ASUS BlueCave AC2600 vs D-Link DIR-895L AC5300

[skty]

Hi guys, would like to ask for your opinion...

I am not familiar and certainly no expert in WiFi router. Assuming the price of ASUS BlueCave AC2600 is just $30 cheaper than D-Link DIR-895L AC5300:

Looking at the specification, D-Link DIR-895L AC5300 win ASUS BlueCave AC2600 in all fields but I wonder what is the real world performance of ASUS BlueCave AC2600 vs D-Link DIR-895L AC5300.

I also not sure about Intel chipset vs Broadcom chipset.

About the stock firmware, ASUS BlueCave AC2600 has limited/not supported by most of the custom firmware like DD-WRT whereas D-Link DIR-895L AC5300 is supported therefore I am not so worry about D-Link's stock firmware limitation.

Another router pricing that come close ($30 higher than D-Link's) is TP-Link Archer AC5400. It has the same specification of D-Link DIR-895L AC5300 but the stock firmware has Trend Micro protection same as ASUS'. But if I am going to flash custom fireware into TP-Link's, then there is no different of the provision of Trend Micro protection anyway.

Appreciate if you could give some recommendation on which to buy.

Thank you in advanced!

 

[L&LD]

I hope someone familiar with both of those products come by and answers some of your questions.

For me, they are both not even on my radar.

The RT-AC86U running RMerlin firmware is the router to have today and at least until sometime in 2020 when true 'AX' class routers become available.

 

[skty]

I hope someone familiar with both of those products come by and answers some of your questions.

For me, they are both not even on my radar.

The RT-AC86U running RMerlin firmware is the router to have today and at least until sometime in 2020 when true 'AX' class routers become available.

the reason I compare those is because those are having great discount promotion now. almost 60% discount.

btw, may I know what's the reason that you prefer an AC2900 router (RT-AC86U) than those AC5300 routers?

the custom RMerlin firmware provide AiProtection (Trend Micro) as well?

 

[L&LD]

the reason I compare those is because those are having great discount promotion now. almost 60% discount.

If cost is your concern, then the large discount is important.

But your original post seems to indicate that you want more than just the cheapest router.

You also seem to want choices in the firmware and possibly other customizations (scripts) in addition to the best real-world performance.

You can have cheap, you can have performance or you can have additional features, but you can only have two of those at any one time.

What is the final price at that 60% discount? I waited until I bought my RT-AC86U at an almost equivalent discount too.

 

[skty]

If cost is your concern, then the large discount is important.

But your original post seems to indicate that you want more than just the cheapest router.

You also seem to want choices in the firmware and possibly other customizations (scripts) in addition to the best real-world performance.

You can have cheap, you can have performance or you can have additional features, but you can only have two of those at any one time.

What is the final price at that 60% discount? I waited until I bought my RT-AC86U at an almost equivalent discount too.

yeah... I prefer performance more than price.

I am from Malaysia and the Blue Cave is at RM715 while DIR-895L is at RM825. RT-AC86U selling at RM899.

as for the BC AC2600, DL AC5300, RT AC2900, I don't know which is inflated number, which is rounded down number. So the best is still real world speed test performance...

I having a 1Gbps internet connection and I use NAT a lot. So I am thinking the WiFi 802.11ac 1734 Mbps on Blue Cave is definitely much more slower than the WiFi 802.11ac 2167 Mbps on RT-AC86U when I download/upload to the internet or I read/write file on NAT, right?

Then another question is the additional band from DIR-895L for WiFi 802.11ac 2167 Mbps to make it AC5300, does the additional band really useful and more superior than RT-AC86U's AC2900?

or do you think I should wait and purchase an AX router when they become the main stream? I am new to this router technology this so not so sure about the advantage of AX compare to AC.

Is ASUS the best "brand" for router in the market?