I'm stuck with what direction I want to go. I want something efficient that doesn't use too much energy.
$100 OpenWRT Basic Router.
3-4 Ethernet ports, ability to run piece of cake at about 400-500mbps. Built in wifi is a plus. I don't want to run an additional switch, or external AP right off.
$200 pfsense X86 Router
4 Ethernet ports, X86 processor that can handle 500-1000mbps. Similar requirements as above.
Thoughts on the direction I should go, and what routers I should be looking at? Won't have more than a few users at a time.
I was looking at the NanoPi R4S, but not enough Ethernet ports. NanoPi R5S I don't think has stable builds of OpenWRT yet, haven't been able to find SQM Cake numbers, although they'll be slower than R4S.
Without a need for an AP, a used WRT32X or 3200ACM will do this.
The NanoPi R5S CPU, while slower than the R4S, is ~50% faster than the R2S. The R2S will do around half a Gig Cake SQM, so the R5S will easily handle your Cake requirements too. Doesn't address your concern with stable builds, but time is likely to fix that soon enough.
But I think you had the right idea with a NanoPi R4S. You say you don't want an external AP right off, but why do you not want to hang an inexpensive used AP (something like a used Archer C7, or the MT7621AT based LinkSys EA6350v4) off a NanoPi R4S to add the Ethernet ports you require on what will effectively be a managed switch, and just not use the AP functionality until you need it, or replace with a higher end AP later?
I just like simplicity. Don't want all the extra wires, power adapters, multi unit things.
Just want a simple router that can go everything I need for not a lot of dollars. The R5S would've been perfect, but I think the RT3200 looks perfect if I can figure out the sqm cake speeds.
I agree, it sounds like the RT3200 would be about perfect for you. Probably a little more expensive than a used wrt32x or 3200acm, and definitely much larger than a NanoPi R5S. But it does what you need, and you get WiFi6 with it.
Sometimes turning on software offload (not hardware offload) helps saves a few non-SQM CPU cycles that can go toward SQM. Not a lot of improvement, but maybe 5%-10% more SQM throughput is what I noticed on my ER-X when I was trying to get every last Mbps out of it.
I mean I can spend $75 and get a rt3200, that'll do SQM, have enough Ethernet ports, and will handle my wifi without a problem
Or I can do a R4S $60, buy a $20 switch, and then buy a $100 AP.
I can still add APs and switches to the RT3200, so I'm not really seeing an advantage going the messier second route.
I actually went that route with an edgerouter and unifi lite 6, and although it worked, I didn't really like having to setup the unifi stuff and also the switch stuff. Simplicity is nice sometimes, especially being in a smaller apartment.
Meanwhile I'll wait for technology to get a little faster and better and buy my end game network equipment when I have my house.
If a single device meets you needs then it's all good!
Multiple APs from the same vendor that support wifi roaming standards can probably make a difference when multiple APs are required to get wifi coverage - but for a single AP, it's probably not worth it.
And regarding sqm. I was a bit obsessed with it until I forgot to enable it after a reinstall. Turned out, in my case, I didn't even miss it.
Get an asus rt-ax86, and run the stock firmware. If you do need sqm or want openwrt, just get a small r4s or similar.
This is like saying whether SQM would still work after plugging the ethernet cable from one port to another. It does not grant comparability.
Traffic shaping algorithms require a great amount of processing power to shape traffic. If the CPU can only handle 150 - 200 Mbps throughput with SQM, you can't benefit this change from the linked thread anyway.
The RT3200 you are going with will be absolutely perfect for a smaller apartment. If it has a downside, it is somewhat slower long range WiFi performance due to internal antennas - no downside at all for a smaller apartment.
I used an ER-X as my gateway for years with a slower ISP plan. OpenWrt does work very well on an ER-X (better than stock in my opinion), but only with slower (~100-200 Mbps) ISP service if SQM is needed. I found the ER-X could shape ~100 Mbps with CAKE and ~200 Mbps with fq_codel (download only, and irqbalance active) - on a good day. For reasons I never got to the bottom of, fq_codel on my ER-X topped out around ~10 Mbps on upload, but higher (~20 Mbps is the fastest upload ISP service I had) with CAKE on upload (full ~20 Mbps line rate).
The MT7621AT SoC in the ER-X is inexpensive (and this is a good thing!) and it can route a full Gig with hardware offload and comfortably a bit over half a Gig with software offload - not bad at all. You have to admire the 2C/4T MT7621AT for what it can do at such low cost. But it just doesn't have the CPU speed for side projects like SQM and VPN. And if taxed with WiFi duty too (obviously not an issue for an ER-X), SQM and VPN performance will suffer accordingly.
I noticed the new ODROID H3 and H3+ as well... They look interesting. Don't have any specific tests to offer, but I'd guess it's safe to say that even the H3, with the N5105, should be able to handle 1gbit and SQM.