MikroTik routers

Don't fall for this, there is no mentionable difference between routers if you talk about gaming. Your gaming performance depends on your connection quality and speed.

If you think about local connection problems, you may refer to wireless/wire connectivity. In this case, you should not use wireless connection if you don't have enough clear channel, rather than connect via cable. If you have good wireless experience, no new router will change this.

Unless you are serious about learning how networking works on pretty advanced level - mikrotik is not for you.

Not because it would not work - it would, more or less. Basic setup is not that hard. But because you will not get any advantages from it and will needlessly complicate matters for yourself. Main advantage of this devices is flexibility, which you would not be able to use.

There is also no such thing as "router for gaming", it is just marketing garbage. And "gaming" does not require "fastest" router, in fact the requirements are pretty low, probably any device made within last decade would work, at least if you use ethernet.

In another words - this devices are good for professionals or those who is, at least, is interested in this stuff. If you want device which simply works and is easy to configure - look elsewhere.

If you just want an easy simple router to configure with a pretty GUI and some nice graphs & stuff, Mikrotik is not for you.

It (Mikrotik RouterOS) can do basic home Internet via a config wizard, sure, but that's not where the benefits lie.

If you want WiFi, probably a hAP ax2, if you have devices that support WiFi 6. If you don't see a need for it, the ac3 has better antennas.

Keep in mind, however, that while it will support all the fancy router features touted on "Gaming" routers, and far, far more besides, it will not do so in a way that is user-friendly or quickly deployed. QoS and traffic prioritizing will not have built in selections, VPNs will need manual configuration, and so on.

But where the hAP is harder to configure, it has a feature set that no gaming router can hope to match, and allows for a far more detailed diagnosis of any network problems. And as a recent bonus, the addition of Docker support allows you to run ARM64 containers on the router, letting it act as a miniature server as well, particularly services like Pihole.

As a fellow gamer that recently transitioned to MikroTik, it was not an easy journey.

I managed to fuck up the settings so bad, the OS no longer booted correctly and the router needed a netinstall.

My luck was that I had a friend with experience to help me out, I don't think I would've managed everything on my own with the current knowledge that I have.

But yeah, I have a hap ac3 and the speeds are not as fast as my other fancy "gaming" focused routers with 4+ antennas, but the network has been more stable and the wireless has higher range (even though it has just two antennas).

So yeah, while I now recommend MikroTik to everyone, it's not the easiest journey.

Nope. MikroTik is not meant for the person who doesn’t (want to) understand networking. Pick another consumer router.

Whatever router you'll choose, whatever skills your will apply to configuring it, the biggest advantage you will get is 1ms of latency compared to the cheapest provider-configured routers. Gaming routers are like low-latency DDR memory - overpriced marketing fairy-tale.

We need way more info: What’s your home internet connection speed? Do you only need a router, or also an access point? How many devices will be connected? If also wireless functionality needed; how big is the house?

Mikrotik routers have some incredibly powerful settings and are amazing for the price. With respect to gaming you will want to look at CAKE SQM on Mikrotik and it’s not hard to configure (YouTube)

But yes, there can be a learning curve if you want to do anything remotely exotic if you don’t know much about networking.

My default recommendation these days (for tech savvy types) is a mikrotik hex PoE and a unifi u6 pro point. This will handle up to 800/800mbps connections very well.

MikroTik's learning curve is very steep, not just how it works but the relatively lacks of documentation.

After configuring my new CCR and CRS I feel comfortable at learning unbound and nftables, I think I am a bit broken now, broken by MikroTik.

And my bonding configuration still act weird sometimes, I need to learn more.

Just get a bog standard netgear router

Could i ditch my raspberry pi, pi hole running app and install something like that on these mikrotik routers?