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Question to RT-AX89X Owners

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Hexenhammer

Regular Contributor
Hey, question to the owners.
As far as I understand the RT-AX89X is in fact the best mainstream router right now? The only minus is uncooked firmware, but it gets improved with updates?
Based on reviews that I seen, it has the most range and fastest 5Ghz mode and it has the fastest USB reads/writes too?
Are jumbo frames supported? Anyway to enable them per port?
I heard that Dual WAN with 1G ports is already in Beta, is that right? And it will be available later?
What about negatives? Is there any serious issues with it?
From what I understand Merlin wont be supported, right?
Can the 10G Ethernet port run in 5G? Or its 10G only?


I was going for AX11000, but decided its too much money for router that has no multigig ports and just a single useless 2.5G port, better to get the old RT-AC86U or wait for AX86U.
But the AX89X should solve all my problems and cover me in future when higher then 1G Fiber will be available.
I have PC with 10 Aquantia that will be connected to the unraid that for now will have my old 5G Aquantia, I planned to do direct connection and then connect the unraid and my PC with 1G to the router and so others can stream media from my unraid on wifi.
But with this router, all I need is 40$ SFP+ to multigig adapter and ill be connecting both my PC and unraid directly to the router, so wifi devices will have faster speeds to the unraid too.



An alternative to buying RT-AX89X router, is RT-AC86U as router + Netgear MS510TX Switch.



Thanks
 
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Not the best mainstream router by far, IMO. No RMerlin support, no amtm, no scripts (usable by mere mortals) means a hard pass even with the slightly better hardware it has.

Match the equipment you're buying today to the service available. RT-AX88U is the top choice here for 1Gbps up/down symmetrical service.

The RT-AX89X will be looking pretty old and underpowered/underfeatured when greater than 1Gbps ISP services become mainstream (and affordable too).
 
Not the best mainstream router by far, IMO. No RMerlin support, no amtm, no scripts (usable by mere mortals) means a hard pass even with the slightly better hardware it has.

Match the equipment you're buying today to the service available. RT-AX88U is the top choice here for 1Gbps up/down symmetrical service.

The RT-AX89X will be looking pretty old and underpowered/underfeatured when greater than 1Gbps ISP services become mainstream (and affordable too).

I have my PC and unraid PC where all my HDDs will be and I need to connect it with 5G or 10G link, this is the only router that has 2 multigig ports.

I never used rmerlin and scripts and no idea whats amtm so I have no idea if i need it, the unraid that im building can have docklets like small virtual machines, one will have Pihole [DNS to block ads and so on], another will have Bittorent, another will be media streaming.
So I dont for any such features on the router, I only need it to route, have strong wifi, have dual WAN, I have my 1G fiber and 500MB cable, I seen that there is an option to manually route some LAN IP's and thats what I want, to manually say these devices use my fiber ISP and these devices use Cable ISP.
I live in 3 room apartment and I want full WiFI AC coverage everywhere at max speed in 5G, for 2.4G legacy devices I have my old DIR882 4x4 router and I plan to set it as WIFI AP connected with 1G cable to ASUS and only use it for 2.4Ghz devices and on ASUS router ill disable 2.4Ghz and keep just 5ghz.

You says that RT-AX88U is the best option for you atm, wouldn't you rather wait for the new AX86U?

Also there is issue of price, im not from USA so they all expensive and im buying on payments 12 or 24, so paying more for better model wont make much difference for me in the end, its extra 5$ a month for 2 years.
The RT-AX88U goes for 440$ be it locally or importing from USA
The AX11000 is only available in USA, and costs just tad more 605$
The RT-AX89X will be around 610$


P.S. If I go your route and get a router thats no multigig ports, I can do with RT-AC86U, it has the newest hardware among AC router, merlin said that its CPU supports encryption for VPN [dont need it now but never know]
And then ill be forced to connect my PC with direct connection to unraid and have second 1G connection from both to the router
 
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Buying 'today' is not waiting for what may come down the road. That is a never-ending game. :)

Your best way forward today is to buy a switch that is capable of the equipment you own today.

The RT-AC3100 or the RT-AC88U are not new by a very long shot either. The RT-AC86U is superior to both (particularly OpenVPN performance). Those models are not worth buying new anymore unless you are planning to buy again (when your ISP speeds hit 1Gbps) within a year anyway.

What is an 'unraid PC'? Never heard of that. Sounds gimmicky? :)

Don't be fooled by payments and what it costs extra for only 24 more months. The $200 savings are better put towards what you actually need; a 2.5/5/10 Gbps switch. The extra you spend doesn't sound like you get anywhere near what you need today, and the WiFi will be at best equal, if not inferior (RMerlin), to the RT-AX88U, now.

HTH.
 
Buying 'today' is not waiting for what may come down the road. That is a never-ending game. :)

Your best way forward today is to buy a switch that is capable of the equipment you own today.

The RT-AC3100 or the RT-AC88U are not new by a very long shot either. The RT-AC86U is superior to both (particularly OpenVPN performance). Those models are not worth buying new anymore unless you are planning to buy again (when your ISP speeds hit 1Gbps) within a year anyway.

What is an 'unraid PC'? Never heard of that. Sounds gimmicky? :)

Don't be fooled by payments and what it costs extra for only 24 more months. The $200 savings are better put towards what you actually need; a 2.5/5/10 Gbps switch. The extra you spend doesn't sound like you get anywhere near what you need today, and the WiFi will be at best equal, if not inferior (RMerlin), to the RT-AX88U, now.

HTH.

OMG, im a 'tard, every time I said AC3100 and AC88U I meant to say RT-AC86U
Too many model names to remember, confusing :(

Right now im on Fiber 1G/100MB for me + Cable 500/10 for the family and we have two routers and two WiFi networks each with 2.4 and 5gh in 3 bedroom apartment, not good idea, thats why i want dual Wan router.

That Switch can only be imported from USA, will cost me 365USD with INT shipping + import tax: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075Q6NPM2

I can buy this switch for 365USD + Chinese ASUS RT-AC86U from aliexpress for 180$ and it will cost me tad less then AX89X, what do you think?
[Is there any difference between Chinese ASUS routers and normal? I mean, Merlin works and its same hardware?]

unraid is linux based server with disk parity [more info below].
So my main PC wont have any HDD's, they all be moved there, and the PC will be SSD based.
Thats why I will be using 10G Ethernet between my PC and unRaid server, i want to use my HDDs remotely and feel like they on my PC, I need at least 300MB/s clean speed, but preferably more since I have cache SSD on the unraid that can do over 2000MB/s.

I dont know how payments works in USA, but over here most shops offer 12 to 36 payments with Zero credit.
When its with credit its like extra 3-5$ a year, so its worth it, say a router costs 600$ in 12 payment, 608$ in 24 payments, basically the credit is invisible.


About unRaid:
After you read this im sure youll want to build an unraid server for yourself too :) I did after reading an article about it.

Unraid is one of the BEST alternatives to RAID, its a custom linux Server OS, you can take as many hard drives as you want in different sizes and merge them into one pool without losing their size like in RAID [in RAID they have to be equal size, if you have big and small HDD's, then they all act as small HDD's].
You designate 1 or 2 HDD's as parity drives for security, and thats it, if one drive on the unraid dies you can plug a new one and it doesnt need to rebuild for hours like RAID does and have errors, it just works plug and play.
Also if more HDDs then Parity drives die, all the ones that survived still have data and it can be used, on the RAID its not, its all gone.

But It doesn't give a speed boost like RAID does, you can use every single HDD on its own or you can make pools of HDD's.

And it has virtual machines, very fast ones.
You can install unRaid on a weak PC build to act as your NAS: serve you data, media etc, Plex Server, Transcoding. [Thats what im doing, but not on a weak PC, i will be using a 9600K+16GB RAM]
Or you can take powerful PC say Threadripepr install unraid, have different SSD's, HDD's and have virtual OSes that work at full speed, Windows 10, Hakintosh, etc
If you watch Linus Tech tips, all his videos like 1PC x 4 gamers or 1PC 8 gamers or 1pc 12 gamers, was done using unraid and intel HEDT CPU.

Here is more info https://unraid.net/product

you can also visit unraid reddit or unraid forums, tons of people, very busy places.
 
As far as I understand the RT-AX89X is in fact the best mainstream router right now? The only minus is uncooked firmware, but it gets improved with updates?

"Best" is a hard sell for any router. It fills my needs and I love it so far.

Based on reviews that I seen, it has the most range and fastest 5Ghz mode and it has the fastest USB reads/writes too?

Wireless rates and data rates to HDD are good for me.

Are jumbo frames supported? Anyway to enable them per port?

They are supported, but not per port. (See attachment.)

I heard that Dual WAN with 1G ports is already in Beta, is that right? And it will be available later?
What about negatives? Is there any serious issues with it?
From what I understand Merlin wont be supported, right?
Can the 10G Ethernet port run in 5G? Or its 10G only?

I do not know the status of any beta versions.
Biggest negative is the price, but show me another router with two 10G ports, 8 gigabit LAN ports, and all these features for the same price.
Merlin will not be supported.
I think the 10G ports are 10G only.

I was going for AX11000, but decided its too much money for router that has no multigig ports

Agreed.

An alternative to buying RT-AX89X router, is RT-AC86U as router + Netgear MS510TX Switch.

I use mine with a MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN so that multiple devices can share the SPF+ port.
 

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I use mine with a MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN so that multiple devices can share the SPF+ port.

Thanks for detailed replay, do you have more then x2 10G devices so you need extra switch?
For me atm ill have my PC with build in 10G Aquantia and I have 5G Aquantia card that ill plug into my unRaid Server, with option to upgrade if needed.
So i think x2 10G ports is all I need, of course ill have to buy converter from SFP+ to 10G [I found ones for under 50$ and they support muliport: 10G, 5G, 2.5G and 1G]
This router is perfect for my needs and later I can always get that switch you have, its 100 to 130$, but each port is extra 50$ to get copper.
 
Thanks for detailed replay, do you have more then x2 10G devices so you need extra switch

You're welcome. Yes, I have a NAS and a media server each with 10G SFP+ LAN, plus my primary workstation has 10G SFP+ too.

For me atm ill have my PC with build in 10G Aquantia and I have 5G Aquantia card that ill plug into my unRaid Server, with option to upgrade if needed.
So i think x2 10G ports is all I need, of course ill have to buy converter from SFP+ to 10G [I found ones for under 50$ and they support muliport: 10G, 5G, 2.5G and 1G]
This router is perfect for my needs and later I can always get that switch you have, its 100 to 130$, but each port is extra 50$ to get copper.

Yes, it sounds like you can save some money by not needing the 10G switch. You can always add it later!
 

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