Hi All,
I recently bought the TP-Link AX1800 Archer AX23, but unfortunately, it only has 16MB of RAM, which is not sufficient for installing some packages that I need for my research.
I am wondering if there is any other dual/tri-band wireless router that has at least 512MB of memory and supports OpenWRT?
Thanks.
According the TOH your device has 16 MB Flash and 128 MB RAM.
I would recommend the Gl.Inet Flint 2 which has 8 GB Flash and 1 GB RAM.
Might look like overkill, but should serve your needs for the next couple of years ?
The upcoming MX4200 (support WIP, $20 at Walmart), have 2gb RAM, and 1gb flash.
thank you tom. Is there any cheaper option?
Thank you for your response.
I does not have any lan port.
You could download the TOH dump, import into your favourite spreadsheet app and set filters as needed.
The ipq807x platform should be all 512MB ram or above however I saw that both ipq806x/807x platform driver requires more memory to work so probably don't expect to have too much free memory.
root@OpenWrt:~# free
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 889088 250648 602744 1084 35696 595484
Swap: 0 0 0
root@OpenWrt:~#
Yeah, 256MB is a no go, this is from a WRX36 AP.
For newer platforms go for at least 1 GB.
I have the Dynalink DL-WRX36 and am happy with it, 256 MB flash and 1 GB RAM.
https://openwrt.org/toh/dynalink/dl-wrx36
https://www.amazon.com/Dynalink-DL-WRX36-8-Stream-Wireless-3-6Gbps/dp/B096K9SVCT
ASUS RT-AX59U (512MB): 100 EUR
ASUS TUF-AX4200 (512MB): $110...$160
ASUS TUF-AX6000 (512MB): $200...$220
ASUS TX-AX6000 (512MB): $150
ASUS RT-AX89X (1024MB): overprice
It is very easy to install OpenWRT on all these routers (almost in 2 clicks).
depends on where OP lives.
WRX36 is $80 at US Amazon.
Cudy TR3000 (same as MT3000, but less flash) around $45 on US eBay.
the IPQ80xx Xiaomis should be in the same price range as the WRX36, or less, but they're a PITA to install.
in general, MediaTek based devices are easier to flash, than their Qualcomm counterparts.
as @tassapan mentioned, the ipq806x devices would be great alternatives, if you don't need AX wifi, cheap too, when bought 2nd hand.
cheapest would however be to boot Openwrt on a PC, off a fllash drive.
If you want DIY
BPI-R4 + BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 + Case + antennas. $200-300
a new Dell Edge 680 got the same price tag on EU eBay.
16 core Atom
2x SFP+
6x 1GbE Ethernet
32GB RAM
16GB eMMC + 256 GB SSD
AC wifi
and you don't have to put it together yourself.
How about a NanoPi R2S (be sure to get the metal heat sink case with it - it needs it)? Those have 1 GB of RAM and plenty of flash since they use an SD card. For a little more money, the R5C would be an even better choice with more CPU and 2.5 Gig ports.
Plug the AX23 you already have into one of those as a dumb AP and switch for more lan ports, and you should be good to go.
Better with R4S, it doesn't use USB NIC, but in general R2S is good and stable enough for most thing (I own both), and yes please get the metal case version, the build is very solid and heat dissipation is good with it, I placed them on a metal shelf so the heat will be conducted to the shelf as well 
If money is not an issue, the R4S does have even more CPU than the R5C for even more money. All good choices - just depends on how much money one has and how much CPU one needs. The R5C 2 GHz ARM A55 quad core CPU is no slouch though, and its 2.5 Gig Ethernet ports are both PCIe.
That's a good point that one of the R2S Ethernet ports is connected (on the board) to a USB3 interface. It is still an internal Ethernet port - no need to buy and hang a dongle off an external USB3 plug for a second Ethernet port like with the Raspberry Pi's - and for typical gateway router use it handles Gigabit (never had issues with mine), but bridge throughput can suffer in this arrangement.
I read the instruction but I couldn't understand at all for i don't know about SSH.
Do you know a place where I can learn about the procedure with easier reading?
To enable SSH it is as simple as restoring a pre-made config.
From stock firmware you restore this config and you have SSH login.
This is from my notes:
- A premade backup config file, enabling SSH, can be found at Dynalink DL-WRX36 Askey RT5010W IPQ8072A technical discussion - #670 by NicholasKK
Restore with this config, wait for the reboot, and login using SSH, as admin / askey1234.