Asus AC66U vs TP-Link C7

[hyper_megaman]

Hi guys,

I'm planning to buy a router for my new house (Exec Maisonette, will have to cover 2 floors). I want decent reach through the entire house with that 1 router, but I also have to balance money concerns.

I'm planning to have one router stuck at the wall on the middle of the stairway so it has equal reach to both upstairs and downstairs. There will be walls between the router and the upstairs rooms, so signal penetration is a concern too, but this should be limited to 1 wall max per room if the said location does work as planned.

My aim was always towards AC66U (or N66U, depending on budget). I have a history of being an unofficial networking admin working with N66U while in Uni, I loved how heavy duty and reliable the Asus Dark Knights were.

However, yesterday I discovered TP-Link C7, which seems like a decent alternative to AC66U on a budget, or at least on paper. It's a good 40% off the price of AC66U with apparently similar features.

How do those 2 measure? Is there anything that makes either better than the other that isn't shown on paper? What other considerations should I have?

Or any other routers to recommend? TP-Link C8? C9? The other Asus routers?

 

[hyper_megaman]

More info:

This is a plan of the apartment. The planned router installation location is at the left side of the drawings, at the stair landing. Router height will be the upper floor's ground level. Antennas will be adjusted to different positions to ensure maximum reach from all angles.

The goal in doing so is to minimise the number of walls the router signal has to penetrate to reach any given location in the entire house.

What do you guys think?

 

[xonix]

1 router for the Maisonette ? Wouldn't say it's "impossible" but I don't think you will enjoy the Wi-Fi performance.

A router + ap setup would be more ideal to cover each floor.

 

[hyper_megaman]

1 router for the Maisonette ? Wouldn't say it's "impossible" but I don't think you will enjoy the Wi-Fi performance.

A router + ap setup would be more ideal to cover each floor.

What about the router choice?

 

[xonix]

What about the router choice?

Asus have the edge in performance whereas tp link is cheaper but not too far behind.

I used the archer c7 before upgrading to ac87u. Phone Wi-Fi@5.0 ghz jump from 70/80+ to 150++

Never used the ac66u so can't comment too much on it's real world performance. Maybe other users can chip in with their views.

 

[sadboy]

Not sure how much you going to invest in the WiFi network.

But you can consider a Asus router and a UniFi AC Ap.

Seems like most people would be using the WiFi in their room, so u can place UniFi AP on level 2 and it should be able to handle the coverage