We have a house with 5 people and their associated devices. In a room upstairs there is a server connected to 4 HDHomeruns via an 8-port gigabit switch, which in turn is connected to a TRENDnet TEW-812DRU v1.0R AC1750 router, which in turn is connected to the cable modem, a MagicJack, a Sonos, and a HDTV. Downstairs is our office, which has two desktop PC's and a printer connected to an Edimax BR-6478AC AC1200 router being used in range-extender mode (only 5GHz). In the family room is our main HDTV, a Sonos, and a HTPC that has an Alfa AWUS036AC AC1200 USB adapter -- which unreliably (due to a problem with the device, not the signal strength) connects at 5GHz at high speed or falls back to 2.4GHz at low speed. I try to mostly use the 2.4GHz band for our mobile devices -- 5 laptops, 5 cellphones, and several tablets.
My ultimate long-term plan is to have a tri-band router upstairs that bridges to 5GHz routers (one on each band) in the office and family room, with the 2.4GHz band reserved for mobile devices only.
What I'm thinking of doing as a short-term transition towards that is to buy a new, better router for upstairs, and then move the AC1750 router to the office and the AC1200 router to the family room, where it will be connected to the HTPC, the HDTV, and the Sonos (freeing three devices from using 2.4GHz). The R7800 seems like the ideal choice, as it is the fastest non-proprietary AC with working MU-MIMO and 160MHz capability. Then down the road I could buy another R7800 and a yet-to-be-made tri-band router with working MU-MIMO and 160MHz, and put the tri-band upstairs and the R7800's in the office and family room.
My ultimate long-term plan is to have a tri-band router upstairs that bridges to 5GHz routers (one on each band) in the office and family room, with the 2.4GHz band reserved for mobile devices only.
What I'm thinking of doing as a short-term transition towards that is to buy a new, better router for upstairs, and then move the AC1750 router to the office and the AC1200 router to the family room, where it will be connected to the HTPC, the HDTV, and the Sonos (freeing three devices from using 2.4GHz). The R7800 seems like the ideal choice, as it is the fastest non-proprietary AC with working MU-MIMO and 160MHz capability. Then down the road I could buy another R7800 and a yet-to-be-made tri-band router with working MU-MIMO and 160MHz, and put the tri-band upstairs and the R7800's in the office and family room.