I'm looking at a replacement for my trusty Wifi5 router, but usually the options I find seem not 'future proof' enough, lack OpenWRT support, or other missing features that I'd like it to have for it's 'next life' as AP one day (i.e 10g support, decent ram, high throughput,...)
With Wifi7 devices still being away from OpenWRT for years, and Wifi6e support being rare and barely an improvement, it seems that the AX89X is currently my best option to upgrade my wifi / router and have a 'great AP' (even as mesh router) when it's days as router end. (Specifically, down the road, I want Wifi7 as my central connection, since the leap is great - ASUS' be98 non-pro looks interesting, if it can get support one day).
I'm saw people concerned about the fan, as it would be noisy sometimes. Is it bad? Can it be improved/replaced?
Does the CPU saturate the 10g lan port(s)? Some routers struggle with those speeds...
Other details that you guys see noteworthy, positive or negative, compared to your old device?
Any alternative device that might be better? Or other details I should consider?
Up to now there's neither a commit, nor a snapshot available for this model.
But if you're happy with the stock firmware, why not give it a try.
As for your questions, there might be different results depending on the used firmware. A newer firmware (or even OpenWrt) could change every single point (in both directions).
Not so much because of its current support status (which will hopefully come around; still, it can't be considered to be supported right now), but because of ipq807x' reliance on NSS for offloading. This might not be a problem for ipq8072a+ and 1000BASE-T (or maaaybe 2.5GBASE-T), but getting anywhere close to 10GBASE-T would require NSS to work (which is not going to happen, ever).
...and without actual/ effective 10GBASE-T support, there'd be much cheaper options around.
I am not versed enough to understand that in detail, but it sounds like a missing / bad driver implementation will prevent the router from reaching it's full speeds? I have not read every single post in the development section I posted earlier, but I did not see any mention of that limitation.
Is there any other similar router you would reccomend?
With everything you listed in your first post?
I'm not aware of such a device.
My humble opinion:
Don't try to get a device that should be future-proof for the next 6-10 years.
One changes his mind / has other desires in the future.
Or the device itself breaks down after a few years and it would be cheaper or easier to get something new than to fix it.
Consider what you think you need for the next 3-4 years, and buy something affordable that meets these criteria.
In the meantime, save your money for the devices to come.
If you want to buy 10Gb/s devices now, they'll take an arm and a leg for it.
If you really need it now, there's no way around.
If it's just a 'nice-to-have-in-the-future', just wait for it. The price will most surely drop over the years.
There'll be always better, faster models out there.
Well, that one is ipq807x as well and affected by the very same NSS dilemma. For ipq807x and without NSS, something like the dl-wrx36 is the best you can get, without wasting money on specs you can't meet on OpenWrt (without NSS) anyways (and never buy with NSS in mind).
x86_64 + external (OpenWrt) AP is a strong contender, filogic 880 (or maybe 830) might do as all-in-one option.
I was under the assumption to do just that.
The ax89 is a decent router, from what I can tell. So the 3-4 years window until wifi7 gets more available should do just fine. After that upgrade I'd be happy to use it as AP, one 5ghz band for mesh (still connected by wire), the other two bands for my clients.
I can get one for 300 bucks, which is not exactly a bargain, but much less than the 700 for a be98 I'd like to check out in the future (without knowing if it can even support openwrt).
Before noticing the ongoing development on a firmware, I was looking at this model: https://openwrt.org/toh/asus/tuf-ax6000
It seems decent too, but is 2.5gig and dual-band only. Not bad, and available for around 170, but between these two, the jump seems worth it.
Unless there's a better option I'm not aware of that is.
It is necessary to ask users who have already installed OpenWRT on router AX89X to check the maximum speed using the iperf3 utility.
Only for this test it will be difficult to find a client.
But it also seems to me that you won’t get full speed.
But it’s not a fact that the stock firmware gets full speed on this port!
Looks like 5gig is more realistic to get out of these ports. At least that’s what the few speed tests I could find show. Probably less with OpenWRT, as slh points out.
If that’s the physical limit of devices in general, then I guess I can accept that. No benefit in hunting the impossible.
Realistically speaking, wifi will not use 10 gig anyway, and most of my local traffic runs over a switch, so as a gateway it should do ok.
