Dual core vs Single core routers? AC68U vs N66U?

[N66uASUS]

Does dual core / single core make any difference in speed / performance?

 

[sfx2000]

Does dual core / single core make any difference in speed / performance?

Depends on your WAN connection first - and then the wireless, which is obvious, the RT-AC68U is an AC1900 class router/AP, the N66U is perhaps an N900...

If your needs are met, then the N66U isn't a bad place to be... don't upgrade to bigger numbers if you cannot make use of it...

 

[N66uASUS]

Depends on your WAN connection first - and then the wireless, which is obvious, the RT-AC68U is an AC1900 class router/AP, the N66U is perhaps an N900...

If your needs are met, then the N66U isn't a bad place to be... don't upgrade to bigger numbers if you cannot make use of it...

idk i just have a feeling that ac68u will make few milli seconds difference on every page load especially on wifi

 

[SoCalReviews]

idk i just have a feeling that ac68u will make few milli seconds difference on every page load especially on wifi

I had the N66U and upgraded to the 68P and I did notice a difference in performance especially for streaming. The 5Ghz wireless range and stability was also better on the 68P. There was less of a difference if any at all between the N66U and the 68P for the 2.4Ghz wireless range. I recently upgraded again and so I also noticed a slight improvement in responsiveness and stability going from the 68P 1Ghz dual core to the 1900P 1.4Ghz dual core. If you are considering upgrading to the 68 series of Asus routers from the N66U I would say yes... do an upgrade.

 

[N66uASUS]

What's the 1900P router?

 

[L&LD]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-wi...er-black/5091000.p?id=bb5091000&skuId=5091000

An updated RT-AC68U with a dual core 1.4GHz processor.

 

[john9527]

Slightly off topic....but another thing to keep in mind is that the N66 firmware is based on an older kernel whose limitations are starting to come into play with any newer features (and sometimes support for existing features).

 

[sfx2000]

I'll go back to OP's ask - and in many situations - perhaps he has all that is needed...

Not everyone has a big bandwidth connection on the WAN side - and that device was pretty good - get up to date with current firmware and go from there...

 

[ColinTaylor]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-wi...er-black/5091000.p?id=bb5091000&skuId=5091000

An updated RT-AC68U with a dual core 1.4GHz processor.

Does anybody know if this is available outside the US? The most modern AC1900 Asus router available in the UK is still the RT-AC68U.

 

[L&LD]

Does anybody know if this is available outside the US? The most modern AC1900 Asus router available in the UK is still the RT-AC68U.

Afaik, it is a BestBuy exclusive, right now.

 

[SoCalReviews]

Does anybody know if this is available outside the US? The most modern AC1900 Asus router available in the UK is still the RT-AC68U.

Someone else asked this question earlier and I searched for the 1900P in the UK and it looks like it's not available there right now there. There are ways you could get one using third party sellers but if you needed warranty support or needed to return it for some reason that might be a problem with the 1900P outside of U.S. or Canada because that's where the Best Buy stores exist.

I am also wondering about firmware support on the 1900P for the UK zone regarding 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequencies. I suppose you could try running 68U based firmware on the 1900P but there are no absolute guarantees... I heard people have done that so it should work.

I know that Amazon vendors started selling the 68P within a year after it was released as a BB exclusive so it's possible Amazon vendors could eventually be selling the 1900P since it's such a hot item right now and it seems like everyone wants one.

The answer is that you could be patient and see if the 1900P shows up on Amazon UK in the near future or try to go through a third party vendor who will sell and ship a BB product to the UK or you could go with another option and buy a router that is currently available in the UK... like one of the other Asus models.

 

[RMerlin]

I am also wondering about firmware support on the 1900P for the UK zone regarding 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequencies. I suppose you could try running 68U based firmware on the 1900P but there are no absolute guarantees...

Both model share the same firmware. Asus does not compile a separate firmware for the RT-AC1900P.

 

[SoCalReviews]

Both model share the same firmware. Asus does not compile a separate firmware for the RT-AC1900P.

Ok, I just don't want to take credit for telling someone in the UK who might have to jump through hoops of fire to get their hands on a 1900P that the 68U firmware will absolutely work on it.... only to have them run into some kind of issue. But it seems like there shouldn't be any issues using 68U firmware on the 1900P (at least with the firmware itself) and that's really good to know in advance.

 

[RMerlin]

Ok, I just don't want to take credit for telling someone in the UK who might have to jump through hoops of fire to get their hands on a 1900P that the 68U firmware will absolutely work on it.... only to have them run into some kind of issue. But it seems like there shouldn't be any issues using 68U firmware on the 1900P (at least with the firmware itself) and that's really good to know in advance.

The problem wouldn't be the firmware, but the bootloader, which will be hardcoded for the US region. You can't import routers from another country without running into wireless-related problems.

 

[SoCalReviews]

The problem wouldn't be the firmware, but the bootloader, which will be hardcoded for the US region. You can't import routers from another country without running into wireless-related problems.

So despite trying to use 68u firmware in another zone the hardcoded information that can't be changed via the firmware could cause issues? Hence my previous warnings about time zone/region related issues for potential UK owners of the U.S. version of the 1900p.

 

[Shonk]

Slightly off topic....but another thing to keep in mind is that the N66 firmware is based on an older kernel whose limitations are starting to come into play with any newer features (and sometimes support for existing features).

They are both based on the 2003 2.6 Kernel
Mips Linux 2.6.22 Released, 8 July 2007
Arm Linux 2.6.36 released 20 October, 2010

Think about that for a second broadcom are using a 13 year old kernel base

Its a bit of a joke really how old the broadcom kernel's are

Everyone else manages to update to a newer kernel

OpenELEC Version: 7.0.0
Linux Odroid 3.10.100 #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri May 20 23:03:22 AWST 2016 armv7l GNU/Li

 

[RMerlin]

They are both based on the 2003 2.6 Kernel
Mips Linux 2.6.22 Released, 8 July 2007
Arm Linux 2.6.36 released 20 October, 2010

Think about that for a second broadcom are using a 13 year old kernel base

2.6.36 is not 13 years old... Linux didn't scrap development and start over again with 3.0. The major revision number bears no meaning in Linux. In fact, the difference between 2.6.39 and 3.0 is relatively minor (3.0 was developed as 2.6.40, and the number got bumped to 3.0 at release time only because Linus felt that 40 was getting to be a rather large number - no technical reason at all behind the major version jump). So the 2.6.1 release date means absolutely nothing - 4.x is still based on the exact same codebase as 2.6.x and 3.x.

2.6.36.4 was released in February 2011, so that's 5 years old. CentOS 5, which is still used in numerous production servers today, runs 2.6.18 BTW...

 

[mich]

Regarding the initial question - I believe the main question is, do you have any AC devices, and if so, do you feel you're not getting enough bandwith out of them. If so, you should consider upgrading. The RT-AC68U is probably the sweet spot for most AC users at this moment - much cheaper than the AC88U and considerably faster than the AC66U. But if you can do without AC, stick with the N66U. It's still a great router with enough performance in relation to the bandwidth it can deliver.