ASUS GT-5300 or NETGEAR X10?

[Will Davis]

Hi guys. In the market for a new router. Big gamer with dozens of devices that use wifi in a 1500sf home. Torn between Netgear x10 and Asus GT5300. Can someone please recommend one or something that may be better.

 

[avtella]

TBH, an AC68U or R7000 should be good enough. The R7800 has the best 5Ghz band of any router I have used and has a pretty good QoS by Qualcomm.

However if you want to splurge, between the R9000 and GT5300, I’d get the GT5300. The R9000 actually performs worse WiFi wise than the R7800 and it’s only real advantage is link aggregation and a two more A15 cores. The 60Ghz band is not that useful in my opinion. Overall the Asus GT5300 is a better buy.

 

[psychopomp1]

I would stay away from the Asus -GT5300, its firmware is buggy as hell. If you're after a tri band ( 2 x 5ghz & 1 x 2.4ghz) router then the Asus RT-AC5300 is probably your best bet as its firmware is quite mature now. That said, I've had both the AC5300 and X10, and i found the wifi coverage on the X10 superior. If you're ok with a dual band router then buying a Qualcomm Atheros (QCA) based router is probably your best option such as X10, R7800 or Synology RT2600AC since their wifi coverage tends to be better than Broadcom based routers (ie most Asus routers) and also Mu Mimo actually works on QCA based routers.

 

[Will Davis]

Thanks for your recommendations. I currently have the Linksys ea9500 but it’s been dropping WiFi connections 6+ times a week. Sometimes not even registering a connection at all. I bought it at Best Buy for $399 and intend to exchange it out for the best router I can buy. 2 fire TVs (one wired), 2 fire sticks, iPad Air 2, 3 iPhones, hp printer, 4 smart TVs, kindle fire, Sonos media center (wired), ecobee thermostat, Xbox one, ps4, etc. My family streams content via Kodi, IPtv, etc.

 

[psychopomp1]

In that case go for the QCA based Netgear R9000 (X10), you won't be disappointed with it

 

[avtella]

From experience of owning both (am a beta tester for Netgear), go for a R7800 over the R9000, same WiFi chipset but better performance/range on the 7800, in addition the R9000 is still buggy and costs like $150 more. The R9000 has its own set of issues. When you buy the latest $300-400 router you actually end up being a guinea pig, better to buy an older router unless you want to deal with firmware issues. I'm sure both Asus and Netgear will fix the GT5300/R9000 issues in time but the GT5300 is a better buy overall between the two if you are still intent on putting up that much money.

 

[Will Davis]

Great advice from everyone. I’m not really scared by the fact that the routers will come with issues as all electronic products commonly have issues when being new and innovative. I went and bought both a GT5300 and R9000 to test for the next 4 weeks. I do have a question, out of the two which seems to be making the most progress at delivering a stable device in your opinion. Thanks

 

[psychopomp1]

Great advice from everyone. I’m not really scared by the fact that the routers will come with issues as all electronic products commonly have issues when being new and innovative. I went and bought both a GT5300 and R9000 to test for the next 4 weeks. I do have a question, out of the two which seems to be making the most progress at delivering a stable device in your opinion. Thanks

You're correct, no router is immune from bugs. From personal experience, I've found Linksys & Netgear routers to be the least buggy when first released, Asus seem to be the worst - think of the RT-AC87R as a good example. I think only you will be able to conclude which is the better between GT5300 & R9000 - so probably a wise decision on your part to test out both and return (or sell) one of them later on. Let us know how you get on, good luck!

 

[superjiuppy]

Great advice from everyone. I’m not really scared by the fact that the routers will come with issues as all electronic products commonly have issues when being new and innovative. I went and bought both a GT5300 and R9000 to test for the next 4 weeks. I do have a question, out of the two which seems to be making the most progress at delivering a stable device in your opinion. Thanks

Hi Will; How did this challenge end?
Thanks

 

[FilipMvP]

Hi Will; How did this challenge end?
Thanks

I'm also curious . I'm now unhappy GT-AC5300 owner and I'm thinking to return and buying x10
My GT had at very begin issue with language (first use was in Taiwan or chines language only ) I have to every day restart because or one wi-fi band is very slow or missing (restart solve problem.
As for language i made firmware updete and hard reset and now is ok but still i don't know of my problems are firmware bugs or I have hardware issue ...

 

[microchip]

The R7800 is currently the best offering NETGEAR has on the market. Well matured firmware (with small issues here and there), has third-party firmware support (DD/OpenWrt/Voxel), is QCA-based with well working MU-MIMO, QoS, WiFi, etc. and is not that expensive any more

 

[FilipMvP]

already ordered r9000...

The R7800 is currently the best offering NETGEAR has on the market. Well matured firmware (with small issues here and there), has third-party firmware support (DD/OpenWrt/Voxel), is QCA-based with well working MU-MIMO, QoS, WiFi, etc. and is not that expensive any more

what about r9000 has also third party firmware , difference is only in price ?

 

[microchip]

already ordered r9000...
what about r9000 has also third party firmware , difference is only in price ?

it's a beefier model than the R7800, using a different CPU and having AD wifi. It has more ports too but over at NG's community forum, in general people are not very fond of it (especially firmware-wise)

 

[avtella]

Just because it has a higher model number or costs more doesn’t necessarily make it better (ie R9000). The R7800 actually performs better in terms of WiFi. The R9000’s CPU however has two more cores which will only help if you need it as a NAS or for things like PLEX. In terms of VPN performance it won’t be any better than the R7800 as VPN is single core performance dependent. The R9000 firmware was even more buggy and HT160 didn’t even work as advertised whereas on the R7800 which uses the same WiFi chipset it works well. There is a hacky way to use HT160 on the R9000 though.

Additionally the ad band on the R9000 is not very useful as barely any devices support it plus the fact that it’s doesn’t penetrate well so it’s only useful in the same room. The R9000 has link aggregation and a 10 Gb Eth port but if you don’t have a NAS supporting either of those it won’t be worth it.


Currently I’d say all around performance wise the Asus AC86U or Netgear R7800 are the best buys.

 

[FilipMvP]

I have to chose between r9000 + qnap ts-251+ or r7800 + nvidia shield (direct play) + QNAP
Which setup works better with 4k videos on lg oled C8 ?
C8 has lan 100mbit ethernet, wi fi ac - no ad standard support
Regards