What are your thoughts on the new AI router GT-BE19000AI?

[Poseidon]

just pick up BE98 Pro for 415 but wanted buy AI one but was 1000 .... i

Great deal on the 98 Pro. Where did you purchase it from?

 

[sfx2000]

$10 off $899.99 is not enough of a savings for me to risk my life asking The Wife about purchasing. a non-RMerlin supported router.

If someone is paying $900USD for a consumer router...

Yeah, and ribbed for extra stimulation...

Best thing here - do not buy the device - it's not worth it...

 

[RMerlin]

If someone is paying $900USD for a consumer router...

But you aren't just paying for a router. It also packs a second SoC with a quad-core Cortex A73, 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of flash, which can run docker images. And it comes with Home Assistant, Adguard Home and Frigate pre-installed. Portainer is there to install your own docker images as well You are basically buying a router and a higher end computer-on-a-chip board, in one single package. Considering how much a good RaspberryPi kit costs these days (if you can find one in stock), it's not that bad of a deal overall, particularly if you are looking into deploying Home Assistant, or security cameras.

Asus hasn't publicly revealed yet what SoC they are using, but people can probably figure it out if they do some digging on their own. I've seen a devkit based on that SoC sell for a bit over $400 at Mouser, for reference.

 

[Tech9]

Sure...

UCG-Fiber + 2x U7 Pro XG + 2x PoE+ 2.5GbE = $715
I can even add the new UNAS 2 for $200 so it comes closer to $900.

Comes with even more features plus AI after the last software update and NVR with storage option for cameras. It will offer better coverage and higher throughput from 6x radios. No online account required and no data sharing to 3rd party companies.

 

[RMerlin]

Sure...

UCG-Fiber + 2x U7 Pro XG + 2x PoE+ 2.5GbE = $715
I can even add the new UNAS 2 for $200 so it comes closer to $900.

Comes with even more features plus AI after the last software update and NVR with storage option for cameras. It will offer better coverage and higher throughput from 6x radios. No online account required and no data sharing to 3rd party companies.

So you got something close for a price that's close, in four separate boxes. Good for you - go for it since you love Ubiquiti products so much. But there are other people who still prefer not having four separate boxes that can each become a point of failure and take up space, prefer the management simplicity of a home product versus a prosumer product with a learning curve, not having to pay the yearly CyberSecure subscription fee for signature updates, or they want the higher performance of Asus's docker processor because it's one of the reasons for them to chose this particular solution. I also suspect the Asus will have higher Wireguard performance. I couldn't find any official specs on Ubiquiti's site, but I suspect their gateway CPU will be slower than the BCM4916.

Just because Ubiquiti (or anyone else) has a $900 solution doesn't mean that Asus (or anyone else's) own $900 solution is automatically discredited. Both solutions have a significant number of differences, and each user will have his own requirements or priorities, and they are not always the same as yours. You have to respect that.

 

[Tech9]

Good for you - go for it since you love Ubiquiti products so much.

Compared to current UniFi* products hardware and software quality this new ASUS gaming spider is only for die-hard beta testers, reboot and reset lovers or whoever still believes Asuswrt-Merlin is just an enthusiast project not sponsored by the manufacturer who is accidentally sending out free pre-release hardware and giving recommendations which model is good to be supported from a marketing prospective. I understand your position and the attempt to add extra stimulation. Some companies offer solutions, others just experiments.

* - UniFi product line only, because ASUS offers absolutely nothing comparable to other Ubiquiti product lines.

 

[Tech9]

not having to pay the yearly CyberSecure subscription fee for signature updates

I'm sorry, but CyberSecure subscription is optional and offers signatures update in hours after detection. Nothing even close to once or twice a month TrendMicro signatures update. Default free signatures in 36 different categories are updated daily and processed locally by Suricata engine without data sharing requirements. You are clearly in ASUS advertising mode.

 

[sfx2000]

But you aren't just paying for a router. It also packs a second SoC with a quad-core Cortex A73, 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of flash, which can run docker images. And it comes with Home Assistant, Adguard Home and Frigate pre-installed. Portainer is there to install your own docker images as well You are basically buying a router and a higher end computer-on-a-chip board, in one single package. Considering how much a good RaspberryPi kit costs these days (if you can find one in stock), it's not that bad of a deal overall, particularly if you are looking into deploying Home Assistant, or security cameras.

I do have a different opinion - a combo device like this will never be an ideal solution - there will always be compromises, and most OE's will not keep the Docker environment current over time - we've seen this with QNAP and Synology on their NAS boxes, and sooner or later, things just stop working as the basic environment is not kept up to date.

My other thought here is that having a full-blown app environment in what should be network bastion is the expanded threat surface that a design like this has - With the app processor, now there are two environments that need to be kept secure, not just one...

If you recall @RMerlin - I explored similar capabilities with Docker like capabilities to have a unified BSP for NAS, Set Top Box, Router, and IOT hubs - it worked fairly well, but it was tough to keep updated, and it was a QA team nightmare for testing and bug chasing was a challenge with customer reported issues.

That was back in the 2016/2017 time frame, and things have not changed - the challenges are still there.

 

[Tech9]

Expensive disposable device. The upcoming Wi-Fi 8 with focus on improved user experience is expected to be standardized in 2028. Whoever wants to be on the bleeding edge of technology and purchases this $900 AIO router in 2026 may find it as $300/year "investment" before the next latest and greatest gaming spider shows up. The person with 4x devices (better looking and without the NAS actually smaller size combined) will continue using the Gateway and the NAS, eventually replacing the Access Points only.

My recommendation is the same as @sfx2000 - do not buy. Better and potentially longer lasting equipment fits in this price easily.

 

[dave14305]

this new ASUS gaming spider is only for die-hard beta testers

There’s one born every minute.

whoever still believes Asuswrt-Merlin is just an enthusiast project not sponsored by the manufacturer who is accidentally sending out free pre-release hardware and giving recommendations which model is good to be supported from a marketing prospective.

Usually I think you’re a putz, but this isn’t completely wrong. The optics of that recent “strongly suggested” comment raised an eyebrow. Who’s calling the shots? I feel like Asus’ cooperation in recent years is manipulating the independence of the project. But I don’t know sh!t. I’m very happy with my OpenWrt router today.

 

[Tech9]

The optics of that recent “strongly suggested” comment raised an eyebrow.

Exactly. The case with RT-BE92U was perhaps similar. The model is mostly problematic as per user feedback, the initial Asuswrt-Merlin support information was not happening, a lot of work because of different SoC and SDK and all of a sudden it was added to the list of supported devices. It was sudden breakthrough or a phone call from ASUS.

 

[RMerlin]

The optics of that recent “strongly suggested” comment raised an eyebrow. Who’s calling the shots?

I do. But I do need to be provided information on a particular product before I can decide whether to support it or not.

"Strongly suggested" just means that they told me "we believe that this device will sell enough units to be worth supporting". This is one of the pieces of information that I always weight in when deciding on supporting a given model. If Asus were to tell me: "We only intend to sell this device in the Asian market, so it will be a low-volume SKU and we recommend skipping it", then that will carry weight in my decision to not support that particular device. It's just one of multiple elements used for me to make a decision.

People need to stop trying so hard overanalyzing anything that I post, in particular when Asus is involved in the discussion.

 

[RMerlin]

The case with RT-BE92U was perhaps similar.

I made the call, period.

Look, I'm not going to post my whole thought process for every single decision that I make. If people are going to be so paranoid, then I'll simply stop providing any information at all.

the initial Asuswrt-Merlin support information was not happening, a lot of work because of different SoC and SDK and all of a sudden it was added to the list of supported devices. It was sudden breakthrough or a phone call from ASUS.

This is complete BS. I have ALWAYS answered "I cannot speculate about future model support" whenever asked about a certain model, specifically so nobody would be misled or blindsided by my decisions whether to support a device or not. So no, there never was a change of decision regarding that model.

This is getting ridiculous. If you want to dig up conspiracy theories, stick to following politics - plenty of that there to entertain you.

 

[RMerlin]

I do have a different opinion - a combo device like this will never be an ideal solution - there will always be compromises, and most OE's will not keep the Docker environment current over time - we've seen this with QNAP and Synology on their NAS boxes, and sooner or later, things just stop working as the basic environment is not kept up to date.

I agree - if you want to lean more heavily on playing with docker, nothing beats having a Linux server to do that. I use an Intel NUC 11 here as a Proxmox server, with one of the VMs on it dedicated to Docker images, and a bunch of LXC containers in parallel to run things like HA or Pihole. But for some people, having a router that comes with docker support without having to deal with the rest might be preferable, and that is a valid choice. It's just one more options for people to chose.

there are two environments that need to be kept secure, not just one...

That would also be the case if you had a router and a server running side by side. You're not escaping that, unless you were to have docker support within your router environment itself, which would be a bad idea both from a security and a performance standpoint.

 

[jzchen]

I took a tiny leap in comparison to the GT-BE19000Ai and got an ExpertWiFi EBG15. I switched my primary router Deco BE95 to Access Point mode and placed this and a cheap Level 2 managed switch to LACP from the EBG15 to switch, to my network. The memory use with USB HDD is 95-97% after getting it stable overnight by switching back to DHCP Query Aggressive. Could really use all that extra memory on the Ai router!

 

[RMerlin]

Could really use all that extra memory on the Ai router!

That memory is used for caching. People intensively using an USB disk shared by the router are probably the only real use case for that extra memory. Whether it's really useful remains to be seen however, it would only be worth it if you frequently access the same files, so they can be read from cache. If however you only read each file once and don't read it again for a long time (for instance when playing videos), then it's not really useful.

 

[jzchen]

That memory is used for caching. People intensively using an USB disk shared by the router are probably the only real use case for that extra memory. Whether it's really useful remains to be seen however, it would only be worth it if you frequently access the same files, so they can be read from cache. If however you only read each file once and don't read it again for a long time (for instance when playing videos), then it's not really useful.

The high memory use seems to cause instability? Is there possibly a way to lessen that cache say down to around 90% because it sure feels like it's bogging down?

Love the white background of the GUI, and white color of the router. Luckily the ExpertWiFi series has white cases (my favorite color)...

 

[RMerlin]

The high memory use seems to cause instability?

It shouldn't, as the Linux kernel would automatically free some of that memory if needed by something else. Unless something in Broadcom's own memory allocation is broken.

See what the current limit is:

cat /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes

If it's something like 2048 (which would be 2 MB), try increasing it to 20 MB:

echo "20480" > /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes

Note that this change will not survive a reboot.

 

[jzchen]

Thank you thank you. I notice laggy page loading on the web, (not the first router I have had felt this issue). I have increased it from 10240 to 20480 as recommended.

 

[halcyon]

But you aren't just paying for a router. It also packs a second SoC with a quad-core Cortex A73, 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of flash,

For the extra $300-500USD (vs GT-BE98Pro with the said $400USD price) I can buy a Intel N305 8-core w AES-NI/32GB RAM/1TB SSD/2x10GbE+2x2.5GbE/plenty of USB-ports/HDMI/etc miniPC and run my choice of BSD/Linux/docker/OPNSense/pfSense/UnBound/whatever on it, and not run into silly Asus limitations or run out of ports/mem/device driver support.

People who want to buy this:
- Want a single box and are willing to make a lot of sacrifices for it
- Are willing to alpha test by paying for it (it's clearly an alpha level product, when it's not even feature complete and is so blatantly buggy that no way they missed it in QC)
- Don't mind spending more money on it than makes sense
- Can't wait for 6 months and just see the dust settle, see how it performs, if the bugs are ironed out, if the features promised actually ship and what does the competition offer in 6 months.

Everybody decides how they part with their money. For me, this is an interesting - although not all welcome - indication as to which direction the market might be moving, but as a product to be purchased right now, in it's current state with its introductory price, it's a hard NO.