Next Asus WiFi6 router for Merlin?

[Zoomingrocket]

Hello everyone,

I have two AC-68U since last 6yrs and running rock solid with merlin! Came from Linksys and openWRT world prior to that ;-)

I am in market to move to WiFi6 and soliciting suggestions for next best long term supported Asus router with Merlin support

Current use has been with AC-68U, Aimesh, FlexQoS covering 2200 sq ft 2 level + basement with 15-20 devices!

Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

 

[Yota]

I think the WIFI6 router most people here would recommend is RT-AX88U, but RT-AX86U will bring you more possibilities, such as its 2.5Gbps Ethernet interface. The GT-AX11000 with three frequency bands is by far the most powerful Merlin router.

For your home, I recommend RT-AX86U as the main router because it is better than RT-AX88U to some extent, then you can choose RT-AX68U or RT-AX56U as AiMesh node if you like.

I believe that the numbers 68, 86 and 88 are very important to Asus.

 

[Tech9]

The GT-AX11000 with three frequency bands is by far the most powerful Merlin router.

Not really. The same hardware as AX86/88U + one more radio + gaming marketing.

 

[Yota]

Not really. The same hardware as AX86/88U + one more radio + gaming marketing.

I know that I actually discussed the value of RT-AC5300 with my friend a few years ago.

If you have many dense 5GHz wireless clients, two bands can be very useful, even more useful than 160MHz.

Asus router 5GHz can link about 20 to 40 devices. If 80 devices are connected to the same 5GHz, it will bring a bad experience, but at this time, it will be very useful if there are two 5GHz.

But I know this is a very special use case, but two 5GHz does give things that other routers cannot do.

So whether it is valuable to you depends on how you use it.

 

[Tech9]

I agree, also for dedicated wireless backhaul use case where wired is not possible. In terms of CPU/RAM it's no more "powerful" than AX86/88U. It can potentially handle more devices spread between both radios. If wired backhaul is possible, I would prefer 2x AX86U routers. Cheaper and more compact.

 

[pirx73]

I replaced AC68 with AX68. AC68 is serving as AiMESH node on second floor now.