Hi,
I’m thinking of getting the RB1100AHx4 to sit after my isp router to act as the “edge” router in my network
before purchasing the equipment i wanted to know if anyonew has anything particular to say about this device?
… speak now or forever hold your peace …
Ahem…
cough, cough,
RB5009 is 110 bucks less …
cough, cough.
<3 thank you!!!
Guru,
ok convinced the RB1100AHx4 is not for me..
the RB5009 looks very good and around 200 Eur on amazon shipping included..
can I as one last question is there a series CRS3XX cost vs quality that you would reccomend?
I see that the main difference between this CRS 3XX series and the RB5009 is that these have like 16MB memory where the RB5009 has 1G..
just asking before i spend the $$
The rb1100ahx4 is a really old product - while good for it’s time, get the rb5009, it’s superior in basically very way.
Both of these are routers; the rb5009 does in excess of 3Gbps of routing (when well configured, several times that). The CRS3xx in similar situations can do 2-300Mbps of routing.
The CRS3xx series is primarily a switch, and the “router” part in their naming refers to the fact that all of the routing features are available in software, however they have weak CPUs that are only meant for management functionality. Sometimes (actually for me a lot of the times) these features come in handy, but they shouldn’t really be regarded as routers.
I would say your options are roughly:
- rb5009
- rb5009 + CRS3xx switch
- rb5009 + switch from other vendor
Whether you need switch depends of course on whether you need the additional wired connections. For most home-type setups the 8 that the rb5009 has are sufficient.
This was not your question, but if you don’t have a good ISP connection or otherwise big routing needs, consider the hap ax2 (it can handle 1 Gbps fine + free WiFi) or the hap ax3 (it has an added 2.5GbE connector and can handle the bandwidth with optimizations enabled + free WiFI)
CRS means Cloud Router Switch (I usually write it as Cloud Router Switch it is a switch with marginal routing capabilities, the leading Cloud has been added by the marketing department for no apparent - probably they had to justify their salaries - reason).
RB means RouterBoard so, clearly 
it is a router.
Sometimes nomen est omen, If you need a router, get a router, if you need a switch, get a switch.
Team,
thanks!!
just purchased the RB5009!
ciao!!!
Did you purchased PoE version ? 
Agree on RB5009. But have a few RB1100AHx4 that we use to run Dude and hosting VPN tunnels to remotely managed devices.
But main advantage of RB1100AHx4 is that it has internal disks. Downside is there NO USB and it’s ARM32 (while RB5009 has both).
Also RB1100AHx4 does have the nifty “bypass” port, so if you have it sitting between routers, and RB1100 get powered off…ethernet will still flow between port 11 and 12. It also has a 3 switch chip design, which is a mixed bag since it’s tricky to keep hardware offload with VLANs (but I guess in some case three independent switch chips might be handy if topology needs that)
Now… some newer RB1100AHx**5**, with the RB5009 guts but just a few disk holders might be a nice offering between RDS (with too many disk and higher price) and RB5009 (only USB disks, but no expandability)…
no , i got the non PoE version RB5009UG+S+IN
RB1100AHx4 is a niche device thought to be a drop in replacement for the old legendary RB1100AHx2
if is not your scenario maybe is not for you
An it has been solid as a rock for me for years. Install & configure & forget 
does the RB1100AHx4 have any limitations on router OS version? was reading that the CCR series for example series if not mistaken is limited to Router OS V7 only?
It’s RouterBoard so it is a full flagged router. It’s considered to be a router so It shares same differences as other RB’s comparing them to CSS and CRS devices. It’s less power than newer RBs so it’s just an older model but it does not mean that worse.
It’s ARM, not PPC as 1100AHx2, so there should be no worries that MT would stop supporting that architecture but considering that thay still provide PPC & Tilera packages, I would not worry that they “abandon that ship” soon. It’s not 100% confidence but why they should?
Mine are all older, but all work with V6. I cannot say for 100%, but doubt MikroTik change the minimum from V6 on “newer-than-mine” RB1100AHx4 from factory. Generally, “V7 only” is for newer, fancier ARM device.
clear!
The rb1100 was a very good device, and as others have mentioned, it has some unique features that can absolutely come in handy in certain situations. I would say that in most applications the rb5009 is simply newer and better. I think Mikrotik ships all of the devices that are compatible with v6 still on v6. The devices that are shipped with v7 simply don’t have the necessary drivers in the v6 package.
Mikrotik has a bit of a strange deprecation policy, at least when viewed in comparison to other manufacturers. Basically, because of their use of the same software on all of their devices, software support comes with a very low effort (I think actually this was Mikrotik’s critical “good decision”) So I have the impression that as long as there are buyers for it, they continue to manufacture it. In my experience they only end the production of a device if it can no longer be made (due to parts unavailability) or there is a replacement the same or better in basically every regard, even including price.
This works out very nicely if you have a fleet of devices to support or want to source replacements for failed devices. Often even if there is something with better price-to-performance, you simply want to be able to order a drop-in replacement. Of course for new installs you need not consider this.
I think btw that the rb5009 is one of the best products Mikrotik currently has, so you should be satisfied with it for quite a long time.
Yes I had to purchase the rack ears separately, I don’t undersdtand why they don’t supply the rack ears as they do for the L009 !!??
Because they want to force the user to buy two (OR EVEN BETTER FOUR), to span the width of the rack jajajajajaja
You think I jest??
…
So you get bonus ears with every fourth purchase?