Suggest a Router Upgrade from NetGear Nighthawk R7000

quanticism on 01/09/2024 - 12:02

My Netgear Nighthawk R7000 running Asuswrt-Merlin firmware is still serving me well after 8 years but I'm wondering if it's worth looking at upgrading it. I'm visiting China soon and wonder if I should pick up a router there. I'm not well versed in networking hardware. What would be good and are they easy to flash to openwrt, etc? Xiaomi AX9000? AX6000? BE 6500Pro?

For comparison, what are good local options that are a worthwhile upgrade from the R7000? Things like the ASUS RT-AX86U Pro AX5700 seem quite expensive given that my point of comparison is that I picked up the R7000 for $165 8 years ago.

Computing Wireless Router

Comments

  • scrimshaw on 01/09/2024 - 12:47

    Things like the ASUS RT-AX86U Pro AX5700 seem quite expensive given that my point of comparison is that I picked up the R7000 for $165 8 years ago.

    If you account for inflation, using RBA calculator $165 back in 2014 is equivalent to $209.10 in 2023 rates. High end ASUS routers have always been expensive, there's a bit of a price premium for ASUS branded stuff. I have personally stuck with ASUS for almost a decade because their stuff just works without a hitch.

    There is a high end Wifi 6E router with Tri-band that you can grab in the $220 range if you don't mind TP-Link (and have TGG Commercial access). If you don't, consider the GL.Inet Flint 2. (Probably sold in china without VPN support)
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/product/gl-inet-gl-mt6000

  • Oofy Doofy on 01/09/2024 - 15:53
    +2

    There's no point changing your router if you don't max out it's wifi throughput (and need more speed), it's dual core cpu, or the ram or storage on it.

    The device you have is very easy to install Openwrt on.

    https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/r7000

    Note*: in saying this, here's the note at the bottom of the previous link:

    "1. OpenWrt is not well supported on this device due to lack of open source wifi drivers. Consider alternative projects which have support such as DD-WRT or FreshTomato."

    At least you have options.

    • quanticism on 02/09/2024 - 18:39
      +1

      True. Given that I'm only on a 100Mbps NBN plan, I'd only really need an upgrade if I wanted to transfer data at a faster rate than 1.9Gbps(?) between devices in my network? I also don't have enough devices connected to cause any noticeable issues atm (maybe 10-15 max).

      That said, there are times when streaming from my PC to my Meta Quest 2 is choppy. I wonder if a better router would help with that cause it is within the realm of possibility to hit 1.9Gbps (237.5MB/s) when combined with all the other activity happening. I'll stick with what I have for now but I'll consider picking something new up to experiment with while I'm overseas.

      • klaw81 on 03/09/2024 - 09:19
        +1

        I was in exactly the same boat as you - I upgraded to WiFi 6 to improve streaming performance on my Meta Quest 2. I ended up finding a TP-Link Archer AX80 used off eBay for $100. It did make a real difference, so I'd recommend a suitably high-spec WiFi 6 or 6E router.

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