Enter a new era of wireless performance with faster-than-incredible speeds, the widest-ever coverage and more control and security than you ever thought possible. RT-AC87U delivers the world's fastest speeds of up to 1734 Mbps at 5 GHz — even faster than tri-band 3x3 routers — plus class-leading concurrent 600 Mbps speeds at 2.4 GHz for an amazing total bandwidth of 2334 Mbps! This means RT-AC87U gives you lag-free online gaming, silky-smooth 4K/UHD video streaming, and effortlessly copes with even the most bandwidth-demanding tasks. With a separate high-gain antenna for each of the four spatial data streams, this power-packed router gives you true 4x4 multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) wireless performance that smokes the competition — and it delivers top performance for all your wireless devices, even those using older Wi-Fi standards. As with all ASUS networking products, you get the very best support with the widest range of device compatibility, plus free firmware updates for years to come — so your RT-AC87U will always be at the forefront.
Box Contains
1 x RT-AC87U Wireless-AC2400 Dual Band Gigabit Router
1 x RJ-45 Lead
1 x Power adapter
Quick start guide
Software Disk
All comments (40)
j1mgg
22 Feb 17#1
is this a good price, camelcamelcamel has its lowest as £149.99, is this better than the Asus rt ac3200, or the netgear r7800? thanks
AStonedRaichu to j1mgg
22 Feb 17#2
The ac3200 is superior
CBJ137
22 Feb 17#3
Yet most reviews seem to rate the AC87U well compared to this
divemaster123
22 Feb 17#4
whats the netgear R7800 like compared to this.Thanks
redbutcher to divemaster123
23 Feb 17#16
In stock I'd say the Asus is probably better as the stock Netgear firmware is pretty basic and doesn't look as good.
Having said that, I've owned this router and have since swapped it out with the R7800. My Asus router ran very hot and I ended up having to sit it on a laptop cooling pad to stop it crashing. The Merlin firmware is excellent and allowed me to use the router with a VM and BT connection and once the cooling issue was sorted it was solid in the time I owned it.
The R7800 is very good now I've installed DD-WRT on it - it runs without getting hot and has been rock solid so far. Excellent wireless signal as well.
meherenow
22 Feb 17#5
Great router, install the "Merlin" firmware for extra tweaking.
divemaster123 to meherenow
22 Feb 17#7
is that the r7800
Helpful567 to meherenow
23 Feb 17#37
I bought this router a year ago.
For an average user, what are the advantages of installing Merlin?
mbd
22 Feb 17#6
Was less than £100 in PC World last year...
Joshimitsu91 to mbd
23 Feb 17#17
Yep I got it in store at this price. It's not a bad router but in my experience the QoS is garbage, which is a shame because that's what I bought it for.
SlightlyFoxed to mbd
23 Feb 17#24
£80, in fact. I know, because I bought one! :smile:
£127.99 is still a good price for an excellent router.
Looks like the AC87 has both 5Ghz and bottlenecking issues compared to other Asus routers.
Byron78
22 Feb 17#13
That's just a review of this router.
I was asking why you're advising it's more solid than other Asus options.
It isn't.
Please see my link above.
CBJ137
22 Feb 17#14
That's not what you said fella...yawn
meherenow
23 Feb 17#15
Although ALL routers have their issues, I've not had to reboot mine in about 3 months (and even then that was when I changed the VPN settings), it generally runs superbly with a recent Merlin firmware in it.
CBJ137
23 Feb 171#18
supports MU-MIMO, the AC3200 doesnt
eatmorefish to CBJ137
23 Feb 17#19
Bingo.
Byron78 to CBJ137
23 Feb 17#28
Yep.
The AC3200 is Broadcom based so uses XSteam architecture instead.
MU-MIMO would be marginally faster if saturated but then all your clients would need to support it.
The Samsung S7 is the only phone off the top of my head that currently does. More will come eventually I guess.
jimborae
23 Feb 17#20
If you can hop onboard your handy local time machine go grab it for less than £100 from PC World 2016 cos at that price it was a bargain (I got one too). If you cant access a local time machine then I'd probably spend a bit extra and get the AC3200 for reasons already given but it's a very close run thing.
Have to say though with Merlin firmware this thing has been rock solid for me for months and months on end and yes mine does get rather warm but it doesn't seem to affect the performance.
Informative review, thanks for posting. Seems the AC87U is the choice for me as it outperforms the ac3200 over distance and our house is pretty spread out
REAL_DEAL
23 Feb 17#22
go this router about 4 months ago been solid so far 1 reboot, if anything the VM super hub 3 causes my reboot issues, kids have said 5g has issues but when I check its all fine............will keep hold of it for the time being , paid £97 on ebay
jimborae
23 Feb 17#23
Also if MU MIMO wins out over XStream in the future then the RT-AC87u may end up being the faster router in some situations, if you dont encounter the bottleneck issue mentioned in the other forum thread link posted above. Eitherway both are good routers in their own particular ways and scenarios.
charlie12
23 Feb 171#25
Over the years I've been through several Asus/Netgear/TP Link routers in this price bracket until I settled on the Netgear R7800. Living in a large old building with thick walls, my main goal was to have a single device providing reliable Wi-Fi for the whole building.
The Netgears consistently offered the best signal range and quality especially in areas where the Asus routers could not penetrate at all.
I had the R7000 for several years then upgraded to the R7800 which performs a bit better with slightly better range, but I recommend them both. Especially when a R7000 can be picked up used for around £80.
The Asus wins in terms of UI and features, especially with Merlin's firmware. If these features are more important to you than the absolute best Wi-Fi range (in this price bracket) then I would recommend the Asus. The Netgear's UI is slow and clunky but typically you don't need to access it once it has been set up.
The icing on the cake for some Netgear models is Voxel's optimised firmware, the R7800 performs noticeably better than stock, and provides many added features in a clean structured way. I'm not a fan of DD-WRT's messy development style.
The R7800 frequently drops to £139.99 at Amazon, set up a Camel alert to catch it.
Hi there, been using HUKD and never posted but I bought this recently and felt I could add a review
So my room is upstairs but my box is about 9, maybe 10Metres away
We pay for Virgin medias fibre optic which can hit 200mb/s download and about 12.10 upload
I've used many small wifi extenders which maxed out at 12mb/s (down) and 12mb/s (up)
So after my last Corredy wifi box broke I'd had enough so I bought this beast. This extender can literally transmit data as if I was plugged straight through to the power line
(I cannot seem to add pictures)
So I connect my box wirelessly to the router and plug a Cat7 cable from this box to my PC to obtain this much data, hope this helps :smiley:
verbumSapienti to nbkzz
23 Feb 17#38
djtrades
23 Feb 171#27
Cracking router. Got this before Christmas. Had compared this against the 3200 and the Linksys. Performing extremely well.
Byron78
23 Feb 17#29
Is if 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz range you need?
If it's 2.4Ghz (which is slower, but covers a much greater distance) you're better off with a cheaper router that specialises in a strong 2.4Ghz signal.
If 5Ghz range is important both the AC3200 and AC87 have the worst 5Ghz speeds at distance. You might be better off with the AC88 or the AC68:
j1mgg
23 Feb 17#30
I have bought it, just need to get a huawei openreach modem now
burlesy
23 Feb 17#31
I've been considering this for a while now, okay the ac87u doesn't looks as strong when it is compared to other routers in this thread,
But I'm not looking for a top dog router, currently rocking the VM SH 1.
Somebody be able to educate me if the ac87u is better then what I currently have in every department? I know that the features are a bonus.
Byron78 to burlesy
23 Feb 17#34
AC 5Ghz on top of your standard 5Ghz for a start (any clients you connect would need to be able to use the AC channel mind).
Lots of other things that'll no doubt improve your range and speeds.
I'd grab the AC68 the next time that drops under £100 if I was you tbh.
meherenow
23 Feb 171#32
LOL, I'm certainly not 25 metres away from my router at any point in my house :smile:
Byron78
23 Feb 17#33
Aye.
Me neither.
But some people like wifi at the bottom of the garden like.
:wink:
(Tbh 5Ghz wifi is all much of a much rangewise - more concerned about dropouts/bottlenecks with certain clients.
The AC87 used to be notoriously awful for this with some 5Ghz devices but has apparently improved.)
meherenow
23 Feb 171#35
I agree, the 5Ghz used to be quite bad for dropping off etc, but since a recentish Merlin update we have had no bother, probably 3 or 4 devices using the 5Ghz band plus all lan ports being used (although I may retire port 1 if I can see any bottleneck though I haven't noticed anything) plus a full 8 port switch and a 5 port switch connected.
All no bother, haven't updated Merlin in a while so may do that again soon.
toxicnerve
23 Feb 17#36
Hot. Ordered.
meherenow
23 Feb 17#39
Well for the average user I would say none!
Check out the webpage and see if any of the enhancements take your fancy...
![Fresh Breakfast Meat Box (Using code) @ Campbells Meat [Haggis / Lorne Sausage / Bacon / Black Pudding & More]](/images/topics/208684_1.jpg)
![[Xbox One] Q. u. b. e: Director's Cut on Deals with Gold](/images/topics/208716_1.jpg)
Opening post
Box Contains
1 x RT-AC87U Wireless-AC2400 Dual Band Gigabit Router
1 x RJ-45 Lead
1 x Power adapter
Quick start guide
Software Disk
All comments (40)
Having said that, I've owned this router and have since swapped it out with the R7800. My Asus router ran very hot and I ended up having to sit it on a laptop cooling pad to stop it crashing. The Merlin firmware is excellent and allowed me to use the router with a VM and BT connection and once the cooling issue was sorted it was solid in the time I owned it.
The R7800 is very good now I've installed DD-WRT on it - it runs without getting hot and has been rock solid so far. Excellent wireless signal as well.
For an average user, what are the advantages of installing Merlin?
£127.99 is still a good price for an excellent router.
Every one I've ever read has panned the AC87.
Got any linkys?
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac3200-vs-rt-ac88u-vs-rt-ac87u-vs-rt-ac68u.34551/
Looks like the AC87 has both 5Ghz and bottlenecking issues compared to other Asus routers.
I was asking why you're advising it's more solid than other Asus options.
It isn't.
Please see my link above.
The AC3200 is Broadcom based so uses XSteam architecture instead.
MU-MIMO would be marginally faster if saturated but then all your clients would need to support it.
The Samsung S7 is the only phone off the top of my head that currently does. More will come eventually I guess.
Have to say though with Merlin firmware this thing has been rock solid for me for months and months on end and yes mine does get rather warm but it doesn't seem to affect the performance.
This is good review comparing the two:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/69918-asus-rt-ac87u-rt-ac3200-routers-review.html
The Netgears consistently offered the best signal range and quality especially in areas where the Asus routers could not penetrate at all.
I had the R7000 for several years then upgraded to the R7800 which performs a bit better with slightly better range, but I recommend them both. Especially when a R7000 can be picked up used for around £80.
The Asus wins in terms of UI and features, especially with Merlin's firmware. If these features are more important to you than the absolute best Wi-Fi range (in this price bracket) then I would recommend the Asus. The Netgear's UI is slow and clunky but typically you don't need to access it once it has been set up.
The icing on the cake for some Netgear models is Voxel's optimised firmware, the R7800 performs noticeably better than stock, and provides many added features in a clean structured way. I'm not a fan of DD-WRT's messy development style.
The R7800 frequently drops to £139.99 at Amazon, set up a Camel alert to catch it.
https://www.snbforums.com/forums/netgear-ac-wireless.53/
So my room is upstairs but my box is about 9, maybe 10Metres away
We pay for Virgin medias fibre optic which can hit 200mb/s download and about 12.10 upload
I've used many small wifi extenders which maxed out at 12mb/s (down) and 12mb/s (up)
So after my last Corredy wifi box broke I'd had enough so I bought this beast. This extender can literally transmit data as if I was plugged straight through to the power line
(I cannot seem to add pictures)
So I connect my box wirelessly to the router and plug a Cat7 cable from this box to my PC to obtain this much data, hope this helps :smiley:
If it's 2.4Ghz (which is slower, but covers a much greater distance) you're better off with a cheaper router that specialises in a strong 2.4Ghz signal.
If 5Ghz range is important both the AC3200 and AC87 have the worst 5Ghz speeds at distance. You might be better off with the AC88 or the AC68:
But I'm not looking for a top dog router, currently rocking the VM SH 1.
Somebody be able to educate me if the ac87u is better then what I currently have in every department? I know that the features are a bonus.
Lots of other things that'll no doubt improve your range and speeds.
I'd grab the AC68 the next time that drops under £100 if I was you tbh.
Me neither.
But some people like wifi at the bottom of the garden like.
:wink:
(Tbh 5Ghz wifi is all much of a much rangewise - more concerned about dropouts/bottlenecks with certain clients.
The AC87 used to be notoriously awful for this with some 5Ghz devices but has apparently improved.)
All no bother, haven't updated Merlin in a while so may do that again soon.
Check out the webpage and see if any of the enhancements take your fancy...
https://asuswrt.lostrealm.ca/features
Based on 17Mb Broadband on a Gigabit Network?