My AC68U no longer cutting it - replace with AC3100 or AX3000

[Jeremy Johnson]

My current Asus AC68U (running Merlin) is in need of an upgrade. Had to remove alot of static DHCP lease entries just to keep my nvram from filling up. Even still, I need to reboot once a week otherwise router will eventually peg cpu and start having issues.

So I am between an AX3000/ax58U or an AC3100/ac88U router (will need to run Merlin on whichever I get). I currently have no AX devices, but will get an ax200 card for my yoga 920 laptop. All phones and other wifi devices only have 2x2 antennas in them, so the AX3000 not having true 4x4 is not much of a factor. Not sure if it will be limiting factor for next gen phones with WiFi 6 or not (mind you, this is on a 1gbps LAN and 400 mbps internet connection).

Newegg's current special of $159 for the AX3000 has me leaning in that direction.

I was waiting in hopes of getting an AX88U, but prices are going up and not down, and I dont really want to drop $300 on a router that is already going to be planned obsolesce with WiFi 6E anyway. Thinking get sub $200 upgrade now and perhaps something better in 2-3 years.

Anyways wanting to get some thoughts from people who have experience with these routers.
Thanks in advance.

 

[L&LD]

I would guess the RT-AX3000 is your best choice then. The RT-AC3100, while an excellent router for its time, is kind of long in the tooth now.

 

[Grisu]

even a AX56U could be interesting for next 3 years.

 

[shekar]

I do not see AX3000 (RT-AX58U) having any NVRAM according to this website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asus_routers. If it does, what is the size of NVRAM?

Also can we install entware on this router after installing Merlin?

 

[L&LD]

@shekar, yes, via amtm.