ASUS RT-AC87U Dual-band Wireless-AC2400 Gigabit Router Reviewed

[thiggins]

Post comments here, please for First Look and Part 2.

 

[KGB7]

They don't build them like they used to.

 

[connorm]

why no wireless performance stats?

 

[thiggins]

why no wireless performance stats?

Because I am giving ASUS and Quantenna a little more time to try to resolve the significant difference between my results and theirs.

I will post an article with both NETGEAR R8000 and RT-AC87 wireless performance results within a week.

 

[cc666]

results

Because I am giving ASUS and Quantenna a little more time to try to resolve the significant difference between my results and theirs.

I will post an article with both NETGEAR R8000 and RT-AC87 wireless performance results within a week.

They released the product, I would cut them no slack. My guess the performance is terrible.

CC

 

[thiggins]

They released the product, I would cut them no slack. My guess the performance is terrible.

I am cutting both NETGEAR and ASUS some slack.

The reason is more to do with making sure my new test process is producing proper results.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Why don't they do all the testing before releasing the router? It's all about making that money.

 

[L&LD]

They have done testing. Enough for it to be released (in their estimation).

Manufacturers know that if they release a 'perfect product'; they'll be out of business soon enough.

It is still up to the buyer to determine if the offered products are equal or superior to what they already have, or, what has already been released.

 

[NightOwl326]

In the case of the rt-ac87u you might want to wait until this is fulfilled in case it makes a world of difference!

"We will have another public release firmware late next week (if quality testing passes the current beta) that incorporates Quantenna’s performance pack firmware for additional 5GHz throughput and range".
__________________
ASUS Technical Marketing

 

[siphyn]

Under firmware version I noticed the RT-AC68U was running firmware 3.0.0.4.374_205. Why such an old firmware? I'm thinking with a more recent firmware, the USB 3.0 speeds would be improved.

 

[Mordred]

Because I am giving ASUS and Quantenna a little more time to try to resolve the significant difference between my results and theirs.

I will post an article with both NETGEAR R8000 and RT-AC87 wireless performance results within a week.

So you give them a chance to specifically tune the firmware so it works best with your setup, e.g. make sure it works with the client adapter you use etc. and maybe optimize wireless params for this adapter.

Same cheating as graphic card manufacturers do.

Your test will make them look good, users will think what a great router and finally be disappointed if they can't reach the same speeds with their client adapters:-(

Tim, not sure if users can trust you anymore if you don't want to post info that make a manufacturer look bad. I mean they can always update the firmware and you can retest them.

 

[Adamm]

So you give them a chance to specifically tune the firmware so it works best with your setup, e.g. make sure it works with the client adapter you use etc. and maybe optimize wireless params for this adapter.

Same cheating as graphic card manufacturers do.

Your test will make them look good, users will think what a great router and finally be disappointed if they can't reach the same speeds with their client adapters:-(

Tim, not sure if users can trust you anymore if you don't want to post info that make a manufacturer look bad. I mean they can always update the firmware and you can retest them.

Considering there are only three(?) AC mPCIe clients available this is hardly the case. The AC87U was released early by BestBuy and there are obviously going to be bugs that could effect performance that were overlooked during the internal development cycle. It seems like your just complaining for the sake of complaining, rather then thanking Tim for taking the time and effort to share all available information with us.

 

[thiggins]

Why don't they do all the testing before releasing the router? It's all about making that money.

Why do people who should know better rush to buy products that are not stable?

Manfs would not rush half-baked products to market if people did not buy them.

You, the consumer, have the power to change manufacturer behavior.

 

[thiggins]

Under firmware version I noticed the RT-AC68U was running firmware 3.0.0.4.374_205. Why such an old firmware? I'm thinking with a more recent firmware, the USB 3.0 speeds would be improved.

Where did you "notice" this?

 

[thiggins]

So you give them a chance to specifically tune the firmware so it works best with your setup, e.g. make sure it works with the client adapter you use etc. and maybe optimize wireless params for this adapter.

Same cheating as graphic card manufacturers do.

Your test will make them look good, users will think what a great router and finally be disappointed if they can't reach the same speeds with their client adapters:-(

Tim, not sure if users can trust you anymore if you don't want to post info that make a manufacturer look bad. I mean they can always update the firmware and you can retest them.

This ain't my first rodeo, Mordred.

The AC87 is the first 4x4 product that has gone through my new test process.

I am delaying so that SNB can continue to be trusted source for independent, thorough and consistent testing. I have a new test process and new test gear that I want to ensure is producing results that will properly reflect COMPARATIVE differences between products, that will correlate to real-world use.

Once I set a process, it stays FROZEN until the next test bed revision, so that the main variable is the device under test. This is test and measurement 101.

 

[siphyn]

Where did you "notice" this?

Under the routing performance section. You have the test table with the routers, and there is a firmware box showing the firmwares of each router.

 

[thiggins]

Under the routing performance section. You have the test table with the routers, and there is a firmware box showing the firmwares of each router.

That review is almost a year old, so old firmware.

Storage was retested in January
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32325-ac1900-router-wireless-retest?start=2 with no difference found.

My conclusion is that the AC68U's hardware design doesn't allow full USB 3.0 throughput without affecting 2.4 GHz performance. So ASUS limits the port to USB 2.0 speed, no matter how the USB setting in 2.4 GHz professional tab is set.

 

[RMerlin]

So you give them a chance to specifically tune the firmware so it works best with your setup, e.g. make sure it works with the client adapter you use etc. and maybe optimize wireless params for this adapter.

Same cheating as graphic card manufacturers do.

Your test will make them look good, users will think what a great router and finally be disappointed if they can't reach the same speeds with their client adapters:-(

Tim, not sure if users can trust you anymore if you don't want to post info that make a manufacturer look bad. I mean they can always update the firmware and you can retest them.

It's not about cheating, it's about the facts that:

a) The RT-AC87 isn't widely available yet, it's more or less a pre-launch with Best Buy US as the sole provider, meaning only a tiny fraction of potential buyers can even get it at this time
b) the device isn't using the final, performance-optimized firmware yet. For instance, the current firmware doesn't have MU-MIMO enabled yet.
c) Both Asus and Netgear have publicly announced that the current firmwares are NOT running the whole planned feature set yet. No MU-MIMO and preliminary SDK6-based firmware for Asus (the SDK7 based firmware will fully unlock the potential of this router), and the band steering in the R8000 is currently very
limited as Netgear still needs to work on its implementation.

The vast majority of buyers won't be able to buy this router until the end of August. Therefore, it makes sense for Tim to provide a review showing what those buyers will be getting at that point, not what early adopters living in the US will be getting during this pre-launch period.

 

[RMerlin]

A few interesting bits came out of Asus's DIY guy 48 minutes long review:

1) MU-MIMO is not enabled in the firmware yet, and will be in a future firmware release
2) The USB ports on the RT-AC87 are high-power. The USB3 port for instance can provide up to 1700 mA, which should make it unnecessary to use a Y-shaped cable with portable HDDs (so, the fact the two ports are way apart won't be an issue)
3) He unveiled the EA-AC87, which will be MU-MIMO 4x4, and even have 5 Ethernet ports on it.

 

[thiggins]

I confirmed with ASUS that MU-MIMO is currently disabled and won't be turned on until the EA-87 bridge ships. This date is moving out from the "late August" I was originally told.

I grabbed some fuzzy pix of the EA-87 from the video.