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expired Posted by StrifeZero • Mar 22, 2023
expired Posted by StrifeZero • Mar 22, 2023

ASUS RT-AX86S AX5700 Dual Band WiFi 6 Gaming Router $165 + Free Shipping

$165

$250

34% off
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Newegg [newegg.com] has ASUS RT-AX86S AX5700 Dual Band WiFi 6 Gaming Router on sale for $179.99 - $15 when you apply promo code CTDCQ2227 in cart = $164.99. Shipping is Free.
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Newegg [newegg.com] has ASUS RT-AX86S AX5700 Dual Band WiFi 6 Gaming Router on sale for $179.99 - $15 when you apply promo code CTDCQ2227 in cart = $164.99. Shipping is Free.

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Model: ASUS RT-AX86S AX5700 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 Gaming Router

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Mar 22, 2023
5,235 Posts
Joined Jun 2010
Mar 22, 2023
wpc
Mar 22, 2023
5,235 Posts
i tried this but didn't get any better at games Roll Eyes (Sarcastic)
3
1
Mar 23, 2023
46 Posts
Joined Dec 2019

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Mar 23, 2023
839 Posts
Joined Dec 2009
Mar 23, 2023
whoopdaddy
Mar 23, 2023
839 Posts
Just a general question/thought. Aren't the days of Asus asking us pay $150-$500 for routers is over? Plenty of wifi 6 routers that are under $100 make sense for most households (gaming or not, big houses vs tiny houses, number of clients, Openwrt, etc.). Asus seems overpriced. It's upsetting that they sell 400-600 routers, which makes me want to double down on non-ASUS competitors. I want top-of-the-line routers but the pricing is out of control. Is this the best price/performance router or is there another? How about this one for example.
Last edited by whoopdaddy March 23, 2023 at 11:29 AM.
2
Mar 23, 2023
582 Posts
Joined Aug 2005
Mar 23, 2023
ChromeDream
Mar 23, 2023
582 Posts
Quote from whoopdaddy :
Just a general question/thought. Aren't the days of Asus asking us pay $150-$500 for routers is over? Plenty of wifi 6 routers that are under $100 make sense for most households (gaming or not, big houses vs tiny houses, number of clients, Openwrt, etc.). Asus seems overpriced. It's upsetting that they sell 400-600 routers, which makes me want to double down on non-ASUS competitors. I want top-of-the-line routers but the pricing is out of control. Is this the best price/performance router or is there another? How about this one for example.

I agree with your sentiment but absolutely do not mess around with anything but Asus or Netgear in the home/consumer grade router market. TP-Link, Belkin/Linksys... other brands have absolutely horrendous firmware/software, the online "reviews" are mostly bought and paid for. Just as one personal example, I was using a TP-Link AX50 for a long time and could never get the full 1Gbps speed hardwired from my building (I never got more than 300Mbps over wire), I subconsciously assumed it was some long standing issue with the ISP, after I finally called and had them come by and check my wiring, I was getting full speed straight out of the wall the whole time--it turned out that the POS TP-Link had software issues that cut the speed down 1/3 and were never fixed (finally dug around enough online and found out about it in a random tech support forum). Also recently had a Linksys 9600/9610 that was awful at dropping connections (had to cancel a work meeting I was running early due to drops) and its firmware was full of weird bugs and errors, and it was extremely limited in what you could do to begin with.

At least with Asus, if you get a Merlin compatible model you have another source of firmware that has a 3rd party fixing bugs in it and whatnot, and those have been generally very solid for me and actually perform better than the factory releases. Some Netgear is OK in my experience, others are apparently really bad (their mesh stuff?) but anything else in consumer router world I wouldn't touch. Sad how bad the whole thing is really.
Last edited by ChromeDream March 23, 2023 at 01:33 PM.
Mar 23, 2023
124 Posts
Joined Nov 2014
Mar 23, 2023
zbb0674
Mar 23, 2023
124 Posts
Quote from whoopdaddy :
Just a general question/thought. Aren't the days of Asus asking us pay $150-$500 for routers is over? Plenty of wifi 6 routers that are under $100 make sense for most households (gaming or not, big houses vs tiny houses, number of clients, Openwrt, etc.). Asus seems overpriced. It's upsetting that they sell 400-600 routers, which makes me want to double down on non-ASUS competitors. I want top-of-the-line routers but the pricing is out of control. Is this the best price/performance router or is there another? How about this one for example.
I'm also curious about this. In the last 5 years I've been using a $80 Netgear r6700 with 30 devices without a problem. But their recent firmware is complete junk. You can't even login in anymore because the programmer created a infinite loop. I switched to ASUS Ac68u
last week with Merlin, so far so good. Not a single time drop. It costs me $35 to buy this T-MOBILE ac 86u.
Mar 23, 2023
968 Posts
Joined Jun 2007
Mar 23, 2023
R@VEN
Mar 23, 2023
968 Posts
It is true routers are overpriced but if I have to buy an overpriced router it will be an Asus. I would pass on this version and get the AX86U because it is a quad core processor. The AX86s is dual core and the same processor that's in the ac86u. The only real reason to buy a router of this caliber is if you're going to run a VPN on your router and use Merlin firmware. If you're not looking to have a VPN on your router then by all means buy something cheaper.
Mar 23, 2023
124 Posts
Joined Nov 2014
Mar 23, 2023
zbb0674
Mar 23, 2023
124 Posts
Quote from ChromeDream :
I agree with your sentiment but absolutely do not mess around with anything but Asus or Netgear in the home/consumer grade router market. TP-Link, Belkin/Linksys... other brands have absolutely horrendous firmware/software, the online "reviews" are mostly bought and paid for. Just as one personal example, I was using a TP-Link AX50 for a long time and could never get the full 1Gbps speed hardwired from my building (I literally never got more than 300Mbps over wire), I subconsciously assumed it was some long standing issue with the ISP, after I finally called and had them come by and check my wiring, I was getting full speed straight out of the wall the whole time--it turned out that the POS TP-Link had software issues that literally cut the speed down 1/3 and were never fixed (finally dug around enough online and found out about it in a random tech support forum). Also recently had a Linksys 9600/9610 that was awful at dropping connections (literally had to cancel a work meeting I was running early due to drops) and its firmware was full of weird bugs and errors, and it was extremely limited in what you could do to begin with.

At least with Asus, if you get a Merlin compatible model you have another source of firmware that has a 3rd party fixing bugs in it and whatnot, and those have been generally very solid for me and actually perform better than the factory releases. Some Netgear is OK in my experience, others are apparently really bad (their mesh stuff?) but anything else in consumer router world I wouldn't touch. Sad how bad the whole thing is really.
I can totally related to your TP link story. I bought their Archer C4000 from Walmart when it's on sale for $60. It constantly drop my connection since day one. Beautiful look outside with a junk firmware inside. As to the router market, I think the US market should introduce more competition. It's like the EV market, Tesla is not always the best when comparing to outside competitors.

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Mar 23, 2023
31 Posts
Joined Sep 2016
Mar 23, 2023
Welebich
Mar 23, 2023
31 Posts
Quote from IceRX :
So confused by this comment lol ^^^^

I need a new router for my fiber. Will this work that well? I was always told to with surfboards
Just got fiber last night. Also have this router and I haven't had any issues so far. My wife and kids are always connected with their devices and haven't received any complaints. It has only been one day though.
Mar 23, 2023
1,873 Posts
Joined Jun 2007
Mar 23, 2023
BobMighty
Mar 23, 2023
1,873 Posts
Quote from R@VEN :
It is true routers are overpriced but if I have to buy an overpriced router it will be an Asus. I would pass on this version and get the AX86U because it is a quad core processor. The AX86s is dual core and the same processor that's in the ac86u. The only real reason to buy a router of this caliber is if you're going to run a VPN on your router and use Merlin firmware. If you're not looking to have a VPN on your router then by all means buy something cheaper.
I have the Zaku version of the AX86U and it's been great so far.
Mar 23, 2023
968 Posts
Joined Jun 2007
Mar 23, 2023
R@VEN
Mar 23, 2023
968 Posts
Quote from BobMighty :
I have the Zaku version of the AX86U and it's been great so far.
I went from the AC86U to the AX86U and am very happy with it. I switched because of the wire guard support that is now available from ASUS and Merlin. I went from 250 megabits a second to 550 megabits a second with my VPN on the router by switching to WireGuard. The upgrade is so worth it to me.
Mar 23, 2023
144 Posts
Joined Dec 2007
Mar 23, 2023
dlucking
Mar 23, 2023
144 Posts
Quote from ChromeDream :
I agree with your sentiment but absolutely do not mess around with anything but Asus or Netgear in the home/consumer grade router market. TP-Link, Belkin/Linksys... other brands have absolutely horrendous firmware/software, the online "reviews" are mostly bought and paid for. Just as one personal example, I was using a TP-Link AX50 for a long time and could never get the full 1Gbps speed hardwired from my building (I never got more than 300Mbps over wire), I subconsciously assumed it was some long standing issue with the ISP, after I finally called and had them come by and check my wiring, I was getting full speed straight out of the wall the whole time--it turned out that the POS TP-Link had software issues that cut the speed down 1/3 and were never fixed (finally dug around enough online and found out about it in a random tech support forum). Also recently had a Linksys 9600/9610 that was awful at dropping connections (had to cancel a work meeting I was running early due to drops) and its firmware was full of weird bugs and errors, and it was extremely limited in what you could do to begin with.

At least with Asus, if you get a Merlin compatible model you have another source of firmware that has a 3rd party fixing bugs in it and whatnot, and those have been generally very solid for me and actually perform better than the factory releases. Some Netgear is OK in my experience, others are apparently really bad (their mesh stuff?) but anything else in consumer router world I wouldn't touch. Sad how bad the whole thing is really.
I'd agree and put Netgear on the crap firmware list too. There are many posts about their DNS server issues and Netgear doesn't care enough to fix it: https://community.netgear.com/t5/...-p/2189485
Sometimes the slickest deal is not the cheapest!
Last edited by dlucking March 23, 2023 at 02:45 PM.
Mar 23, 2023
613 Posts
Joined Nov 2006
Mar 23, 2023
gilbert_rebel
Mar 23, 2023
613 Posts
Same Price at Amazon with $8 Instant Coupon and 30 day return.

Newegg says All Sales Final and NO returns!
Mar 23, 2023
268 Posts
Joined Oct 2008
Mar 23, 2023
Spankybean
Mar 23, 2023
268 Posts
Don't trust the specs on the Newegg page. They've conflated the specs for the AX86S with the AX86U on the same listing page for some reason. Look up the product page to make sure what you're getting and ensure that the AX86S specs are what you're expecting.

https://www.asus.com/networking-i.../techspec/
Mar 23, 2023
1,400 Posts
Joined Jul 2007
Mar 23, 2023
Meowmixes98
Mar 23, 2023
1,400 Posts
It's a great router but the U version is even better!

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Mar 23, 2023
993 Posts
Joined Jul 2018
Mar 23, 2023
Jsz0301
Mar 23, 2023
993 Posts
Quote from whoopdaddy :
Just a general question/thought. Aren't the days of Asus asking us pay $150-$500 for routers is over? Plenty of wifi 6 routers that are under $100 make sense for most households (gaming or not, big houses vs tiny houses, number of clients, Openwrt, etc.). Asus seems overpriced. It's upsetting that they sell 400-600 routers, which makes me want to double down on non-ASUS competitors. I want top-of-the-line routers but the pricing is out of control. Is this the best price/performance router or is there another? How about this one for example.
The sub $100 USD routers have weaker MIMO configs. AX86S for example is 4x4 5G, granted actual real world performance will depend on environment.

Generally 4x4>2x2 for range, regardless of client MIMO being limited to 1x1 or 2x2.

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