Symmetrical Gigabit Internet - How do I choose a Router?

Searched and mostly found old threads that appear to be out of date from a tech standpoint.

I'm moving to a city that runs their own Fiber gigabit internet with symmetrical speeds (eg - 1GB both up and down). It's widely regarded as the best internet in the country, and I'm super, super excited to have it since I work from home and do a lot of photo uploads/gaming.

My question - how do I choose a router to maximize the speeds that the internet is capable of? I know I won't get the full gig speed over wireless, but is 500+ mbps possible?

It seems to me that you have two options:

1) Go with something relatively inexpensive like this Netgear Nighthawk AC1750, which for $90 claims to do everything I need

2) Go with a big boy router like the Nighthawk X4S ($190) or the Nighthawk X6 ($210)

I guess I'm not understanding what "3x3" or "4x4" wifi really means, and it seems to me that all of these routers claim combined speed across multiple channels? Are their claimed speeds generally good on both the download AND the upload side, since we have symmetrical internet?

Our house is ~2500sqft + garage. During the day it will only be me using the internet, and the usage could increase to 4-5 devices at peak times. Budget is up to ~$200 if it gives me a noticeable difference in reliability/speed.

Help me choose a router, GRM hive mind. 

You should get a big boy router for this one to ensure that the router's CPU doesn't become the bottleneck in your home network's bandwidth - a problem that many gigabit routers have that's masked by Internet connection speeds and hard drive read speeds being well under a gigabit. This is a situation that could even make good use of a Turris Omnia.

You'll want dual-band or tri-band 802.11ac for sure.

I remember seeing a big-boy router that can run OpenWRT that seemed like a decent deal as those things go, I'll see if I can find it again.

Edit: It was actually the Netgear R7800 (Nighthawk X4S) I was looking at. Go with that one.

Edit2: Or you could go up to the Netgear Nighthawk X10 for maximum overkill.

I recently got gigabit fiber, up/down.  It replaced my cell phone based internet.  Man, is it nice.  I could actually watch two fat guys talking about helmets in hi-def and not be worried about usage or speeds.  Anyway, I got a gigabit router at Wally World for about a bill and on speed test, I get 900Mb down, 920Mb up.

GameboyRMH said:

You should get a big boy router for this one to ensure that the router's CPU doesn't become the bottleneck in your home network's bandwidth - a problem that many gigabit routers have that's masked by Internet connection speeds and hard drive read speeds being well under a gigabit. This is a situation that could even make good use of a Turris Omnia.

You'll want dual-band or tri-band 802.11ac for sure.

I remember seeing a big-boy router that can run OpenWRT that seemed like a decent deal as those things go, I'll see if I can find it again.

Edit: It was actually the Netgear R7800 (Nighthawk X4S) I was looking at. Go with that one.

Edit2: Or you could go up to the Netgear Nighthawk X10 for maximum overkill.

The X4S seems to be the winner right now, but there also seems to be a lot of complaints with EVERY router.  

I should specify - I'm not particularly interested in running OpenWRT or doing any extra legwork beyond normal setup. I'd like this to be as plug and play as possible. 

In reply to BTD :

You probably should, if you value security, privacy and reliability.

Stefan said:

In reply to BTD :

You probably should, if you value security, privacy and reliability.

Besides the ability to run through a VPN, what other benefits does OpenWRT/DD-WRT offer for me? I have no need for the ability to run server software, I don't need port forwarding controls, and the default QoS prioritization should be adequate for my needs. I've also never found factory router firmware to be particularly unreliable in day-to-day use, which isn't something I can say for 3rd party or open source programs. 

You can certainly make a factory router plenty secure IME.

I'm a big fan of Ubiquiti gear and they do have a couple of cheap routers that should be able to handle symmetric gigabit. They don't, however, include a wireless AP.

I was going to suggest the same Amplifi HD setup I have at my house, until our little lightning strike last week. 

It killed the modem and the "Cube" but not the two mesh points. I figured, buy a new a Cube, be good to go. NOT SO FAST!

They don't say this anywhere in the documentation I could find, the Cube and the two mesh points are hard coded (I'm sure someone could "jailbreak" them and such) to the two mesh points. IE, the new Cube I bought won't connect to the two existing mesh points. So I have to get an entire new $350 system not just the $150 cube. 

I pitched a big enough fit to their customer care that they are going to warranty the system and send an entire new one out, but I think that's incredibly shady. There is no reason for those to be hard coded to each other (they claim easy setup), OTHER than to force you buy a new system if something fails. 

z31maniac said:

I was going to suggest the same Amplifi HD setup I have at my house, until our little lightning strike last week. 

It killed the modem and the "Cube" but not the two mesh points. I figured, buy a new a Cube, be good to go. NOT SO FAST!

They don't say this anywhere in the documentation I could find, the Cube and the two mesh points are hard coded (I'm sure someone could "jailbreak" them and such) to the two mesh points. IE, the new Cube I bought won't connect to the two existing mesh points. So I have to get an entire new $350 system not just the $150 cube. 

 

I pitched a big enough fit to their customer care that they are going to warranty the system and send an entire new one out, but I think that's incredibly shady. There is no reason for those to be hard coded to each other (they claim easy setup), OTHER than to force you buy a new system if something fails. 

This is one of the reasons why I don't recommend the off-the-shelf "mesh" systems. Better to DIY it, you can certainly do it with OpenWRT/DD-WRT and sometimes with factory firmware.