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Latest hardware revision of AC86U?

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Lee MacMillan

Senior Member
I'm looking at these on Ebay and if I can save enough, I don't mind buying used. I saw one that had the back of the box pictured and it said HW revision 1.5. I'm wondering if that's the latest or if there's any reason to pick one HW revision over another. As long as the firmware isn't tied to a hardware revision, I suppose it doesn't matter.
 
I'm looking at these on Ebay and if I can save enough, I don't mind buying used. I saw one that had the back of the box pictured and it said HW revision 1.5. I'm wondering if that's the latest or if there's any reason to pick one HW revision over another. As long as the firmware isn't tied to a hardware revision, I suppose it doesn't matter.

My 2018 China RT-AC86Us were h/w ver. 1.5. They both died in 2020.

My 2020 Vietnam RT-AC86Us are not labeled with a h/w ver.

OE
 
My AC86U was made in China in 2017 and is HW Ver: R1.5.

I'm not aware there have been any spec changes with the AC86U, unlike its predecessor, the AC68U. My 68U is the 800 MHz version, but I'm pretty sure newer revisions are a 1000 MHz from the factory. I can't remember if this was denoted by different HW version numbers or not though.
 
Could you please provide more info on this? I'm about to purchase a new one from Amazon and my current one is the same hw revision... :(

The hardware version will not reflect a manufacturing/component issue.

Just buy it. It's a good router.

OE
 
I just ordered it, thanks! :)
I have a 2018 HW 1.5R with cooling fan for sale. PM me if interested. Works fine. I just wanted to upgrade to an AX.
 
I have a 2018 HW 1.5R with cooling fan for sale. PM me if interested. Works fine. I just wanted to upgrade to an AX.

China build? :)

OE
 
I received my new AC86U today. It's made in China (2020), and there's no hardware revision info mentioned on the box / router, only firmware information is written on both labels. What's more interesting, the power supply is a no-name 12V/3A vs the Asus-branded 19V/1.75A of my other AC86U (2019 / rev.1.5), so I assume some changes were made at the power stage level for this revision.

Otherwise, everything is working as expected, and I already installed Merlin 386.1_2 on it with no issues. :)
 
Last edited:
I received my new AC86U today. It's made in China (2020), and there's no hardware revision info mentioned on the box / router, only firmware information is written on both labels. What's more interesting, the power supply is a no-name 12V/3A vs the Asus-branded 19V/1.75A of my other AC86U (2019 / rev.1.5), so I assume some changes were made at the power stage level for this revision.

Otherwise, everything is working as expected, and I already installed Merlin 386.1_2 on it with no issues. :)
Good luck! Please report back with an update in a couple of months or so.
 
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