I recently bought an R7000 and installed FreshTomato firmware on it and I'm very happy with the setup (but could I be happier? I've got nothing to compare to). I bought it to fix an issue with the crap router provided by the ISP and, to make a long story short, the landlord has said he will reimburse me for another router for £30-50 (I paid ~£30 for my R7000) and install that as a 2nd AP this year, as long as I set it up as a "normal" router before I leave (1 year tennancy - student house). That way we get "double" wifi coverage this year and future tenants don't have to deal with the crap provided by the ISP (but "only" one router). Now, my question is whether to get an R8000 or another R7000. The routers will be used in opposite corners of the house and one will be used as a "dumb" AP only (with Cat5e wired connection to the first router).
I'm asking because a) I cannot find much relevant advice that isn't out-of-date by now and b) there's a lot of conflicting advice out there regarding these two routers. I can get either router for about the same price used (and I'm not paying anyway) so that's not a factor really.
So, do I get another R7000, or do I get the R8000?
Thanks in advance
tl;dr:
I've got one R7000 already with FreshTomato on. Landlord's paying for a 2nd router to use as an AP for me for this year - do I go R7000 again, or "upgrade" (?) to the R8000?
If it was me and I had to choose between the 2? I'd get the R8000. During testing, it doesn't have quite the same peak speeds as the R7000 but the extra band can help a little bit.
But with that said, I've seen the WAX204 on sale on amazon for pretty darned cheap. Not sure if its on sale in your area though. You could always get either the R8000 or the WAX and leave your r7000 behind in the move. That way you get an upgrade
