Need help picking between BR-6478AC and RT-AC56U

[Galaxywide]

I'm currently looking for an new router to replace my old and terrible N300 Belkin. I've pretty much narrowed it down to these 2, but I'm having trouble figuring out if the Asus is worth nearly double the Edimax. They're both very close performance-wise, and I don't need USB/printer support.

My main question though, is whether or not the firmware on the Edimax is decent? I've done some looking, and it seems that there isn't much 3rd party/open source support for realtek chipsets. I've bought a few routers in the past, only to discover that they lacked features or stability and were unable to use different firmware. On the other hand, the Asus has a broadcom chipset and can use DD-WRT, tomato, etc. Is this ability worth $60?

Also, are these generally comparable as far as build quality goes?

I don't mind spending the money if it means that I get a stable, fast router, but I don't want to if I don't have to.

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[theveterans]

For your purposes, ASUS will be overpriced. The Broadcom chipset though is more of a premium and proven to be reliable while RealTek is regarded as cheap alternative. Still, for your purposes, ASUS isn't worth double the price IMO. Then again, the popular Edimax USB 150 nano-receivers are very stable so I can say that the Edimax might be reliable as well.

 

[Galaxywide]

Thanks for the advice, I went ahead and bought the edimax. Got it today, and after installing it ang getting it set up, it turns out to be the most worthless piece of garbage in the history of routing. First off, changing ANYTHING requires a 1 minute restart. Second, when I tried playing an online game, about every 5-10 min it would start dropping packets like crazy and kick me off. Thirdly, there is a total and complete lack of tooltips or setting descriptions, leaving you to either puzzle through them or attempt to refer to the (also useless) manual. After reading online a little, I upgraded the firmware. This did not help at all.

Needless to say, I'm returning it for the Asus. I do appreciate the advice, and I'm more venting/leaving this for posterity that anything else.

Thanks!