Asus RT-AX68U ($130 USD) or Asus RT-AX86U Pro ($220)? Use case in post.

[coz]

Hello. We have a dying Asus RT-AC68U (TM-AC1900) running Asus Merlin. It was rock solid for years, but recently the 5 Ghz band has completely stopped working and the 2.4 GHz band drops intermittently with the router becoming unpingable.

I hoping to get opinions between these two routers that are currently on sale: Asus RT-AX68U ($130 USD on Newegg) or Asus RT-AX86U Pro ($220 on Amazon). Our home connection is a 500 Mbps down / 12 Mbps up, and we will not upgrade to anything faster anytime soon (rural area). No problems with local wireless network congestion (though neighbors are using 2.4 GHz channels 2, 5, and 10 for some reason)

It's a 2 story, 4 bedroom, ~2500 square feet house with a basement. No Ethernet running through the house. Router is on a central location on the second floor. There's a mix of 802.11 n, ac, and ax clients (WIFI 4/5/6). We also have a Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT in Client Bridge mode with a 2 year uptime to connect a wired Brother printer to the network. Used for home office work, streaming, schoolwork, and PC gaming. Maybe some VR gaming in the future. In order of importance I'd say reliability>range=performance>price, but we don't want to spend more than we have to (e.g. we definitely don't need the AX88U, GT-AX6000, or various gaming routers). Would most likely use Asus Merlin firmware.

Thoughts on best choice of the two based on my described use case?

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Hello. We have a dying Asus RT-AC68U (TM-AC1900) running Asus Merlin. It was rock solid for years, but recently the 5 Ghz band has completely stopped working and the 2.4 GHz band drops intermittently with the router becoming unpingable.

I hoping to get opinions between these two routers that are currently on sale: Asus RT-AX68U ($130 USD on Newegg) or Asus RT-AX86U Pro ($220 on Amazon). Our home connection is a 500 Mbps down / 12 Mbps up, and we will not upgrade to anything faster anytime soon (rural area). No problems with local wireless network congestion (though neighbors are using 2.4 GHz channels 2, 5, and 10 for some reason)

It's a 2 story, 4 bedroom, ~2500 square feet house with a basement. No Ethernet running through the house. Router is on a central location on the second floor. There's a mix of 802.11 n, ac, and ax clients (WIFI 4/5/6). We also have a Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT in Client Bridge mode with a 2 year uptime to connect a wired Brother printer to the network. Used for home office work, streaming, schoolwork, and PC gaming. Maybe some VR gaming in the future. In order of importance I'd say reliability>range=performance>price, but we don't want to spend more than we have to (e.g. we definitely don't need the AX88U, GT-AX6000, or various gaming routers). Would most likely use Asus Merlin firmware.

Thoughts on best choice of the two based on my described use case?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VYKQYX9/?tag=snbforums-20 here is the AX86 at a discount! I wouldn't be surprised if amazon completely replaced the internal router board! Crazy huh!?!?!

 

[drinkingbird]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VYKQYX9/?tag=snbforums-20 here is the AX86 at a discount! I wouldn't be surprised if amazon completely replaced the internal router board! Crazy huh!?!?!

Amazon isn't the seller, why would they have done anything? Even if they were, they are not replacing internal components. Even Asus wouldn't do that, not worth the man hours.

Renewed means factory reset and a quick test, look it over, pack it up. That's it. When it is some unknown 3rd party as is the case here, they probably don't even do that much.

 

[drinkingbird]

Hello. We have a dying Asus RT-AC68U (TM-AC1900) running Asus Merlin. It was rock solid for years, but recently the 5 Ghz band has completely stopped working and the 2.4 GHz band drops intermittently with the router becoming unpingable.

I hoping to get opinions between these two routers that are currently on sale: Asus RT-AX68U ($130 USD on Newegg) or Asus RT-AX86U Pro ($220 on Amazon). Our home connection is a 500 Mbps down / 12 Mbps up, and we will not upgrade to anything faster anytime soon (rural area). No problems with local wireless network congestion (though neighbors are using 2.4 GHz channels 2, 5, and 10 for some reason)

It's a 2 story, 4 bedroom, ~2500 square feet house with a basement. No Ethernet running through the house. Router is on a central location on the second floor. There's a mix of 802.11 n, ac, and ax clients (WIFI 4/5/6). We also have a Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT in Client Bridge mode with a 2 year uptime to connect a wired Brother printer to the network. Used for home office work, streaming, schoolwork, and PC gaming. Maybe some VR gaming in the future. In order of importance I'd say reliability>range=performance>price, but we don't want to spend more than we have to (e.g. we definitely don't need the AX88U, GT-AX6000, or various gaming routers). Would most likely use Asus Merlin firmware.

Thoughts on best choice of the two based on my described use case?

If your current 68U is sufficient, might as well just stick with the new AX version of that. Do you need the advanced guest wireless and VLAN capability of the Pro? If not why spend extra for it?

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Amazon isn't the seller, why would they have done anything? Even if they were, they are not replacing internal components. Even Asus wouldn't do that, not worth the man hours.

Renewed means factory reset and a quick test, look it over, pack it up. That's it. When it is some unknown 3rd party as is the case here, they probably don't even do that much.

I am sure you are right.

I was quoting the advertisements.

E.g.

 

[drinkingbird]

I was quoting the advertisements.

E.g.

Yeah ebay has a similar program. It doesn't take much to get approved to be a seller of refurbished stuff. You have no idea who refurbished it (if at all). They do give you a longer return policy at least, but that's about it.

 

[sfx2000]

Hello. We have a dying Asus RT-AC68U (TM-AC1900) running Asus Merlin. It was rock solid for years, but recently the 5 Ghz band has completely stopped working and the 2.4 GHz band drops intermittently with the router becoming unpingable.

You might get better assistance by posting in the appropriate sub-forum...

Asus has a dedicated group over there - just saying...