[Alpha] 386.2

[RMerlin]

Different currency. The RT-AX86U was available for $200 USD on sale too. The RT-AX68U does not justify that price with half the resources it has vs the much better model up.

MSRP of RT-AX68U is 199$ USD, and RT-AX86U is 249$ USD. You can't compare regular pricing of one device versus special sales pricing for the other device.

 

[L&LD]

But I do. As does everyone else. I have at least 2 customers waiting for the RT-AX86U to drop back to the sale prices before they upgrade.

MSRP and 'sale' prices are meaningless today when the lowest price available for merely waiting for one of the revolving sales is significantly lower.

 

[L&LD]

@heysoundude, no. As a 'router' and at a significantly lower price for the same hardware/resources except for the RF section, the RT-AC86U is the better 'router'. As mentioned, the Wi-Fi (should) be superior on the RT-AX68U, but I believe it needs more than a dual-core, 512GB RAM base for the price it comes in at.

For routing duties (only), the significantly lower price of the RT-AC86U still makes it the king of entry-level models.

Same as when compared to the RT-AX58U. Speaking of which is effectively obsolete now (at non-sale prices).

 

[Lee MacMillan]

The RT-AX86U was available for $200 USD on sale too. The RT-AX68U does not justify that price with half the resources it has vs the much better model up.

I have been watching the AX86U for months and haven't seen it below $249 (although camel says it was $239 on Amazon for a couple days in November.) Just curious when and where you saw it for less. I agree that the $50 premium of the AX86U over the AX68U would seem to be justified based on the specs.

 

[jpthsd]

Anyone can provide a draft of the improvements & fixes to be bundled in Merlin 386.2? Thank you!

 

[L&LD]

See GitHub.

 

[Jeffrey Young]

Anyone can provide a draft of the improvements & fixes to be bundled in Merlin 386.2? Thank you!

Commits · RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - Commits · RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com

 

[jpthsd]

I have been watching the AX86U for months and haven't seen it below $249 (although camel says it was $239 on Amazon for a couple days in November.) Just curious when and where you saw it for less. I agree that the $50 premium of the AX86U over the AX68U would seem to be justified based on the specs.

I got it one week ago and currently operating in AsusWRT pair with AC86U (AiMesh node), ,,,so far so good,,,have no problem of buffering (previously, I had AX86U as Merlin 386.1 & AC86U Merlin 386.1 and kept buffering for device connected with AC86U...switched to AsusWRT firmware solved the problem!,,maybe it's just me..since I had good run with Merlin 384.18 AC86U/AC68U solid stable before)

Get AX86U ,,,it is a beast!!!

 

[Wisiwyg]

But I do. As does everyone else. I have at least 2 customers waiting for the RT-AX86U to drop back to the sale prices before they upgrade.

Please LMK when the sale price pops up... I want one! (AX86U)

 

[JGrana]

Hopefully over a short period, the AX68U will be sale priced closer to the AC68U. The AC68U was a "home run" for Asus. But, it's time for a new batter!
I hope this one becomes the next "home run" for Asus.

Now, what I am waiting for is an upgrade to the AX88U - a few 2.5Gb ports for NAS boxes and 6e support. A faster CPU would also (and naturally) be expected.

 

[RMerlin]

Hopefully over a short period, the AX68U will be sale priced closer to the AC68U. The AC68U was a "home run" for Asus. But, it's time for a new batter!
I hope this one becomes the next "home run" for Asus.

It should be fairly decent for regular usage, however its limited amount of RAM will make it a bad choice for anyone intending to run addons on it.

 

[RMerlin]

But I do. As does everyone else. I have at least 2 customers waiting for the RT-AX86U to drop back to the sale prices before they upgrade.

My point is if you are going to compare a discounted price for one model, then compare it against a discounted price for the other model as well.

 

[AntonK]

It should be fairly decent for regular usage, however its limited amount of RAM will make it a bad choice for anyone intending to run addons on it.

How would this router be as an upgrade for my setup? Is the processor a worthy upgrade? The WiFi surely is. And as you can see from my signature and attached screen capture, RAM is not an issue for me. I cannot bribe my router to use Swap, no matter how hard I try. I'm a standard home user with multiple devices and no mesh.

 

[chichow]

My point is if you are going to compare a discounted price for one model, then compare it against a discounted price for the other model as well.

My local area pricing is

AX68U - 175 USD
AX86U - 220 USD
AX88U - 275 USD

It's more or less a 50 USD increment between the models.

 

[Lee MacMillan]

How would this router be as an upgrade for my setup? Is the processor a worthy upgrade? The WiFi surely is. And as you can see from my signature and attached screen capture, RAM is not an issue for me. I cannot bribe my router to use Swap, no matter how hard I try. I'm a standard home user with multiple devices and no mesh.

View attachment 31199

Where are those screenshots from?

 

[AntonK]

Where are those screenshots from?

These are produced by the scMerlin script.

 

[chichow]

View attachment 31166

Merlin posts a screenshot from a RT-AX68U

HOT DAMN!

 

[RMerlin]

How would this router be as an upgrade for my setup? Is the processor a worthy upgrade?

CPU would be a major upgrade. Wifi is hard to compare, as it has fewer streams and lower-end radios but adds AX support.

RAM will depend on what you run on your router. The HND platform used by the RT-AX68U uses more RAM for its regular services, so you can't directly compare usage with older models like the RT-AC88U.

It should be fine unless you start using more memory intensive addons like Skynet or Diversion, which can have significant RAM usage depending on blocklists used.

 

[ElfStone]

Installed it on my GT-AX11000! I had no idea you were planning on adding it to the supported devices list so when I saw you tweet about it I had a very pleasant surprise!
@RMerlin , thanks a lot for all your hard work!

 

[ahyrych]

just uploaded (dirty flash Asus Firmware Restoration) 386.2_alpha1-gc52b410e89 to RT-AC86U from latest RT-AC86U_386.1_2, all OK!