Urgent router for beginners
Urgent router for beginners
Hello All,
I understand there could be different tier lists for other parts, but I have limited time to pick a router since I’m overhauling the whole apartment. It’s a small space around 70 square meters, and I’m switching to a new provider with fresh devices. I need to reposition old equipment and wait for everyone. My internet speed should be about 800mb/s.
I currently have two smart TVs, two laptops, two PCs, and five to six phones—more than half of which are used simultaneously.
I remember we used a TP-Link router (possibly since 2006-08), but my current one is failing completely. I’m now using a model from the early 2010s that barely covers Wi-Fi in half the apartment.
I found three options:
- TP-Link Archer AX55 – around 75€
- ASUS TUF Gaming AX3000 V2 – about 85€
- TP-Link Archer AX73 – roughly 120€
The last one is just to illustrate my budget limit.
I’m checking the local retailer’s site: https://ardes.bg/ruteri/ruteri. If none of these seem suitable, feel free to look it up.
I’m not sure about any of them—reviews are mixed, and I haven’t tried an ASUS router or know anyone with one. I’d prefer the cheapest option that still works.
Thanks in advance.
It's crucial to understand the router is just half of the connection. The end device must be able to handle any feature the router offers. You shouldn't pay extra for features on the router if you can't use them on the device. A common issue is that most devices, particularly portable ones, only support 4x4 MIMO. Almost all devices... especially portable ones... have only 2 antenna/feeds. While some desktop models come with 4 antenna cards, they are quite rare and would require a lot of searching. Don't worry too much about speed numbers; you only need fast speeds for heavy downloading tasks. For example, on a gaming PC it would be beneficial to download large games quickly, like Microsoft Flight Simulator.
A very important thing to remember is the router is only 1/2 the connection. The end device must support any feature that router does. You do not want to pay for feature on the router you can not use. A very common one that pretty much no end device supports is 4x4 mimo. Almost all device..especially portable devices...only have 2 antenna/feeds. There are some 4 antenna cards for desktops but these are rather rare and you really would have to search for them.
Next do not get hung up on speed numbers. Pretty much you only need very fast speeds if you do large amounts of downloading. On a gaming pc for example it would save you time to download very large games like say microsoft flight simulator which is 100gbytes. Playing online games only use 1mbps. Something like watching 4k netflix only need 30mbps and having more bandwidth will not make it run better. Only you can say how much money you should pay chasing bigger number. How much per minute are you willing to pay to download a game faster.
Also do not think that some router with a bigger number on the box gets better coverage in your house. The amout of radio power allowed is the same as it was 20 years ago when wifi first came out. In some ways the newer routers go less distance. This though gets complex fast because it is easy to determine how far the signal goes. When you start to mix the concept of signal levels with how much data you can encode in the signals (ie the speed) it becomes impossible. This is why pretty much every router and claim to be the best and have the best coverage because they are telling half truths.
Most problem with coverage again are the end device. Unlike a router that gets power and can have large antenna portable device will sacrifice performance for portability and battery life.
I would avoid any wifi6 routers. For most people they did not work any better than wifi5. They key feature that makes wifi6 better is the ability to run 160mhz radio bands. Problem is there are so many restrictions on using these wide bands due to rules related to interfering with say weather radar that it is hard to use this feature. Many end devices rather than deal with all the different rules on this issue in all the different countries decided to only support 80mhz bands. wifi5 also support 80mhz bands so you do not get to use the main feature of wifi6.
You might find wifi6e routers in your price range, they have dropped a lot since wifi7 came on the market. wifi6e does run much faster "BUT" only if you have end devices that also support wifi6e so they can use the 6ghz radio band. Devices that do not support it will see no difference.
My guess is any router in the $50 price range would be fine for you. I would plug any gaming machine into the router with a ethernet cable. You should see over 300mbps on most your device with a wifi5 router which should be good enough for almost any application. Most end device match a router that would be called ac1200.
If you have coverage issue the problem is going to be placement of the router. Do not get conned into wifi repeaters or mesh to solve this. Things like MoCA or powerline networks with AP tend to be a better solution. Likely doesn't matter because you are going to be lucky to get just 1 router under your budget not mulitple boxes.
I am updating the entire apartment (a small one about 70 square meters) network.
For this purpose, either of the routers will work. I would choose the most affordable router from the list, then mount it on the wall away from the line of sight of your devices to the wireless router.
Thanks for the details. I always treated the wifi support of devices the same way as 3g, 4g, 5g, but that's the only way it works.
I plan to move the router to a more central location since it's currently in one corner and the signal has to pass through five walls, which isn't feasible. I'll also remove the repeater because it was just a temporary fix.
I confirmed this with a friend too, who is happy with the Archer AX55.