Hello,
Here is my scenario:
Soon I will move out to the place with 1Gb/1Gb fiber connection, and I’m preparing the hardware for the job.
I need my router to be able to use as much bandwidth as possible, and at the same time I don’t need the number of ports found in most MikroTiks for business uses.
In conclusion, I need a MikroTik able to process 1Gb/1Gb speed and at the same time I don’t need some huge number of ports, like 16/32, even 4 would do the job.
So what would be the cheapest solution for my needs?
4 cores with good performance for firewalling or VPN at high bandwith
If you are looking for a cheap solution, I’m quite happy with the hAP ac^2 I have at a place with
a couple of users (4-6 devices) and upstream of 150Mbps. I’m not sure how well it will scale to
bandwidth closer to the 1Gbps limit, but I’m guessing that most providers will give more like 500Mbps of
real bandwidth when they advertise 1Gbps…
If you want USB (for instance for mobile backup) the hAP ac^2 has it. Its consumption is reasonable at 23W
The RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD-IN has a much more capable wifi, stronger CPU and chipset, but it is like 5x more expensive.
So take a look at the test results, your expected use patterns, your budget (electrical too, the RB4011 will draw double power),
and decide.
I would not go for any MIPS mikrotik, as they are CPU-bound at such speeds for realistic firewall/VPN configurations. Any
ARM with reasonable switch chip will do. I’d recommend to use the test results as a guideline.
As I said, I expect a hAP ac^2 work reasonably for up to, say, 500 Mbps of real bandwidth, specially if at least part of it
is coming through cabled ethernet and not using WiFi.
I would also go for the 4011. The hAP ac^2 is good but you need to go to fasttracking to reach real high speeds. The encypting power is 4 times higher with the 4011.
I think replies above forgot what “cheapest” means.
literary “cheapest” is rb750gr3 (hEX) as it costs only 59 USD.
slightly more expensive is already mentioned rbd52g (hAP ac^2) which is 69 USD but gives you twice as many CPU cores and integrated wifi.
top “cheap” model would be (again already mentioned) RB4011, but it is already over three times as expensive (199 USD). Not sure if that qualify for your requirements.
Obviously, there are many models between, but I don’t think any of them is worth mentioning as they don’t excel in any parameter you asked for (price, speed)
Both rb750gr3 and rbd52g have plenty of power, if you decide to go with fasttrack-enabled config. Main disadvantage of fasttrack is, that it prevents you to use simple queues, which means you can’t easily limit speed of users/devices. I don’t know whether you plan to limit speed this way but it is definitely important to understand. Without fasttrack, you don’t stand much chance to achieve full gigabit connection.
rb750gr3 has another slight disadvantage with it’s internal wiring - it is bit more complicated and it really depends, which port you use as they share internal lanes in very specific way.
Last point, as you mentioned fiber - if you really get bare fiber cable (without any converter), then you might benefit of model with SFP port - you can insert an fiber module and connect the fiber directly (if there is such compatible module).
The question didn’t state any specific requirements so I did recommend the RB4011 because that will be able to do all the things he might later say he needs.
So yes the RB4011 is not a cheap version by all accounts but is a cheap version that is able to do allmost everyting on a 1GB connection.
Before you buy RB4011, check the forum threads about 5GHz wifi issues and some SFP issues.
Especially the 5GHz WIFI that just randomly stops working is still not fixed and no one knows when it will be.
RB4011 hardware isn’t bad, but the wired vs. wireless version price difference is big enough to get some other wireless AP that doesn’t suck and can do the job out of the box…