New router for 38 square meter apartment

[Fapman]

So planning to upgrade my current ASUS RT-NT56U custom-fw router, cause its old and i feel its laking.

My apartment is 1 room only and 38 squre meters. So the range isin't really the primary object in this manner.

Devices currently:
1 gaming pc
LG V10
Asus UX303LN
Chromecast (Summer-time going to upgrade to smart-tv)

Connection:
100/100 1 ms Fiber-connection

What im planning is Netgear R7000, i can get small loan of 160€ including shipping from Germany. But what im wondering (cause i'm a bit of new-tech geek) is that do i need MU-MIMO in my scenario?
In the near future probably not going to move, or nobody will probably not move in with me (unfortunately). So really the only use its going to get is from me in my small apartment. Is the MU-MIMO something that i would benefit from?

Originally i looked at Asus RT-AC87U, but after reading all about the horrible problems i looked away. People did recommend RT-AC88U but its 350€ without shipping. And to my scenario i think its "bit" overkill. The Low-latency technlogy etc is "nice" but i think it's only for Wifi? And the devices that i need low "ping" is PS4 (Maybe in summer with TV) and Main-PC. But both of those are connected through cable. Witch the R7000 can handle just fine....Right?

Thanks for any help! Its overwhelming how much options there are currently.

And oh, what i appreciate about router.
A) Minimal Lag (thourgh ethernet cable)
B) Minimal Ping/Latency (through ethernet cable)
C) Good streaming capability

 

[L&LD]

Agreed about your current router and ISP connection is not a good match.

I would dismiss about getting a loan for an R7000 and instead get a $100 RT-AC56U instead. Best bang for the buck today (and still).

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-merlin-378-55-3_hgg-final-mod.26524/page-2#post-199549

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573


The firmware you run (RMerlin or the forks thereof on supported Asus routers highly recommended) is almost always more important than the hardware.

Even if the R7000 can run a version of RMerlin, getting a loan for one isn't in your best interest either.

 

[Fapman]

The loan part was a joke. Sorry if it was mis informing, I meant it would Cost 160€. My current finansical situation aint THAT bad

I have read that the Asus router has problems in 2.4Ghz radio? Is this due to software or?

What i thinked was that the R7000 was bargain (considering I first considered buying AC87R) And What about the MU-MIMO, is it something I would miss?

 

[System Error Message]

i use asus routers as wifi APs and i dont have issues with 2.4Ghz. The only issue i have is wifi printer compatibility but i got so annoyed of wifi printers that i just connected them to usb to something running linux.

Some of the routers are good but not every single one. ASUS has fewer models but they focus on making it good. If you want MU-MIMO i would suggest at least the AC3100 or AC88U. MU-MIMO is worth it if you have such clients. All the routers will satisfy your 3 points as long as they have a good platform. A router doesnt know what streaming is. All you need is a bit of QoS and even the R7000 and AC68U will be fine. Even the AC66U is fast enough. If you want MU-MIMO and you have more than 4 wired clients than the AC88U would be a good choice. none of your clients support MU-MIMO and even if some did you dont have enough of them to make a difference. 1 client supporting mu-mimo isnt enough, to benefit from it you need at least 2 clients with it.

 

[TonyH]

Always keep in mind communication is 2 way business, you at one end and the other end. Newer routers have newer
up-to-date components which means they are more powerful(cpus, memories). Even older devices can have some side
benefits from it. In the case of WiFi, signal strength has to be at certain minimum level to run at full capacity. That is the level needed little more than for stable connection.

 

[L&LD]

The loan part was a joke. Sorry if it was mis informing, I meant it would Cost 160€. My current finansical situation aint THAT bad

I have read that the Asus router has problems in 2.4Ghz radio? Is this due to software or?

What i thinked was that the R7000 was bargain (considering I first considered buying AC87R) And What about the MU-MIMO, is it something I would miss?

A smiley face would have gone a long way.

Did you even read the links I posted?

 

[sfx2000]

So planning to upgrade my current ASUS RT-NT56U custom-fw router, cause its old and i feel its laking.

Since you're already an Asus user, and have gone down the 3rd party firmware path...

RT-AC68 series is likely a good choice for you... it's a pretty good device, and the AC1900 class of devices is at the good part of the price curve comparatively speaking...

Going with another OEM - the R7000 is pretty solid, but again, if you're used to the Asus way of doing things, it's a new start and learning curve to get the most out of the device.

 

[Fapman]

What about D-link DIR-890? Its AC3200 and Tri-band.

I can get it around 200€, witch is pretty good "bang-for-bug"

 

[System Error Message]

unless you're planning to use 3rd party firmware dont go for d-link or tp-link. In the case of a standard AP and not a router than they can be used but regardless of whether you use 3rd party firmware or not both dlink and tp-link have a lot of hardware revisions and they all have their issues usually listed on openwrt wiki or wikidevi.

Both the AC68U and R7000 are great but the R7000 wins when you are trying to push 100 clients to a single AP.

MU-MIMO isnt needed if you dont have at least 2 MU-MIMO and triband is needed if you have various devices and many devices that which in your case you dont. The only reason why i got the AC3200 even though i wired everything i can, its more that i am trying to exploit its hardware and also i can set each radio for a particular network. I think the AC68U or R7000 would be a good choice for you and if you're looking into getting more devices and MU-MIMO in the near future than the AC3100 or AC88U would be the choice depending on how many wired devices.

@TonyH CPU and RAM dont matter much for communication, only for processing. The radio chip handles some of the load and all the CPU has to do is bridge. a 600Mhz MIPS CPU has no issues bridging layer 2 or layer 3 at 2Gb/s (see mikrotik's product pages for their benchmark on their older MIPS routers). The RAM only needs to be big enough to load the OS and store a bit of info.