Firstly, I would suggest to make sure if you
really need Layer7 filtering (actually, if you have time, watch the whole presentation, One of best I have seen about Mikrotik basic config.
Revised version include info about TLS filtering from ROS 6.41 but has slightly different topics)
Now back to the discussion about of speed:
Despite being true that hAP ac^2 is probably faster, I would advise against using published test results as simple comparison, without detailed understanding of the performance.
There may be hidden limitations due to internal wiring - please always inspect block diagram.
For example Hex S:
https://i.mt.lv/routerboard/files/RB760 ... 144516.png /
https://i.mt.lv/routerboard/files/RB760 ... 144423.png
- if you use SFP, you will limit all Eth ports to shared 1Gbit line to CPU.
- if you don't use switch, Ethernet ports 1, 3 and 5 share same 1Gbit line (while 2 and 4 share second line). Simple decision of using Eth1 or Eth2 can have significant impact on the performance.
- if you use switch but you have for example Eth1 as WAN (therefore not switched), you will end up with 1Gbit line for Eth1 and shared 1Gbit line for Eth 2,3,4 and 5.
On the other hand, Hex S might have better performance in some specific tasks due to its larger memory. It also has advantage of microSD card, which can store logs/data/Dude database etc...
Fortunately hAP ac^2 does not seem to have this limitations:
https://i.mt.lv/routerboard/files/RBD52 ... 082323.png
All ports go directly to switch and then through shared 2Gbit line to CPU. Unless this diagram is untrue, I find this design much better.
I personally also ended up with hAP ac^2 due to it's universality. Instead of buying dedicated router and dedicated AP, I have simply bunch of hAP devices which can do everything with pretty good speed.
ps: secret info - some of hAP ac^2 actually have 256MB of RAM (233MB available) which is double of official specs! You might find yourself lucky like me.