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How is the UDM, hardware wise?

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wordfool

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Being in the market for a replacement for my aging Netgear WNDR3800, and having used Unifi APs in a previous house, I am strongly considering the UDM (non-pro) for my current apartment (~1000 sq ft, 200Mbps-ish internet), attracted by everything from its non-spidery looks to its Atheros chipset and potential for easy expansion with additional Unifi APs in the future if/when I move to a bigger place.

Of course, I've read all the issues with it, including the myriad complaints with the current stable (1.5.6) and beta (1.7) firmware releases. It does make me wonder how the UDM is rated in terms of its hardware, too. I've not read any reports of premature failures (although the built-in fan, while good for the electronics, does worry me a bit in terms of being a potential point of failure). If Ubiquiti were to finally iron out the firmware bugs in the coming months are we looking at a device that is likely to be a solid performer for the next 2-3 years?

TBH the Netgear has been such a solid performer (once I figured out the most stable firmware, and aside from recent flakiness that's probably age related) that I'm nervous of getting any new router, especially after reading enough reviews to get analysis paralysis. But I do want to stick with Qualcomm/Atheros units, since that's a chipset that's served me well for years (yes, probably just superstition, but I gotta start somewhere). The other units I'm considering are the Netgear R7800 and the Synology RT2600AC, which are both slightly cheaper but also spectacularly fail the beauty test being imposed by my better half (if they were easy to wall mount and hide like the relatively discrete WNDR3800 that would be less of a problem). Future expansion options are also more limited.
 
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I'm fond of my Netgear R7800 on OpnWrt and it can be wall mounted. Got it running on OpenWrt only recently. I've had Voxel's FW on it before, which is pretty much an improved clone of Netgear's FW.
My first impressions of OpenWrt are positive. Rich of features, that lack in OFW and Voxel's. Throughput solely on 2,4 Ghz (no 5Ghz) at close range is somewhat less than on OFW, yet seems more consistent and less spikey throughout the house.
Only negative thing i found so far is the LED lights. Fortunately they can be switched off, cause when on (default) it looks like a christmas tree.
 

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