[SOLVED] GT-AX11000 vs. C5400X

[jlatus]

I have decided to upgrade Spectrum to gig service (actually 940mbps). I'm planning to go fairly high-end. For a router I seem to be torn between the ASUS GT-AX11000 and the TPLINK Archer C5400X. A typical usage scenario; Wife and I each checking messages on iPhones, my Windows 10 desktop logged into my Workplace with Citrix, two grandkids, one running Fortnite on one phone and streaming a Youtube video on another old phone, and the other grandchild running Robolx AdoptMe on one iphone and streaming a Youtube video on another old phone, and the Wife streaming Sling or Netflix or Amazon on the TV via an Apple TV box or a Tivo streaming player - all at the same time. This can be exacerbated if the grandkids are doing virtual learning instead of gaming, as they are going to various learning sites, or doing school Zoom sessions. So we are not necessarily "heavy gaming" but the gaming is going pretty good when Roblox and Fortnite are going. On our current 100mbps setup with a Motorola MG7550 router/modem, we run into issues where Roblox stops working after a while and the MG7550 needs a reset, or it spontaneously resets (seems to happen more in direct proportion to the amount of activity). It seems like the GT-AX11000 and C5400X are both very robust and would handle all this. The GT-AX11000 sounds like it has a lot of bells and whistles and adjustments, more than the C5400x, but all of that additional tech might be useful. Anybody have any thoughts on which router might be better, or is there another model I should consider? Thanks

 

[bill001g]

You have to be very careful about getting sucked into the bigger number is better trap. Key thing to remember is the router is only 1/2 the connection. Your end devices are the other.

So for example if none of your device can use 802.11ax (ie wifi6) then this extra feature in the asus does nothing. The same is true for even simpler things like 4x4 mimo since almost all device only have 2 antenna so they only support 2x2. In addition both these router support non standard data encodings that many device do not support.

This is all just a attempt to put a bigger number on the router box.

Even your current router/modem is using data encoding that your end device many not be able to use.

Use of so called tri band routers might be able to help you spread out your traffic but it depends to much on the actual requirements to say how much if any it will help. You generally must manually allocate your device to the different radios for best results. The largest issue is you have neighbors that also want to use wifi. A tri band router attempts to use all the available bandwidth. This guarantees your signals will conflict with theirs.

Your first step to fix your problems is to cable anything you possibly can. I would consider using powerline networks rather than wifi for any device that plays games. There are no routers that can fix most wifi problems. The end devices have too much control of when the attempt to use the network for wifi to work well when you have lots of devices connected.

If your current router had a faster modem part you really wouldn't need a better router.