Purchasing a New Router now that FIOS is available to me

So I am moving to a new apartment and this building has FIOS so I am getting a new router. Its a small studio, so 5GHz dual band is good for interference and I don't need range. My use case is the following:

Personal laptop on the 5GHz band used for online FPS and Strategy gaming. This laptop is also my cable replacement as it streams online content (Slingbox, Netflix, Hulu) to a non-smart TV using a Belkin Intel Wireless Display adapter. Also a work laptop (unsure if card supports 5GHz) used for Citrix and WebEx, personal LTE phone (2.4GHz only), work iPhone 4S (2.4GHz only right?), and an original iPad (5GHz) that sees infrequent use as a glorified e/news reader. I have a USB 3.0 1TB HDD where I store most of my media content (photos, music, TV shows & movies), which is currently hooked up to my laptop but I would prefer to have connected to my router. I do not have nor do I intend to get a printer. Gigabit Ethernet is irrelevant as with my layout a cord would likely cause me to trip and break a bone.

I am currently considering:

Cisco E4200 v2 (v2 for the improved USB). I would get a refurb and have my credit card company extend the warranty.
Belkin N900 (throughput baby!)
D-Link Amplifi HD (USB 3.0 port)
Buffalo AC1300 (futureproof, although I don't really see myself upgrading the laptop wireless card)

Which of these would you recommend? When is the next crop of routers being released, a Cisco E4xxx series with a USB 3.0 port or an upgrade of the N900 with USB 3.0? I can wait until Thanksgiving/Black Friday since I tend to spend less time with electronic devices in the summer.

 

Cisco or D-Link are really reliable, depending on your usage, i would recommand The D-link Amplifi HD router.

 

I would stay away from D-Link. They don't provide quality firmware or don't provide support at all.
This particular router is based on Ubicom chip so there will be no 3rd party firmware support either.
On top of that DIR-827 (I assume you mean this one- please use model numbers) has very poor range.

All of that for roughly $140.

USB 3 is more or less useless in routers unless you need more than 2.5W from a port. Limiting factor when sharing a HDD is not USB bus-speed but main chip performance- that's why E4200v2 using Marvell 1.2GHz chip (the one used in home NASes) is faster than v1 using a Broadcom chip.

I would go for E4200v2 in your case- NAS grade CPU will make drive sharing much better. It's also a good router on other fronts- particularly in terms of 2.4GHz range.

 

sounds good, cisco it is. the refurbs seem like a great deal, any qualms with that? I'm thinking tomato for firmware.

 

As far as I know it won't support Tomato since it's based on a Marvell chipset.
If you wanted Tomato support you should go for E4200 v1 (Broadcom chipset) but since you want to utilize USB-NAS feature v2 is definitely better for you.