I'm over store bought commodity routers...

[Niku-Sama]

i've had two die on me this last year and i am just done with them

Router #1 WRT 1900AC V2 had the 5Ghz band crap out, for what ever reason just 5Ghz, but when it did it would cause connection dropout on the wired and 2.4ghz connections. disabling the 5ghz band and no problem but congested network
Router #2 Nighthawk R7000 is dropping packets at random no matter the situation, no firmware versions or swaps fixed any thing, its not hot. i'm done

Today i ordered a used ASRock J4005B-ITX on ebay for about $60 shipped
I already have a Acer AXC-603G-UW13 computer case to swap it into with the IBM quad gigabit NIC i was going to use before i got these routers.
I've got some SO DIMM ddr4 kicking around as well as a few 2.5" SSDs

am i lacking any thing on this system for PfSense?

now i am trying to decide what to get for a switch, i want a 24 port, if managed it has to have a web based GUI. I'm not doing that Putty crap any more, this isnt the 90's man.
I missed a screaming deal on a Netgear 24 port 4100 something POE switch, the ebay app didnt remind me like it normally does it said "oh by the way this auction ends in -9:00 minutes..." 9 minutes too late there bud.

then for wifi i figured i'd pick up a used ubitiqui AP, any i should stay away from?

i have a small UPS a network cabinet already, in the end i'll only need to have already bought that embedded mobo, a switch and a AP

 

[don256us]

I LOVE my Ubiquiti WAPs. I've got 2 x of the LR version.

 

[Nebulous]

Some time ago I bought an Asus AC1900 from ebay for 25bux. I really didn't look closely and it was a Tmobile branded pos one. Works pretty good, but the downside is no firmware updates and I tried hacking it to use Tomato, but no dice. Figured instead of hitting it with a hammer and tossing it out, hold on to it incase of emergencies. Still in the box in the closet-o-junk.

Friend of mine gave me a brand new Linksys AC1900 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router. I cracked it open and added small heatsinks on the chip and mosfets. Runs cool as a cucumber. 2.4Ghz line for the cell-phones which is plenty and the 5Ghz line for the Smart TV's, Roku Ultra and my son's laptop. I'm very surprised of how good it works.

 

[David]

I bought a pair of Asus ZenWifi units - expensive, but I'm quite happy with them. We live in a townhouse so the phone line is on the middle floor but the study is downstairs. Means I can have ethernet ports in the study. No issues so far!