing busy networks. From what you've stated, it's highly unlikely you are going to have a network that's getting constantly maxed out. Even if someone was downloading at full speed, AX is intelligent enough to share the bandwidth so other clients still get low latency.

The only thing to watch out for is if your router is limited to 1Gbps WAN. This is fine for gigabit internet connections but obviously if you have a 2gbps connection, internet will still be limited to 1gbps.

Asus are good at tempting people into buying routers that are way above their needs. In most cases, the bottleneck is going to be your internet connection, not your router.

Asus routers use SoC's (system on a chip), the performance of the various SoC's is very similar in real world usage. A lot of Asus' products are superfluous, the only difference being the physical appearance on the router.

 

[Tech9]

I currently run a AC-RT5300 that has served me well for many of years

What do you expect from a new router? Unless you upgrade your clients to AX, there will be minimal benefits. There is even a good chance your new router will be worse in range because AC5300 has 3x good BCM4366 radios 4x4 for each band. TUF AX5400 is just more expensive version of entry-level AX58U. You don't want to replace your router with this one. Your router can do 500Mbps to common AC 2-stream client. In fact - to two at the same time using both 5GHz radios. Mobile devices don't need anything above 100-200Mbps, web browsing is all the same above 150Mbps. Like many other folks you'll be investing in speed test. No one will notice any significant difference in common Internet use and LAN activities. Think again. If you just want to spend some money - go ahead. Get a model with RGB lights at least so it does something your AC5300 can't do. Your wife may ask why did you spend the money. Her laptop and iPhone will work in exactly the same way. Use the RGB lights as an excuse.

A setup of this type will offer 2.4Gbps.

No. Link speed 2400Mbps, throughput about 1700Mbps. Only in case 160MHz works in the area and the client has 160MHz support. Common clients are 2-stream @80MHz. The difference in expected throughput between AC and AX clients is about 300Mbps... in a good day.

 

[Tech9]

So trying to keep costs down I’m looking at the AX5400 TUF or maybe the AX3000 strix. Both around the £150 mark and both still look like an update on my current hardware.

Both are the same router basically. The same hardware with different housing, firmware and marketing. AX3000 has some features disabled. If you want an upgrade and some future proofing (doesn't work with home routers, but many don't lose hope) - get GT-AX6000. It has the newest available hardware, 2x 2.5GbE ports and... RGB! It is relatively expensive though. It's ugly, but may pass your wife's acceptance, if she already accepted the AC5300 spider.

 

[houghton19]

Well after speaking to the mrs this morning, I told her I’m gonna buy a cheaper version to the one I actually want, she said just order the expensive one.
Thanks babe. That’s the GT-AXE16000 ordered

We only get about 55/60 meg. I know this isn’t going to change. My biggest reason for wanting an upgrade is the vpn fusión over director so I can use wireguard. I don’t have alot of speed to lose when using my vpn and find i get better results over wireguard. I could have the vpn on the devices but then I lose the ability of recording from device to router HDD. Also it’s been a good servant and I may still be able to claw back a couple of quid by selling it on.

really hoping to get fibre in our area soon as I know there is a FTTP splitter at the end of my road so hoping it won’t be too long. Wanted a faster router for when I do get 1GBPS

 

[Tech9]

Thanks babe.

Thanks only won’t work. Get ready to buy now what she wants. The crazy expensive version of it.

 

[Tech9]

but i just don't know which routers support 2 wan/lan of at least 2.5gb.

GT-AX6000 has 2x 2.5GbE ports, WAN + LAN. This is the cheapest one with 2x multi-Gigabit ports. Newer and faster than AX88U hardware though. All Asus high-end routers use this exact hardware. Get a 2.5GbE switch for your wired LAN devices.

 

[Tech9]

just really preffer to have it setup Router side.

OpenVPN ~250Mbps. WireGuard ~350Mbps and dragging down the entire network. Think again what do you really want.

 

[Piotrek]

Wireguard speed on Asus routers is max. ~350 Mbps

 

[Tech9]

i had it setup on my Router Using Wireguard i was getting 1100Mbps

You were perhaps getting classic IPv6 leak.

 

[leerees]

What do you expect from a new router? Unless you upgrade your clients to AX, there will be minimal benefits. There is even a good chance your new router will be worse in range because AC5300 has 3x good BCM4366 radios 4x4 for each band. TUF AX5400 is just more expensive version of entry-level AX58U. You don't want to replace your router with this one. Your router can do 500Mbps to common AC 2-stream client. In fact - to two at the same time using both 5GHz radios. Mobile devices don't need anything above 100-200Mbps, web browsing is all the same above 150Mbps. Like many other folks you'll be investing in speed test. No one will notice any significant difference in common Internet use and LAN activities. Think again. If you just want to spend some money - go ahead. Get a model with RGB lights at least so it does something your AC5300 can't do. Your wife may ask why did you spend the money. Her laptop and iPhone will work in exactly the same way. Use the RGB lights as an excuse.



No. Link speed 2400Mbps, throughput about 1700Mbps. Only in case 160MHz works in the area and the client has 160MHz support. Common clients are 2-stream @80MHz. The difference in expected throughput between AC and AX clients is about 300Mbps... in a good day.

I was also referring to the link speed. Nobody knows what his throughput will be. There's too many factors to even guess.

 

[Tech9]

Nobody knows what his throughput will be. There's too many factors to even guess.

Let me try - around 1.7Gbps in close to ideal conditions, only if 160MHz channel works in the area and only to AX client with 160MHz support. Realistic expectations - around 800Mbps to common 2-stream AX client @80MHz wide channel in the same room, less further away and behind walls.