Solid router $100-200

[Guest]

Going to replace my old Belkin F9K1123 (AC one) with something between $100-200, though I may be willing to spend more. Reasons I am upgrading is a) MU-MIMO support as all but one device (Will get an Intel 8265 for it soon) in my home supports it, b) Gigabit ethernet support as I may switch to a competitor that is offering Gigabit internet fairly cheap (Going from $40 12Mbps with ATT to ~$75 1Gbps with Maxxsouth), and c) the router hasn't been updated for over a year and I would rather have solid support for it down the line. (If openWRT/ddwrt/tomato support is avalible, then that would be a plus, but its not a requirement.) Would also like to add that I'm avoiding pfsense as that seems like a build would be more expensive for this price point, but if you know a good config that is just a solid, then I'm willing to hear it out. Mesh also seems like it wouldn't be worth it as I have a small house.

 

To sum things up:

• $100-200  (Can extend this, but would rather not)
• 802.11 AC with 5Ghz and MU-MIMO support
• Gigabit Ethernet ports (1 for internet and at least 2 for other devices)
• Solid software support (Whether or not that it is from the OEM or community)

[LtStaffel]

pfSense? You can get integrated CPU boards from Newegg and stuff that only run at 10W TDP. I bet they'd make killer routers. Hang on, let me go get you a list.

[LtStaffel]

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Zk6vpb
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Zk6vpb/by_merchant/

CPU:  Integrated with Motherboard
Motherboard: ASRock - Q1900M Micro ATX Celeron J1900 Motherboard  ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Mushkin - 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1066 Memory  ($28.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU800 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($52.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: DIYPC - MA01-R MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($23.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($23.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $197.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-10 12:46 EST-0500

 

If you trade the SSD for a 16Gb flash drive, you could drop that price down by $40. You might also be able to save a few bucks with a single stick of RAM, since 4Gb is really overkill. Plus you'll need to save that money for a NIC that I'll let you choose.

[Guest]

Just now, LtStaffel said:

<snipped>

Thx for the build, but I would also need some Gigabit Ethernet ports and AC 5Ghz MU-MIMO support too. I've read a reddit page from 6 months ago that stated it doesn't support this yet (AC and MU-MIMO), has that changed?

[LtStaffel]

56 minutes ago, tjcater said:

Thx for the build, but I would also need some Gigabit Ethernet ports and AC 5Ghz MU-MIMO support too. I've read a reddit page from 6 months ago that stated it doesn't support this yet (AC and MU-MIMO), has that changed?

Yes, but MIMO looks to be expensive. It adds an additional $70 to the card. You could get a $20-30 one without that would everything else which would bring down the price to $230. Nevertheless, for the sake of showing what I had in mind regardless of the fact that it is now out of your price range, here is a build:

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dWmVM8
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dWmVM8/by_merchant/

CPU:  Integrated with Motherboard
Motherboard: ASRock - Q1900M Micro ATX Celeron J1900 Motherboard  ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Patriot - Signature 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($14.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($23.98 @ Newegg) 
Wired Network Adapter: Intel - E1G44HTBLK PCI-Express x4 10/100/1000 Mbps Network Adapter  ($73.00 @ Amazon) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus - PCE-AC88 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter  ($108.76 @ Amazon) 
Other: Flash Drive ($12.00)
Other: Milk Crate Case ($8.00)
Total: $308.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-10 13:49 EST-0500

[Guest]

I've seen Synology and Ubiquity mentioned several times throughout the forum, do any of you have experience with these APs?

[Just.Oblivious]

58 minutes ago, LtStaffel said:

Yes, but MIMO looks to be expensive. It adds an additional $70 to the card. You could get a $20-30 one without that would everything else which would bring down the price to $230. Nevertheless, for the sake of showing what I had in mind regardless of the fact that it is now out of your price range, here is a build:

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dWmVM8
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dWmVM8/by_merchant/

CPU:  Integrated with Motherboard
Motherboard: ASRock - Q1900M Micro ATX Celeron J1900 Motherboard  ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Patriot - Signature 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($14.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($23.98 @ Newegg) 
Wired Network Adapter: Intel - E1G44HTBLK PCI-Express x4 10/100/1000 Mbps Network Adapter  ($73.00 @ Amazon) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus - PCE-AC88 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter  ($108.76 @ Amazon) 
Other: Flash Drive ($12.00)
Other: Milk Crate Case ($8.00)
Total: $308.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-10 13:49 EST-0500

 

You're recommending a $300+ solution that a) draws a lot of power* and b) has sub par wireless performance**.

 

* CPU TDP is only half the story: you've got to factor in the power draw of the memory, SSD, WiFi card and motherboard, as well as the conversion losses in that horribly oversized power supply. This rig is going to draw at least 25 watts from the wall.

 

** Wireless support in pfSense is a bit iffy.

 

10 minutes ago, tjcater said:

I've seen Synology and Ubiquity mentioned several times throughout the forum, do any of you have experience with these APs?

Ubiquiti AP's are an excellent choice.

 

Pair a UniFi UAP-AC-Pro access point up with the EdgeRouter X and you've got yourself a solid combo.

 

No MU-MIMO though with UniFi, unless you're willing to double the budget.

[LtStaffel]

27 minutes ago, Just.Oblivious said:

You're recommending a $300+ solution

I'm not, read my post.

 

27 minutes ago, Just.Oblivious said:

a) draws a lot of power*

75W maximum. Maximum. It would draw way less than that most of the time. For scale, a single light bulb in a six-bulb chandelier type thing is 60W. This thing would be less than leaving one light on. I'm sure that can be dealt with.

 

27 minutes ago, Just.Oblivious said:

b) has sub par wireless performance**.

Use smoothwall then, the card is not the issue.

 

[Guest]

So far (At least what I have found), it seems like the Synology RT2600AC might fit my use case, but I will continue looking around (Especially with Black Friday and Cyber Monday around the corner)

[Just.Oblivious]

1 hour ago, LtStaffel said:

75W maximum. Maximum. It would draw way less than that most of the time. For scale, a single light bulb in a six-build chandelier type thing is 60W. This thing would be less than leaving one light on. I'm sure that can be dealt with.

Incandescent light bulbs (if you still have those) are typically only used for a few hours a day, routers are powered up 24/7/365... 

 

Let's take a nominal power figure of 35 watts from the wall. 0.035 kW * 24 hours * 365 days = 306.6 kWh of power consumption per year.

 

With a local power rate of ~$0.27/kWh my electricity bill would increase by around $83 per year (~$6.92 per month).

 

I can get a LTT Floatplane and a BitWit Ultra subscription for what it would cost me to power this thing 24/7/365 

 

1 hour ago, LtStaffel said:

Use smoothwall then, the card is not the issue.

This card was designed to be used as a wireless client, not as a wireless access point. It's a pretty poor choice for an AP.

 

Let's start with the most obvious omission: simultaneous dual band. This card will either do 2.4 GHz OR 5 GHz exclusively, both radio's can't be powered on at the same time.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Just.Oblivious said:

Incandescent light bulbs (if you still have those) are typically only used for a few hours a day, routers are powered up 24/7/365... 

 

Let's take a nominal power figure of 35 watts from the wall. 0.035 kW * 24 hours * 365 days = 306.6 kWh of power consumption per year.

 

With a local power rate of ~$0.27/kWh my electricity bill would increase by around $83 per year (~$6.92 per month).

I've long switched to LED bulbs (Cheap ones as they costed $5 a piece and consume 10w) and my energy bill payed them off fairly quick. Not sure on my local power rate as the rates are confusing me on their docs (Link)

[Just.Oblivious]

11 minutes ago, tjcater said:

I've long switched to LED bulbs (Cheap ones as they costed $5 a piece and consume 10w) and my energy bill payed them off fairly quick. Not sure on my local power rate as the rates are confusing me on their docs (Link)

I don't know what to make of those rates, that's confusing.

 

Back on topic: the Synology is a solid, feature packed router with a very intuitive user interface (just like Synology NAS devices). It's one of the best consumer-grade routers on the market right now.

 

The Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X/UniFi AP combo gives you a bit more flexibility, but's it's also harder to configure if you aren't a networking guru.

[LtStaffel]

32 minutes ago, Just.Oblivious said:

Incandescent light bulbs (if you still have those) are typically only used for a few hours a day, routers are powered up 24/7/365... 

 

Let's take a nominal power figure of 35 watts from the wall. 0.035 kW * 24 hours * 365 days = 306.6 kWh of power consumption per year.

 

With a local power rate of ~$0.27/kWh my electricity bill would increase by around $83 per year (~$6.92 per month).

 

I can get a LTT Floatplane and a BitWit Ultra subscription for what it would cost me to power this thing 24/7/365 

 

This card was designed to be used as a wireless client, not as a wireless access point. It's a pretty poor choice for an AP.

 

Let's start with the most obvious omission: simultaneous dual band. This card will either do 2.4 GHz OR 5 GHz exclusively, both radio's can't be powered on at the same time.

$0.27kWh??????!!?!?!? Most people (including me) have sub $0.15