Wireless AC router and smallnetbuilders.com

I haev a 30 dollar credit to spend at tiger direct and i am at a loss on what i want to buy. I was thinking of getting a new wireless AC router but don't know what is good. I am currently looking at smallnetbuilders.com since they are highly reputable. I was wondering if anyone on here had also read through all of their site and can point me in the right direction. The last router i bought was the N600/WNDR2700 if i recall. It was the best at the time and i got bad ones both times lol. Still limping by with a glitchy router. Tried Netgear support but gave up after they forwarded me some BS do this even though i already did that blah blah stuff so i gave up. I hate RMA stuff what can i say.

EDIT: i roll on caring about solid performance...as in it isn't glitchy and has long life. Also range. Speed is meh to me. Range is crucial with it actually working for more than 3 months before becoming glitchy.

 

Maybe the TP-LINK Archer C7 would be an option?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/net...2-11ac-router-recommendation-fall-2013-a.html

TP-LINK Archer C7 AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder

TP-LINK Archer C7 AC1750 Wireless Gigabit Router IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4GHz - 5.0GHz, 1.75Gbps at TigerDirect.com

 

Do you need range over 2.4ghz or 5ghz? 5ghz range on most router seem to be more or the less the same. ASUS have the lead for 2.4ghz though.

ac router don't really improve "Range" , so you probably want to consider dumping 100+ on a router is worth while.

I think the most recommended ac router now would be netgear r7000 night hawk, for the pretty good usb 3.0 performance. asus n66u(non ac) for the good 2.4ghz performance.

 

yea i was reading up on that and most of the range boost was over 5Ghz band :/ SNB said i think the ASUS has the best 5ghz range out of them all but i guess i am toast on the 2.4 :/ I forget what ones stuck out but the TP link one wasn't one. It was asus or netgear if i recall but it was really confusing. I was skimming AC 1200 1300 1500 172346326325 or whatever. So many damn standards! It looked like the 1500 or 1600 or whatever was the established speed and category for good routers with range and stuff. I am personally at a loss. I think the ones i was looking at one one was at TD :/ Is AC not actually past draft yet? I thought i read that in there. I thought it was ratified.

 

AC won't improve range at all compared to n so if it's your primary concern why not stick with a High Powered n router which would be both cheaper and offer better range? Check out something like Buffalo HP routers.

 

doesn't it though extend the speed at the outer limits or does the AC part drop before you get that far out? I was looking at some of the numbers...not sure of the context but some had higher speeds at higher DB and ranges so does that not play in at all? or was that just little at a set situation and not over all range?

 

The thing is there's no AC on 2.4GHz band. 802.11AC standard is "normal" 802.11n on 2.4GHz and AC up to 1300mbps on 5GHz band (hence 1750mbps class routers are really 1300+450)
If you are after primary after range (and it certainly looks like it from this thread) you would be looking at 2.4GHz band anyway.

5GHz fades quicker with range as the higher the frequency the lower the practical range (due to signal fading while penetrating through obstacles).

If we agree that you are looking at 2.4GHz band than you would be using 802.11n anyway- so you might as well buy a cheaper HP 802.11n router and spend less money to get better results.
If you actually need 5GHz throughput for some reason (like I do) that is an entirely different matter, but at this point it doesn't look like this especially that you have stated that "Speed is meh to me" in your first post.

 

alright well thanks fro clearing that up :/ I am now disappointed lol. are the HP ones reliable? I have the worse....well simply put i am actually cured when it comes to wireless tech...if you recall some of my super old posts i had one of the wackiest cases no one could solve and plenty other ones i never brought up from the past. (internet/wireless tech hates me)