Replacement for WRT3200ACM

i am having to send mine back as the internet drops are killing it for me as i steam video and play online games alot. Is there a solid router i could buy that won't have any internet drop out issues and can run openwrt on it

Archer C7v2

Have you searched the forum already?
IIRC there are some threads regarding alternatives to WRT3200ACM.

the rourter is very cabable of doing what you are looking to do.
you have enabled SQM of course? it is the most simple way to address compettion for bandwidth.
certain wifi tweaks help some people too. as mentionsed, htere are many threads about this; here is one:

https://forum.openwrt.org/t/linksys-wrt3200acm-vs-netgear-r7800/49944

is that problem just with wifi or ethernet too?

wifi and ethernet internet drops

I have about a £180-£200 price limit and will use to stream 4k on multiple devices plus running multiple PS4's. i need to be able to use vpn on it and possibly openwrt. My choices so far are:

Netgear
R7800
R8000
R8000P

TP-Link
Archer C2300
Archer C3150
Archer C4000

I'm going to assume that yours if faulty as mine are running great on 5GHz (2.4Ghz can be a bit of a hit or miss) and that includes PS4 consoles. Most newer platforms seems to have issues with the ethernet driver which you might want to have in mind...

If you want to run OpenWrt on your router, you should buy one that is supported by OpenWrt.

Check OpenWrt support status

I can't decide between:
Netgear R8000 and Zyxel Armor Z2