DIY router or Buy a Beefy (expensive) router?

SnowyKnight · May 24

Hi everyone, it's my first time posting here so I have no idea this been asked before. but I'll put my question here. so I've seen an Techquickie video about building their own router. so I've been thinking about building my own but I want to know more what I'm getting myself into is it better (faster/ more bandwidth?) by building your own. or there's not difference. also I should have mention the current router is provided by the ISP and I'm living in a Two-Storey concrete house so pulling ethernet cables is tedious and expensive.

the parts I've are :

Asus z87m-plus

Intel I5(I forgotten the model number)

16gb of ddr3

TP-Link AC1900

and bunch of old hard disk.

Electronics Wizardy · May 24

What speeds do you get from the ISP?

If running cable is hard, Id try power line and moca first if they work with the house. Otherwise id go with a mesh system.

A diy router makes a lot more sense if you care about wired routing features, like multiple subnets, content filtering, caching, and not wifi as almost all diy routers are wired only and you need your own access points.

Remarkable_Day · May 24

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

A diy router makes a lot more sense if you care about wired routing features, like multiple subnets, content filtering, caching, and not wifi as almost all diy routers are wired only and you need your own access points.

Exactly this. If you're into learning about setting up DNS adblock filtering / content filtering etc, a home built can be quite fun - you could use the TP-Link in AP mode (you may have to double check it supports this).

If you do go down the build-your-own route - the hardware listed is certainly overkill. I manage 4 PFSense installs for a small business with satellite offices, they run redundant virtualised, each with only 2 cpu cores and 2GB ram - they easily cope with 1Gb wan connections and ~700Mb/s IPSec traffic.

LAwLz · May 25

It is not necessarily faster or better to build your own. It all depends on what you plan on using it for and what you got.

For most people, buying an all-in-one router is the best option. It's way easier, will perform the same in the tasks that matters, will be cheaper, smaller, use less power, and be far less complicated.