I'm planning to set up OpenWRT for my home network (approx. 1300 sq ft, with several concrete walls), and I'm looking for some advice on choosing the right router hardware — particularly for good 5 GHz range performance and OpenWRT compatibility.
I’ve shortlisted two options that are OpenWRT-compatible:
Cudy WR3000S (MediaTek MT7981)
Cudy WR3000H (Same SoC but with Realtek Realtek RTL8221B 2.5Gbe Phy switch)
I understand MediaTek wireless performance has improved a lot, especially for MT7981, but I’ve heard mixed feedback about Realtek switches on OpenWRT. Does anyone have experience with the WR3000H and its Realtek switch? Any issues I should be aware of compared to the WR3000S?
Separately, I also came across the Mercusys MR80X V2 (Qualcomm SoC maybe IPQ0509 with the QCN6102 radio chipset), which reportedly has strong 5 GHz range. I know this model isn’t supported by OpenWRT (yet), so I’m only mentioning it here for comparison on signal strength and chipset performance, not as an OpenWRT option. The radio chipset QCN6102 or the MT7976CN which is better radio chipset.
I have the WR3000H, and so far i like it. 5 GHz range is great, at least for me, cause i have quite thick walls in my apartment. All you have to do, is to make sure you are on 160 MHz width, and to enable WED and you are good to go.
Hi.
To my understanding the only HW differences to WR3000H are a 2.5Gb/s for WAN and a power button. The SoC is the same and so should be the wifi capabilities.
Honnestly consider m². hence 120 m².
I have WR3000S with 5GHz operating on channel 36 width 160 MHz. Clients is a laptop with intel AX201 card. 5m no obstacle : file transfers can operate at quite full Gb/s capability (105 MB/s). With two walls and 5m distance it still operates at 60 to 80 MB/s. At 10m it's down to 30MB/s.
With three walls it's down to 10 MB/s.
what dBm you get? like10m away with 1 concrete wall between the router and device?
i am planning to use the 80Mhz some of my wireless device doesn’t support the 160Mhz.
No, like i said, all i had to do was to enable WED feature in OpenWRT, and i have full wifi speed on my wireless devices. But it will depend on where you are from the router.
i don't that much knowledge of the Soc and the radio and how they work with signal.
can you tell me about the MR80X v2 the qualcomm Soc?
on the internet research i found Qualcomm Soc has better wifi. I don’t know for sure about it. So this one thing i want to know.
can also tell me what dBm you get? like10m away with 1 concrete wall or something like this between the router and device?
The MR80X v2, i don’t think it will be supported by OpenWRT anytime soon, because of the CPU. The wifi drivers also are memory hungry. The v3 version has a Mediatek CPU so it’s a better choice. And i’ve just checked, 15m away from the router, separated by a wall, i have 80 something dBm.
I have started the laptop just to performs the tests, It's powered off now. I'll try next time sorry ... or if my wife uses it later today.
EDIT : maybe I can try this with a smartphone ...
EDIT2 : with a smartphone, 5m no obstacle -44 dBm. With 10m and 2 walls -78 dBm.
You can still setup at 160 MHz. 80 MHz only devices will connect at 80MHz.
@LS3434@badulesia thanks you guys for all information. SO i guess the cudy wr3000H is very well supported and no issue. However, the range between cudy 3000H/S and the MR80X remains uncertain, as it varies depending on the home layout and potential interference and not yet on openwrt.
The MR80X has QCN6102 radio chipset maybe any expert or any dev can tell it clearly by seeing the radio specification which is better .
If your main reason to go with these devices is OpenWRT, then Cudy is better, because it has support right out of the box. With MR80X V2, we don’t know if there is gonna be support in the future, if ever. At the end of the day, the choice is yours, as the saying goes
could you please check and let me know what the maximum TX power your router shows on the 5 GHz band with 80 MHz and 160Mhz channel width? Is it 23 dBm, lower, or higher?"
