Help creating a budget 600mbps setup

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hello! I'm very new to networking on deeper than a 'plug it in' or 'hit connect' level, so I thought I'd reach out to the OpenWRT community with my question.

A year ago I was able to switch to fiber, and my ISP provided me with a mesh network comprised of 2 Eero units (Eero 5 I think? - the signup deal provided them free for the 1st year). At the time, my fiber speed was 300mbps, so I purchased these 802.11ac Fenvi USB3 adapters (hoping to future-proof my network speed needs).

Long story short, my speed tier was discontinued and replaced with 600mbps, and in January the Eero mesh will be $10 a month. They cover about 2300 sq feet over two floors, on opposite ends of the almost 20-year-old house. I don't plan on keeping the Eeros because:

A) You need an app to configure them and I don't have any smart phones/mobile devices.

B) I can't get much more than 200mbps thru the Eeros, even over a Cat5E cable. (On wifi, Windows shows a 866mbps connection, but Speedtest.net doesn't.) When I direct connect to the ONT with a gigabit cable, I think I got upper 500 mbps on Speedtest.net (I'll test again, but I remember filing away that the Eero slowed things down regardless of wired/wireless).

After using the Eeros for the last 12 months, I vowed to myself the replacement(s) would be configurable via a web gui, and I'm very excited at the concept of installing OpenWRT on some new (used) hardware.

Here are my thoughts so far (hoping to handle all of this for $100 USD give or take):

  • I was looking at these EA8300s on eBay. I would probably get 2 to replace the 2 Eeros. I'd put OpenWRT on them, with one as router and the other as a dumb AP over mesh. The 802.11ac speeds (I thought) would handle the 600 mbps. Do you think that's feasible?

  • If I got or built a dedicated router, and then used the EA8300s as wireless APs (via cable and mesh) would that do the 600mbps? I have some old PCs, and even a dumpster-dived Netgate SG-4860 (which I've never been able to test because I found it sans power adapter). Happy to explore options if that's a good direction to go in.

  • Should I just look into an 802.11ax router? Would that be overkill, since my adapters are 802.11ac?

Mostly, I'm just trying to get my money's worth out of the internet I'm paying for. I don't tend to even come close to utilizing the 600mbps, it's just the lowest (official) tier my new ISP provides. Honestly, the most intensive traffic the home network/internet gets is occasionally running Steam Remote Play from 1 host PC to 3 other PCs simultaneously (while utilizing Steam VoiceChat).

To close, my networking expertise is slightly above basic consumer - I know how to log in and set passwords, and that's about it. I can handle a bit beyond that if I have a good guide/tutorial to work from (I've looked a bit a OneMarcFifty's work, and it gave me hope and interest to look into OpenWRT). I thank the community in advance for your suggestions, I really appreciate it!

2

Same SOC, not any faster than the Eero (yes, tri-radio, which is beneficial, but the overall speed is still going to be the same).

Yes.
On the one hand the new generation (mt7622bv, ipq807x, filogic; mt7621a+mt7915 however would not be sufficient) of devices provides the CPU performance to deal with routing 600 MBit/s as a side effect.
On the other hand you need 802.11ax to get 600+ MBit/s over the air to 2x2 clients. While you may not have those yet, that could be changed - and until then, you'll still get 802.11ac performance.

When it comes to 'old' or not purpose-built PCs, always consider the idle power consumption. Getting a new purpose-built one might pay for itself within short time via the electricity bill.

Well selected x86_64 hardware can easily remain within the 5-15 watts (idle) bracket (which is competitive with good plastic routers), while older hardware generations may easily chug ~130+ watts from the wall, 24/7, 52 weeks a year. This is not meant to discourage x86 usage as a router -on the contrary, this is sensible for 600 MBit/s wan speeds-, but you do need to choose your hardware wisely (at the very least baytrail-d, better alderlake-n).

Judging from the specs alone, Netgate SG-4860 might do the job (but this CPU is prone to premature hardware failures, so be aware that it might have been disposed of for a reason).

3

Fujitsu S920 (make sure you get the quad core version!) or S940 as router, keep the Eeros as (meshed) APs ?

The S920s can be bought for 30€, but you need a 2nd NIC, which can be USB3 based, or if you want to spend some extra cash, get a PCIe riser, and a PCIe NIC with one or more ethernet port.