High end Routers, What are your recommendations?

[Antistatic12]

I'm looking for people that have experience with routers that perform very well. Performance being the main factor.
I'm looking at the Netgear R7000 or R8000 NightHawk, and they seem to be what I want. As I'm having issues with my current router.

If you have any recommendations beside the NightHawk's please post them with an explanation as to why it is a good router or maybe ones to avoid. Be it from personal experience or a credible review you have read/watched.

 

[TasteOfTheTech]

I've used the Netgear N600 (a one year old router, they may have come out with a newer version). It has GREAT range, and awesome performance. It has lasted me for awhile. I now use an AirPort Extreme (terrible decision on my part, you really cannot customize anything in the "admin panel"), which is a good performance router with the new antennas that Apple used, but as I said in the parentheses, it has really bad customization options. I would say go with the Netgear. It really was an awesome router while I had it and did me well.

[Giraffackle]

Linksys WRT1900AC is my highly recommended choice. A little on the pricey side, but is by far the best router. We got it after our Asus RT N66U kept dropping the connection every week, sometimes not even wanting to host a connection. This was an issue as we were about to get a home server and we could not risk the chance of files getting corrupted because the connection was dropped. We have had the Linksys for about 2-3 months and has not dropped the connection once. We even get 30mbps at the bottom of the driveway! (We pay for 80mbps)

[f22luke]

I'm looking for people that have experience with routers that perform very well. Performance being the main factor.

I'm looking at the Netgear R7000 or R8000 NightHawk, and they seem to be what I want. As I'm having issues with my current router.

If you have any recommendations beside the NightHawk's please post them with an explanation as to why it is a good router or maybe ones to avoid. Be it from personal experience or a credible review you have read/watched.

 

Can you be more specific ?  What type of router and what is it for?  

[Antistatic12]

Can you be more specific ?  What type of router and what is it for?  

1 Router for personal use. work and gaming

2 work and gaming

[f22luke]

1 Router for personal use. work and gaming

2 work and gaming

Like do you need it to be wireless?  How many computers are you going to attach to it at one time?  Are you wanting to attach any storage to it?

 

Personally I think you can build one cheaper than some of the typical all in one routers.  Then just add a switch and or wireless access point when you need it.

 

Here is an example build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD 5150 1.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($49.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: Asus AM1M-A Micro ATX AM1 Motherboard  ($40.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($35.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital AV-GP 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($64.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Thermaltake Urban S1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($50.98 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg)

Wired Network Adapter: Intel EXPI9301CT 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1 Network Adapter  ($35.99 @ Newegg)

Wired Network Adapter: TP-Link TG-3468 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1 Network Adapter  ($11.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $322.90

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-22 02:25 EDT-0400

 

Then just add an OS like IPfire or PFsense and you are good to go.  I have one like this that I use a wireless access point with and man is it nice.  The best part is I can control everything.

[tomsliwowski]

@Antistatic12: Personally I use a Netgear R7000 with DD-WRT and have been very happy with performance and reliability. It gives you quite a bit of control without being overwhelming.

 

@f22luke: Interesting build and definitely something cool to play with but I seriously doubt the OP wants to spend time being a full on network admin to control the minutiae of their network. Not to mention that a pfSense PC consumes WAY more electricity and requires far more work to set up initially then pretty much any consumer/soho router out there.....

[razvan_and]

Linksys WRT1900AC. LOL!! Just ... don't!

Something good and somewhat cheap: Asus AC56U. Same hardware as the Asus AC68U/ Netgear R7000 (dual core A9 800 Mhz cpu, 256 MB RAM), but with internal antenna and only 2x2). Netgear R7000 has the same Broadcom CPU, only clocked at 1 Ghz.