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Forum Discussion
Orbi RBK50 3 pack vs RAX80 Router for my network
Need some advice. My home network is 90% wired with about 50 devices total. Wireless for iphones, doorbell, and ipads. 4400 two level brick home. Recently started streaming for our television and...
There are Orbi users on this forum who report over 100 devices, most of them WiFi. We also have users who have gigabit ISP connections. (There are regular complaints, "I'm not achieving my full gig through the Orbi.", to which I mutter, "not a problem for ME with my crummy 200mb connection!!!)
720p security cameras are not an issue. I have five 5MP cameras and some 1024 cameras. Orbi is not a limiting factor. There are also some users who stream 4K video, which probably consumes more bandwidth than several 720p TV's.
My guess is the new AX router has more processing power than the six year old Orbi RBR50. All I can find on-line is the RBR50 has a Qualcom IPQ4019 at 717MHz with 4 cores and the new AX has an unknown Qualcom at 2.3GHz with 4 cores.
http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/List_of_802.11ac_Hardware/Wireless_Routers
http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/List_of_802.11ax_Hardware
(It looks like the new product is so new that tech specs have not been discovered yet, or the web site not updated yet.)
This is an awkward time to be investing in mesh WiFi. Every manufacturer is coming out with products which support the WiFi 6 standard which was just ratified in September. Netgear has the AX Orbi and at least one AX Nighthawk. Linksys is releasing an AX Velop. So far, there are only a few shipping products which make use of WiFi 6 (Samsung phone, Lenovo laptop...) Netgear's Orbi WiFi 6 has its own user forum where people who rushed out and bought one comment on what they like and don't like: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-AX/bd-p/en-home-orbi-ax So, do you spend $400 on an RBK53 with one router and two satellites, or $700 on the AX with one router and one satellite?? For certain, those 50 existing devices gain nothing from WiFi 6 - nothing.
And, if Netgear even the product you want? When I wanted a mesh router, Orbi was about the only thing available. Today, every company under the sun makes at least one. (TP-Link makes at least two, maybe three!)
That's all I've got. Maybe one of the more experienced forum members will have concrete advice.