forum thread Posted by phoinix | Staff • 5d ago
Apr 30, 2025 10:40 AM
Item 1 of 4
Item 1 of 4
forum thread Posted by phoinix | Staff • 5d ago
Apr 30, 2025 10:40 AM
$199.99*: ASUS RT-AXE7800 Tri-Band WiFi 6E 6GHz Extendable Router w/ 2.5G Port at Amazon
$200
$280
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I'd say it depends on your needs. Have the AX86pro and its rock solid and has good range (covers a 1000 sqft). Also like the small footprint of the upright formfactor and this chipset and design has been around for a while. I'd think the same goes for the AXE7800 but you get tri-band so this should have even better range. If you game a lot and/or share a lot of files, e.g. home server then having the beefier CPU and memory and $30 more is well worth the extra CPU and memory. That is the main reason for a router dying for me, so I've been adding USB fans to keep them cool now. Unless you have WiFi7 clients I doubt you'll notice the difference between 6E in day to day. This is a tricky one since if you need a fast connection lets say to a WiFi7 laptop that is 5ft away then you'll see the difference. But if you have a lot of IoT devices, streaming TVs, kids gaming, etc. You'll need to upgrade each to WiFi7 to be worth the upgrade (another ~$100 for an Asus WiFi7).
For me the bigger consideration is the 2.5G port and your ISP speed. If you have <1Gbps ISP then either is fine. If your LAN has several 2.5G devices then these routers will limit you to 1Gbps ISP since you'll need the 2.5G port to connect to your LAN.
2.5GbE is now cheap and you do see that 2x increase in speed. Not as cheap as 1GbE but both are still cheaper than 10GbE which is now more affordable but still 2-5x more. So it depends on your need and timeline for 2.5GbE and 10GbE LAN. Both routers are fine for 2.5GbE with the caveat of a 1gbs ISP cap. It will take a while till 10GbE gets closer to a 2x price adder (watch what what Intel / AMD do to add 2.5GbE or 10GbE to their motherboards). I needed 10GbE to transfer a lot of files in my LAN and NAS so I paid the premium and got a more expensive Asus WiFi 7 router with 10GbE port (not the $500+ for 2x 10GbE that I wanted but was too expensive).
The real game changer is Asus Mesh. In the past I'd throw away the old router. Now with Mesh I just add the router to the Mesh and get better range. LAN connection works best but WiFi is okay (the extra tri-band helps). So I'm more confident paying what I need at this moment vs paying for future proofing. Sub $200 segment is the sweet spot for router/performance/features. With that type of router just upgrade in 2-5 years and get better performance than future proofing. Asus quality and FW support allow these routers to last for many years and you can always pass them down or sell them to lower your costs.
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https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-RT-BE...B0DHWBS9G6
I personally would not spend that much money on a basic wifi 7 router, if anything I would spend the $220 for the this one, at least its triband so would make it useful in the future if you ever wanted to do AiMesh.
https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-RT-BE...B0DHWCQ3FP
I initially bought the ax88 so I could have both a 2.5Gb WAN port and a 2.5Gb LAN port.
But then I realized my cable modem had two 1Gb ports and supported port aggregation. So now the ax86 is my router and the ax88 is my extender. I have two port-aggregated 1Gb links from the ac86 to the modem, and the 2.5Gb port is directly connected to the ax88. I then have a 5-port 2.5Gb switch connected to the ax88 to host my PC clients.
Works great. I get around 1.3Gbps to my iPhone 15PM in the room next to the ax86. I'm provisioned for 1200Mbps, so it basically supports full line rate over WiFi.
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