Jumping into the cold OpenWRT water

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

I got hooked on the idea of using OpenWRT when I saw a readymade device by Linksys. But I noticed that it ran an older version of OpenWRT, which was kinda a bummer. I also didn't want to tinker with some proprietary device.

So I kinda decided to jump into the cold water by choosing either an OpenWRT One or an Banaba Pi RPI-R4 as my first OpenWRT router. But I'm unsure, which one I should get.

For the OpenWRT One speaks the price, sub $100 is hard to argue with. A switch for my few LAN devices isn't that expensive either.

The RPi-R4 is way more expensive but it comes with a switch, WiFi-7, and SFP ports.

I propably should use something different but it is kinda enticing to actually build it and install the needed software on it. I'm currently using an AVM Fritzbox provided by my provider and my ordered fiber optics access will just come with an ONT where I can connect via PPPoE and DS-Lite to the internet.

I currently run a Synology NAS which also demonstrated to me how limiting software can be, I can't use an IPv6 DynDNS provider other than Synology's own one. Also Docker is way out of date for some reason. (My next project)

2

Start by defining the use cases. What daemons will you need to run? What is the purpose of the box? Routing/firewall only? WiFi? NAS? Containers? How much storage, RAM, etc.

3

First and foremost, it should be my router, firewall, and wifi. I also want to use an VPN client for accessing certain addresses which will be most likely be OpenVPN. (also since it might be a work related VPN, I would like to limit it to a certain Wi-Fi network.) I want to look into Adguard but not sure yet.

Most devices I use will connect via Wi-Fi, mostly because the layout of my flat doesn't allow for wired access.

Beyond that I'll see.

4

are you in US, or EU ?
recommendations will differ, based on your location.

5

I'm in the EU. So the sub $100 for the OpenWRT One becomes like 129 euros plus shipping on Amazon market place. The BPI-R4 would be 278 euros plus shipping.

6

then you should probably quote in € instead of $.
https://wifilinks.nl/products/zyxel-t-56-modem-odido-dual-band-wireless-ax6000-ethernet-iad, no SFP though.