Linksys ea6700 vs asus rt-ac66u

[NinjaPenguin1]

I just found out that i need a new router since my old wrt54gl can't deliver my new internet speeds(50mbits down 10mbits up). And since i don't want to have to change my router in two years i want to go for a good quality wireless ac router.
After some research i came up with the linsys ea6700 and asus rt-ac66, but i dont know which one is better. The only reason i include the asus is because my local electronic store have a supersale so the price difference is 50$.
So i need to know which one of these delivers the most for the money.

 

[Tradesman1]

They are both good, the Linksys has a little higher bandwidth

 

[NinjaPenguin1]

But why the bi price difference?

 

[bill001g]

I suspect because asus has a newer ac router out and needs to have a price difference between them.

If you dig though the specs both the routers you list use EXACTLY the same radio chips which implies they should perform exactly the same.

Now how future proof your purchase might be is going to be hard to say. The 802.11ac standard was just set and as suspected almost all the routers that were produced in the last year do not meet the standard so now you have 802.11ac-draft models just like the 802.11n.

So far I am not sure exactly what features they do not support it seems to be related to the beam forming options. I think the asus 68u actually meets the standards. This is very hard to say most the manufactures are keeping very quite on if they actually meet the final standard.

 

[NinjaPenguin1]

So what you are saying is that since these were manufactured before the standard was set they wont meet the new standard? And what do you mean by draft models?

 

[bill001g]

What the standard is called before it is finalized is draft. So the units that meet that level of the standard but not the final one say they are certified draft...mostly so they don't have to admit they don't meet the final standard. You will still find 802.11n-draft stuff from companies that do not want to pay to certify their equipment.

I suspect very strongly that most the 802.11ac on the market does not meet the final standard that just happened last nov or dec. How significant it is is hard to say.

The major features are of course the same. Most the other stuff is in very technical details you have to be a rf engineer to understand. I know the only one that seems to be easy to understand is the idea of beam forming that lets the radio manipulate the signals between the antenna to cause signal to be radiated in a certain direction better. Still not having this feature may make you non compliant but does not mean the devices won't work. I suspect it will take some time before we find if there are any incompatibilities that can't be fixed with software upgrades.

Most manufactures were a little smarter this time knowing the trap they got caught in when 802.11n came out. Still now that the standard is set we are starting to see a lot of competition from the lower end manufactures and I suspect it won't be long before we see $50 802.11ac routers.

It may not matter if you cannot get good 5g coverage in your house you can't really use 802.11ac anyway.

 

[NinjaPenguin1]

Thanks for helping me out. I think i will go for the linksys.