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Best new router for Merlin?

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ZakM

Occasional Visitor
What does everyone think is the best new router to get for Asus-Merlin in a heavy bandwidth home office/home setup?
Our AC66U B1 seems to be struggling.
What's the difference of the AX line?
 
I also use a B1. We stream all day for our jobs and have no issues. You may want to check the CPU/RAM usage during the day, if it's not redlining, it may be elsewhere.
Yeah exactly why I mentioned this, it IS redlining, I get CPU spikes a lot. The router worked great for many years, I think it's due time for an upgrade (and work can pay for it :) )
Thanks for your input, I'll start looking at that one, but hope others chip in with their views too!
 
AX86U here with the AC66U_B1 as an AiMesh node right now.
 
The RT-AX58U and the RT-AX88U hindered the performance of the RT-AX86U. I believe the RT-AC66U_B1 will too.

The best use for it may be as a Media Bridge, to a few wired only clients.
 
Would that hinder the AX86U performance?

Any additional radio working in close proximity and on the same frequency/channel will affect your main router's performance, even if the routers are the same model and high performance models. This is how Wi-Fi works, it takes turns to send/receive data - AiMesh is using the same channels. Router + Access Point on different channels (the SSID's can be the same) can do higher simultaneous throughput (using more available bandwidth).
 
Any additional radio working in close proximity and on the same frequency/channel will affect your main router's performance, even if the routers are the same model and high performance models. This is how Wi-Fi works, it takes turns to send/receive data - AiMesh is using the same channels. Router + Access Point on different channels (the SSID's can be the same) can do higher simultaneous throughput (using more available bandwidth).
on nice, interesting t hen, that's worth looking into! So via a wired link then using different channels, it should be alright?
 
I've my eye on the AX86U!

Just waiting for Curry's to restock at £239 to replace my AC88U (been slow since the latest beta getting 200 out of 500 and can't work out why) - Hoping to improve WiFi (and try WiFi 6) as well.

Let me know which you decide to purchase and your thoughts :)
 
Very detailed, thank you!

And what would happen if I kept the old AC66U-B1 as an AiMesh node? Would that hinder the AX86U performance?
The AC66U_B1 works well as an AiMesh node. I have one I set up from time to time just to test things. Best to run the main router 5 GHz at 80 MHz with WPA2-Personal to be most compatible with the AC router.

And I would not recommend the AX88U...old hardware and design.
 
So besides the AX86U, what else is decent? Is there a cheaper AX option?
On the Asus website they have the RT-AX86U product page and if you got to Tech specs they also show a RT-AX86S which appears to be a neutered AX86U. I'm assuming it would be less expensive but note that it is not listed on Merlin's website as a supported model at this time. Another less expensive Asus-Merlin compatible option would be the RT-AX68U.
 
Thanks to everyone for your views!
I just got an AX86U and, so far, I am VERY happy with it. The CPU cores are not spiking as often as on the AC66U_B1 (and I get two more cores!), performance seems and feels better, in all, a happy transition!

Now I'm going thru the new features of this model, and trying to configure it like the old router. For the time being I will test it without adding the old router as an AiMesh node, I feel the improved wifi might just be all that we need for improved performance on the clients that sit further away from the router.

I did notice some things that I can't find, for example, Diversion statistics on the web UI. The uiDivStats package on amtm is not the same one I used to have at all, actually, I had never installed taht package before. Is this not available on the AX86U or am I missing something I need to install?
 

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