My situation:
I moved into a new house that is 2 stories plus a furnished basement. Roughly 3500 square feet including basement. The walls are relatively thick since it is a recent build.
My old router is dead, and I'm not tied to any particular brand. I probably will not be using custom firmware or doing anything too special. I want something reliable, fast. low latency, low maintenance, and decently future-proof.
There are probably around 5-10 devices that would be connecting to it right now, but I plan to install a security system with cameras and more stuff hooked up to it soon. My wife and I use VPN when working from home, and when not working I play xbox and some pc games, while she streams youtube, movies, and makes video calls to her relatives on the other side of the globe.
So what router should I buy?
I did a decent amount of research around the web, and also on SNB, and narrowed my choices to the following routers. Badly formatted data table with headers below:
Price, Years Old, Bands, MU-MIMO Streams, Speed, Brand, Model, Fakespot Review Grade, Review Score, Lowest Price Ever, Link
$150 0.7 2 4x4 2600 D-Link DIR-882 AC2600 B 3.6 $100 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0711TPTZL/?tag=snbforums-20
$170 1 3 2x2 2200 Linksys AC2200 EA8300 C 4.4 $150 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X9CPC45/?tag=snbforums-20
$170 1.6 2 4x4 2600 Zyxel Armor Z2 AC2600 B 3.9 $170 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I4223HS/?tag=snbforums-20
$200 0.7 2 4x4 2900 Asus RT-AC86U A 4 $182 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0752FD3XJ/?tag=snbforums-20
$200 2.3 2 4x4 2600 Netgear X4S AC2600 R7800 C 4.3 $180 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0192911RA/?tag=snbforums-20
$200 0.7 2 4x4 3200 Linksys WRT32X D 3.4 $200 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072LQZFHM/?tag=snbforums-20
$200 1.2 2 4x4 2600 Synology RT2600AC A 4.1 $195 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N5MPTG1/?tag=snbforums-20
$210 1.1 2 4x4 3150 TP-Link Archer AC3150 V2 B 3.8 $140 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4R01UJ/?tag=snbforums-20
All prices were based on what I saw on Amazon today.
All are dual bands, as new-ish tri-band routers with 4 streams on each band seem to be out of my budget.
With the exception of the Linksys AC2200 (which is 2x2), they all have 4 streams for the 5 ghz band (and 4 streams for the 2.4 ghz band except for the AC86U which has 3).
The X4S is more than 2 years old at this point, though SNB says it is still unbeaten for raw 5ghz speed. The rest are about 8 to 16 months old.
If you recommend something else in the poll above, please post about it below...
I moved into a new house that is 2 stories plus a furnished basement. Roughly 3500 square feet including basement. The walls are relatively thick since it is a recent build.
My old router is dead, and I'm not tied to any particular brand. I probably will not be using custom firmware or doing anything too special. I want something reliable, fast. low latency, low maintenance, and decently future-proof.
There are probably around 5-10 devices that would be connecting to it right now, but I plan to install a security system with cameras and more stuff hooked up to it soon. My wife and I use VPN when working from home, and when not working I play xbox and some pc games, while she streams youtube, movies, and makes video calls to her relatives on the other side of the globe.
So what router should I buy?
I did a decent amount of research around the web, and also on SNB, and narrowed my choices to the following routers. Badly formatted data table with headers below:
Price, Years Old, Bands, MU-MIMO Streams, Speed, Brand, Model, Fakespot Review Grade, Review Score, Lowest Price Ever, Link
$150 0.7 2 4x4 2600 D-Link DIR-882 AC2600 B 3.6 $100 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0711TPTZL/?tag=snbforums-20
$170 1 3 2x2 2200 Linksys AC2200 EA8300 C 4.4 $150 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X9CPC45/?tag=snbforums-20
$170 1.6 2 4x4 2600 Zyxel Armor Z2 AC2600 B 3.9 $170 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I4223HS/?tag=snbforums-20
$200 0.7 2 4x4 2900 Asus RT-AC86U A 4 $182 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0752FD3XJ/?tag=snbforums-20
$200 2.3 2 4x4 2600 Netgear X4S AC2600 R7800 C 4.3 $180 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0192911RA/?tag=snbforums-20
$200 0.7 2 4x4 3200 Linksys WRT32X D 3.4 $200 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072LQZFHM/?tag=snbforums-20
$200 1.2 2 4x4 2600 Synology RT2600AC A 4.1 $195 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N5MPTG1/?tag=snbforums-20
$210 1.1 2 4x4 3150 TP-Link Archer AC3150 V2 B 3.8 $140 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4R01UJ/?tag=snbforums-20
All prices were based on what I saw on Amazon today.
All are dual bands, as new-ish tri-band routers with 4 streams on each band seem to be out of my budget.
With the exception of the Linksys AC2200 (which is 2x2), they all have 4 streams for the 5 ghz band (and 4 streams for the 2.4 ghz band except for the AC86U which has 3).
The X4S is more than 2 years old at this point, though SNB says it is still unbeaten for raw 5ghz speed. The rest are about 8 to 16 months old.
If you recommend something else in the poll above, please post about it below...
Last edited: