ASUS Announces the RT-AC86U Gaming Router

[Raevenlord]

ASUS has announced another entry towards their gaming router lineup. The RT-AC86U is an AC2900 dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi class router, boosted by NitroQAM and MU-MIMO, which boasts of 750 Mb/s on the 2.4 Ghz band and 2166 Mb/s on the 5 GHz one. 3x high-performance and high-gain antennas, 3x Gigabit ports and 1x WAN port provide connectivity options on this router. Security features include encryption and wireless access control functions.

Interesting features of the router include a 32-bit dual-core processor running at 1.8 GHz for its processing needs, 256 MB flash memory, and 512 MB of onboard RAM. The ASUS RT-AC86U Gaming Router is available for €249 or $199.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[TheLostSwede]

Wooohoooo, another gaming router...

It actually has 512MB of RAM, the 256MB is the flash.

Product page: https://www.asus.com/Networking/RT-AC86U/

 

[bonehead123]

but,
but,

it ONLY has 2 red strips on it, wazzzzzupppwitdat, no full blown RGB ?

sarcasm only

 

[chodaboy19]

It says:

"RJ45 for Gigabits BaseT for WAN x 1, RJ45 for 10/100/1000/Gigabits BaseT for LAN x 4"

https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RT-AC86U/specifications/

 

[JalleR]

If it is as good as the RT-AC68U i want it....

 

[bug]

Wtf is "gaming" about a router?

 

[JalleR]

the red stribes....

 

[thesmokingman]

I see they toned down the spider crab leg look.

 

[Toothless]

Wtf is "gaming" about a router?

Stable Network and low ping.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

If you're seeing a ping of 1ms or higher on any local area network, you got problems.

Processor is a Broadcom BCM4906 which is a Northstar ARM Cortex A53-based SoC. ARM processors are pretty easy to choke with network activity compared to MIPS.

The only likely "gaming" related feature it has is a longer port forward list preconfigured to make hosting easier as well as the color scheme on the exterior. In other words, mostly a gimmick to make it stand out at Best Buy and similar retailers.

 

[RejZoR]

Key "gaming" feature on ASUS routers is the superior QoS. It doesn't matter what you're doing, QoS always makes sure that whatever you set to have priority will actually have it (like games). I've tried other routers and their QoS settings are fiddly and not working all that great. Where ASUS is so simple to setup and just works spectacularly.

 

[thesmokingman]

I'm surprised it isn't riddled with RGB leds.

 

[bug]

Stable Network and low ping.

As opposed to regular routers that are about unstable connections and as much latency as possible?

 

[Toothless]

As opposed to regular routers that are about unstable connections and as much latency as possible?

You should know the answer to your question without getting an attitude towards anyone.

 

[bug]

You should know the answer to your question without getting an attitude towards anyone.

I'm not the one with an attitude here. Asus is

 

[dirtyferret]

I've owned Asus routers for a while N600, N900, and two AC 1750 (old and new B1). Typically is find one for a great price and sell the old one to cover the upgrade. Currently my AC 1750 covers my first floor and basement while the N600 is a second AP covering the upstairs bedrooms. The overwhelming majority of clients use AC1200 so these huge numbers and "gamer" tags are marked towards suckers who thing big numbers equals faster internet connection. The only way to ever see most of these big numbers is to buy two of these routers and stick them ten feet apart with no furniture and walls in-between then move files from one home computer to another....or save your $300 and buy a $10 Ethernet cable and run it straight to the client.

As opposed to regular routers that are about unstable connections and as much latency as possible?

if you are using a $20 Chinese special sure, you can get a great router for under $100

 

[bug]

if you are using a $20 Chinese special sure, you can get a great router for under $100

That's what I said: if you get a decent router, it will be no different than this ine as far as games are concerned.

Stupid marketing annoys me to no end. Like when Y2K was about to end the world, you could buy mice and printers that were "Y2K proof". Nowadays it's "gaming" parts. Or consumer parts marketed as "professional", "military grade" and what not.

 

[peche]

so the difference between "gaming" router and regular or consumer router is...... well just the price and the stupid tittle and craps the Gaming one have printed in the back of the box

 

[dirtyferret]

Or consumer parts marketed as "professional", "military grade" and what not.

What??!! You mean my plan to fight Isis with my Army of MSI motherboards won't work?

 

[bug]

What??!! You mean my plan to fight Isis with my Army of MSI motherboards won't work?

No, that will work. You can spam them to death, post threatening stuff on their wall. Basically commit unspeakable atrocities.

 

[remixedcat]

but,
but,

it ONLY has 2 red strips on it, wazzzzzupppwitdat, no full blown RGB ?

sarcasm only

Throw in some fidget spinners and you gold bruhhh!

And who TF gets 640 off 2GHz even the best I've done on some of the highest caliber enterprise APs (sadly can't post reviews yet) have never gone above 450Mbps and that is just windows reported link rate. Speed tests are even bleaker.

If you're seeing a ping of 1ms or higher on any local area network, you got problems.

Processor is a Broadcom BCM4906 which is a Northstar ARM Cortex A53-based SoC. ARM processors are pretty easy to choke with network activity compared to MIPS.

The only likely "gaming" related feature it has is a longer port forward list preconfigured to make hosting easier as well as the color scheme on the exterior. In other words, mostly a gimmick to make it stand out at Best Buy and similar retailers.

My god a lot more than 1 "thanks" for this bruh. This is why some companies are actually going back to MIPS Strange ehh?

I'd take my "boring enterprise network" any damn day over these overhyped and unstable "gamer routers" any day!

 

[JalleR]

But what is a good enterprise grade Router for home use???? doesn’t need WIFI but some storage connection would be nice. (when i say for home use it need to be smaller in sized and not 500$+)

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Ubiquiti EdgeMax EdgeRouter Lite is good (Cavium CN5020 500 MHz MIPS64 dual-core) but takes a bit of work to get set up initially (highly recommend updating firmware ASAP then use the new wizards to expedite set up). They're less than $100 and probably need to be paired up with a switch (it can bridge ports but not recommended...ASIC switch much better and not just in performance). Buy a NAS for storage.

Since I changed to Ubiquiti hardware, the only downtime I've had was either my ISP's fault or firmware updates. It goes months with nary a hiccup. I have an EdgeSwitch Lite behind it and cheap Netgear switches behind that.

 

[j.soul]

Throw in some fidget spinners and you gold bruhhh!

And who TF gets 640 off 2GHz even the best I've done on some of the highest caliber enterprise APs (sadly can't post reviews yet) have never gone above 450Mbps and that is just windows reported link rate. Speed tests are even bleaker.

just got one, maxed out speeds at 866.7mbps, pretty amazing router, asus makes some pretty damn good routers

If it is as good as the RT-AC68U i want it....

its actually better, go get one...

 

[JalleR]

what about the coverage ? is it crazy ???