Is this WiFi-Router overkill for a 50m2 appt?

[Emillionaire]

Hi there, 
I'm moving to a smaller studio appartement on 50m2 (500sqft?), where the building provides a fiber connection, so i had to buy a router instead of having one provided by my ISP like currently. 
The purpose for the router is to distribute the internet from the ethernet-input from the wall, to my pc through a CAT6-cable, as well as give WiFi to my phones. I'm completely lost on the subject, so i just went online and bought the Asus RT-AX58U, as i wasent the cheapest i could find. However i wonder if its, a bit "overkill" for the purpose, since its such a small appartment, and only few devices use WiFi. My thought was, that i was afraid, of my ethernet connection being slowed down, if i used a cheaper router/bottlenecking, but i dont understand anything about the market, or networking in general - and it seems quite hard to get a quick understanding of. 

Would anyone recommend buying a cheaper router, or getting something else, for such a small place? 
Thanks to the people out there, helping out us hopeless people on these subjects! 
 

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, L0gic said:

Hi there, 
I'm moving to a smaller studio appartement on 50m2 (500sqft?), where the building provides a fiber connection, so i had to buy a router instead of having one provided by my ISP like currently. 
The purpose for the router is to distribute the internet from the ethernet-input from the wall, to my pc through a CAT6-cable, as well as give WiFi to my phones. I'm completely lost on the subject, so i just went online and bought the Asus RT-AX58U, as i wasent the cheapest i could find. However i wonder if its, a bit "overkill" for the purpose, since its such a small appartment, and only few devices use WiFi. My thought was, that i was afraid, of my ethernet connection being slowed down, if i used a cheaper router/bottlenecking, but i dont understand anything about the market, or networking in general - and it seems quite hard to get a quick understanding of. 

Would anyone recommend buying a cheaper router, or getting something else, for such a small place? 
Thanks to the people out there, helping out us hopeless people on these subjects! 
 

I mean your moving to a small space and about any router should be able to handle that. To me the good rule of thumb is to buy at least one supporting WiFi 5, the one you linked is WiFi 6, while not all devices support that standard yet, more and more are every day. 

 

The biggest issue people have with not getting their internet speed is that the router simply cant handle the speeds. Having Gigabit WAN doesn't mean that the router can handle a Gigabit connection. I bring this up because Gigabit Fiber connections have a tendency to show how shit most consumer grade routers are. Most routers cant do NAT at Gigabit speeds. The sad thing is, not all manufactures share those numbers. Specifically you're looking for the WAN to LAN and LAN to WAN throughputs, thats how fast a router can do NAT. For slower internet service you should be fine, its when you get up around Gigabit speeds you start finding short falls in most routers. 

 

The next thing to look for are just features you want. For example my Synology RT2600AC can limit bandwidth per device OR it can ensure a device gets a certain amount of bandwidth. My router also has Dual WAN, with load balancing and fail over. It also supports 4G LTE via the USB port. These are features you may or may not want. The other thing is the software on the router. That really can make or break a router. My old Drink DIR 835 I think it was, had the shittiest software in existence. I ended up installing 3rd party firmware on the router.  ASUS Merlin (Not preinstalled from my understanding) firmware I think is DDWRT based and so it should be solid. Ive heard Netgear's Software is kinda meh. TP Link which is a budget brand is nothing to write home about but they are decent for a budget brand. 

[Emillionaire]

5 hours ago, Donut417 said:

I mean your moving to a small space and about any router should be able to handle that. To me the good rule of thumb is to buy at least one supporting WiFi 5, the one you linked is WiFi 6, while not all devices support that standard yet, more and more are every day. 

 

The biggest issue people have with not getting their internet speed is that the router simply cant handle the speeds. Having Gigabit WAN doesn't mean that the router can handle a Gigabit connection. I bring this up because Gigabit Fiber connections have a tendency to show how shit most consumer grade routers are. Most routers cant do NAT at Gigabit speeds. The sad thing is, not all manufactures share those numbers. Specifically you're looking for the WAN to LAN and LAN to WAN throughputs, thats how fast a router can do NAT. For slower internet service you should be fine, its when you get up around Gigabit speeds you start finding short falls in most routers. 

 

The next thing to look for are just features you want. For example my Synology RT2600AC can limit bandwidth per device OR it can ensure a device gets a certain amount of bandwidth. My router also has Dual WAN, with load balancing and fail over. It also supports 4G LTE via the USB port. These are features you may or may not want. The other thing is the software on the router. That really can make or break a router. My old Drink DIR 835 I think it was, had the shittiest software in existence. I ended up installing 3rd party firmware on the router.  ASUS Merlin (Not preinstalled from my understanding) firmware I think is DDWRT based and so it should be solid. Ive heard Netgear's Software is kinda meh. TP Link which is a budget brand is nothing to write home about but they are decent for a budget brand. 

Hi, thanks for the feedback. 
I think i'll keep it then - i can't find any noticable cheaper, which is not TP-link, and i've had alot of issues with them in the past, and so has friends of mine. 
Thanks for the help!

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, L0gic said:

Hi, thanks for the feedback. 
I think i'll keep it then - i can't find any noticable cheaper, which is not TP-link, and i've had alot of issues with them in the past, and so has friends of mine. 
Thanks for the help!

Honestly I think thats a good decision. Its a WiFi 6 router. You can grow in to it. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

I'd not consider any single router/Access Point ever "overkill", as you want something that is reliable regardless of how large/small your space is.

 

The only thing that would be overkill would be if you had multiple mesh or Access Points in a small space.  Although even that can have merit if you have thick walls and adjust the transmit power accordingly.