Looking for a ridiculously fast VPN router for UK

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

UK tech n00b seeks once-a-decade OpenWrt-compatible device to serve as a VPN router

ProtectLi VP6630 considered, but all the extras confuse me as to what I'm actually getting
Turris Omnia considered, but I'd like vanilla OpenWrt - no way for there to be surprises
TP-Link, I saw this: https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/tbthjj/psa_newer_tplink_routers_send_all_your_web/
Looking-for-gbit-multi-gbit-router-available-in-the-eu is great, but the UK isn't in the EU any more, and 600 posts from 2022 is more than 2 years behind the times
ISP-supplied hardware will not allow me to install custom firmware, and I discovered that it's (trying to) spy on me

  • How fast is your internet connection?
    1GBps, and it's going to get faster. Router should support at least 2.5Gbps connection; 10Gbps is ideal
  • Do you need Wi-Fi?
    I'd love to forgo WiFi in favour of an Ethernet connection, but I can't be sat next to the one phone socket UK dwellings come with all day; I suspect I'll need WiFi 6 for future-proofing
  • Do you need Gigabit Ethernet?
    Yes; in an ideal world, my purchase would be good for up to 10GbE to future-proof this thing
  • Do you need USB ports? How many? USB 2.0 or 3.0?
    If I am going to be flashing the operating system, I will need to be able to plug into the router
  • How many family members/devices must the router support?
    Let us say 20 devices to be on the safe/redundant side
  • What other services do you want?
    This will primarily be a VPN box; my intent is to use multi-hop and deep-packet inspection-resistant protocols, which tend to tank my speed - hence the desire for fast options
    (yes, I am aware that once my request hits the VPN servers, my speed won't factor into anything. I can live with this)
    Router needing a fan is fine; a racket that can be heard in another room/outside is not fine
    No need for LTE; modem will plug into router, and away we go
  • Finally, please define your price range.
    Ideally less than £500, but as I'm planning for this to be a once-a-decade purchase, I can stretch to £1,000

Other questions can be answered on request

Size matters not. Pretty or ugly matters not
Power consumption is not a factor, so long as I can run it out of a UK plug socket!
If the above can be done better with multiple pieces of hardware, I am A-OK with that :slight_smile:
Simpler and easier to maintain are better; I am a simpleton

Thank you

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It is, for any device running 24/7 - and if I'm not mistaken, electricity prices in the UK aren't on the negligible side either.

If that is part of your consideration, you can stop right there, x86_64 is the way to go - APs added to cover the wireless side as needed.

While the goal posts have been slightly shifting (filogic SOCs can now deal with 1 GBit/s), but the principle reasons in So you have 500Mbps-1Gbps fiber and need a router READ THIS FIRST are still on topic, 'just' with 10GBit/s in mind.

Do consider the cost of 10 GBit/s switches though (and if you want to get >2.5 GBit/s over the air, you would also need high-end wifi7/ 802.11be APs, which are in the upper 3 figure range as well), if you aren't willing to take that additional cost now, I wouldn't overpay for a 10 GBit/s capable router either (2.5 GBASE-T alderlake-n/ n100 or n97 systems are just that much cheaper, now - which will do well for the next few years).

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