Router for gaming

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hi

I am looking for a good router which I mainly use for gaming. Do you have any good suggestions?

Thanks
Badri M

2

What are your requirements? See also https://openwrt.org/faq/which_router_should_i_buy

3

My connection speed is 1000MB Download and 50MB Upload.

I dont need wifi

I need Gigabit ethernet.

I dont need USB ports

Around 3 to 4 members. Devices are around 15 to 20like gaming console, Mobile phone, television, computer, laptop etc.

I need support for VPN service

Budget can be more than 100 euro. But depends on the product and quality I can alter my preference.

Thanks
Badri M

4

Do you have bufferbloat on your line?

5

With 1 GBit/s WAN speed -and especially your gaming requirements-, the only sensible advice is x86_64 (i5 upwards or ryzen).

6

i5 or similar ryzen is an overkill. Any newer celeron soc or the raspberry pi4 can do the job with sqm/cake and even gigabit full-duplex.

You dont need to waste 40 watt of electricity on this.

1 Like
7

No, I dont have buffer bloat.

8

I am not that much into networks. But interested to learn. First time I am hearing Raspberry pi4 for network. Could you please point me some tutorial or documentation to how to build pi4 for networking

Thanks
Badri M

9

If you want to go the raspberry pi approach you have to do some things by yourself in terms of configuring a network (but it is not that difficult).

You would need:

  • raspberry pi 4 with proper case (maybe active cooling) and psu (with at least 2 GB RAM; would recommend 4 GB variant) ~75 EUR
  • an usb-to-lan adapter (you could work without this, but network setup is more complex then) ~15 EUR
  • a (web-)managed switch (with at least 5 ports; better 8) ~20-30 EUR

All in all you would end up ~120 EUR.

https://www.zahradnik.io/raspberry-pi-as-a-home-router/

If you have a Gigabit connection and want to max it out your raspberrypi is working at 100% cpu usage to reach this. If you enable sqm/bufferbloat to gain better pings then you cannot max it out anymore and you have to go for a real cpu like @slh said already. Especially if you enable VPN on top. VPN is a really huge impact here!

Think about your needs. Are your 15-20 devices demanding high bandwith up to that what your line is giving you at same time you are gaming and devices using VPN? Then go for that what @slh has written.

2 Likes
10

wow, why not the 8GB variant? 2GB of ram for openwrt is just enought for everything. You won't use more than 512 MB probably.

1 Like
11

I am not sure that is completely right. IIRC @dlakelan has been showing data with a HFSC shaper at 1gbps with no individaul CPU exceeding 50%, but the asix USB3 adapter seems to be a CPU hog.

2 Likes
12

Really!? You know what others are doing, could do, want to do with their installation?
My current RAM usage is 452912 MB. Mostly caused by a 7MB blocklist. I would not buy a 1 GB device. 2 GB is good enough I've written. If you want to do other things and run your OpenWrt in a docker environment then you want probably more then 2 GB.

13

Did badrisuper say that he want to do anything special with openwrt apart from using it with a VPN? If you need toons of RAM is your particulary case, but recommending buying the 4GB variant its a bit overkill for using openwrt just as a simple router, he probably won't use that RAM and he will waste his money.

14

Thanks for this! Things are still in flow for raspberrypi 4. I'm not up to date in any detail. That's why I referenced this SQM benchmark thread (to read and ask for the thread starter). Even the decision to buy an USB-to-Ethernet adapter or running all over one Ethernet device has a huge impact.

15

We don't even know what he/she expects. So nothing is wasted so far. Between 1 GB variant and 2 GB varaint is no price difference at all. From 2 GB to 4 GB there is a gap about ~15 EUR. As I wrote 2 GB is enough. But I would still recommend 4 GB:

  • Running things in a container to do more then just OpenWrt
  • If I had to go for x86 (because VPN and SQM @ 1GB connection) then I would not buy like 1GB RAM just because its enough for OpenWrt. Same for a raspberrypi. (personal opinion!).
  • Who knows what he/she wants to do later with this device for just 15 bucks more.
16

Except USB to Ethernet adaptor I have everything in hand.

Raspberry Pi4 with 4GB ram
Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 5xp
And Archer C7 as AP

I will try Raspberry Pi see how it performs when gaming. I have no problem when streaming videos. But when gaming I can feel the difference.

When I test bufferbloat it is decent but sometimes there are high spikes.

At present I am using Netduma R2, which is much better than my previous one but not meeting the expectation.

So I want to try different solution and compare which one is good.

Thanks
Badri M

17

I dont know what other feature I can use other than gaming and vpn. Its going to be a learning for me to know what other feature I can use.

I do stream game play in Twitch and Youtube.

Thanks
Badri M

18

What USB to ethernet adaptor do you suggest?

Thanks
Badri M

19

Look at https://forum.openwrt.org/t/rpi4-routing-performance-numbers/53996, it seems people use TP-Link's USB 3 UE300 (realtek r8152 based IIRC).

20

Do I need 2 USB to Ethernet adaptor? In the link you mentioned dlakelan 2 adaptor required.

Thanks
Badri M