Banana Pi - BPI-R4 Wifi 7 Router board

1. BPI-R4 (MT7988), most powerful but not recommended for Wi-Fi due to Wi-Fi NIC issues. 2. GL.iNET Flint 2 (MT7986), currently best supported device for Wi-Fi. 3. BPI-R3 (MT7986), like Flint 2 but with SFP. Flint 2's Wi-Fi will be better though as it is not a dev board. 4. Flint 3 (Qualcomm IPQ 53xx), for Wi-Fi 7. Not open source OpenWrt due to Qualcomm but close enough if you intend on only using hardware offloading. Weaker CPU than Flint 2. 5. Other Qualcomm routers with the [openwrt-ipq fork](https://github.com/qosmio/openwrt-ipq) so you can still use mostly latest open source bits along with the latest closed source bits. See [forum thread here](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/qualcommax-nss-build/148529). No idea about the Wi-Fi 7 stuff though. 6. ASUS ZenWiFi BT8 (MT7988) has a preliminary build [here](https://github.com/dangowrt/owrt-ubi-installer/tree/v1.0.1-bt8) but it's not officially supported as far as I can tell outside of one person working on it. 7. TP-Link BE805, in hopes of future support since it's MT7988 but someone will need to buy the router and figure out a relatively painless install method first. All of these will support hardware NAT at least, and usually PPPoE too. Other types of offloading will probably be difficult outside of OEM builds. Both MTK and Qualcomm NSS support hardware QoS with fq_codel even, but not with the open-source drivers.

BPI-R3 ends up costing more with a case, heatsink and antennas. You also have to buy 2.5GbE transceivers which adds to the cost if you want 2.5GbE WAN/LAN. Also, highly unlikely some dev board will have better range, shielding and RF front end modules compared to a proper consumer router. BPI-R4's Wi-Fi is particularly bad due to interference and integrated low power FEM.

Flint 2. Don't need to use the Wi-Fi if it's not needed. BPI-R3 an BPI-R4 are fine too if you don't intend on using them for Wi-Fi. The negative stuff is when it is used for Wi-Fi (since proper routers have higher power and better antennas). The SFP ports have some quirks (if you get the SFP version) but that is about it. x86 is overkill and wasteful for your usage. Some of the used x86 stuff might be cheaper than a Flint 2 (specifically in the US due to the abundance of used electronics) but will rack up more in power bills and dump more heat - not great if you pay 30c per kWh like in California which would be ~$35/yr extra for every 10W more than an ARM based consumer router.

BPI R4 or BPI R4 Pro supports the install of two WIFI cards, and is one of the most powerful routers you can get for the price and features it comes with, notably the MediaTek chipset with multiple PPE HFO engines (Hardware Offloading). People often report issues using the official wifi cards you can get from BPi but are using AsiaRF cards with no issues. | Feature | MT7915 (AW7915-NP1) | MT7916 (AW7916-NPD) | |:---|:---|:---| | **Wi-Fi Generation** | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax + 6GHz) | | **MIMO Config** | **4x4** | **3x3** (2T3R) | | **Max Bandwidth** | 80 MHz | **160 MHz** | | **Average Power** | ~5W - 6W | ~5W | | **Peak Power** | **9W** | **8W - 10W** | | **Rec. Supply** | 3.3V @ 3A | 3.3V @ 3.5A | | **Best For** | Max range & 5GHz stability | Speed & 6GHz interference-free air | The Banana Pi R4 doesn't come cheap, and sadly does go way over your budget of $100 and the extras that you will need quickly rack the price up, but you're not just buying a router, it's a SBC power horse, and this router will not need a replacement for at least 5 to 10 years. In comparison to gaming equipment, it's the cost of peanuts. Rough Costing | Component | BPI-R4 (Standard) | BPI-R4 Pro (2.5GbE) | |:---|:---|:---| | **Main Board** | $105.00 | $165.00 | | **Wi-Fi Card 1 (4x4 MIMO)** | $26.00 (AW7915-NP1) | $26.00 (AW7915-NP1) | | **Wi-Fi Card 2 (6E Option)** | $32.00 (AW7916-NPD) | $32.00 (AW7916-NPD) | | **Copper Heatsinks (2x)** | $8.00 | $8.00 | | **Thermal Pads (High Cond.)** | $4.00 | $4.00 | | **Enclosure (Metal)** | $31.00 | $35.00 (Pro Specific) | | **Power Adapter (12V 4A+)** | $10.00 | $10.00 | | **Antennas (Set of 8)** | $16.00 | $16.00 | | **U.FL Pigtail Cables (8x)** | $12.00 | $12.00 | | **Cooling Fan (PWM)** | $9.00 | $9.00 | | **TOTAL ESTIMATE** | **$253.00** | **$327.00** | Personally I would opt to use two AsiaRF AW7915-NP1 cards, giving you a whopping 2x 4x4 MIMO which allows you to run a very good backhaul connection without sharing the same freq/channels with the devices actually using the wifi. Note if you do opt to go for the BPI R4 or R4 Pro make sure you get a high quality 12V 5A power, supply for good stability. Important cooling is very important on this board don't rely on 40mm fans to keep it cool, it's not enough when using high power wifi cards or SFP+ modules. If you look at the power usage of the wifi cards in the table I provided they both use around 18 watts combined, which is a huge amount of heat produced as the cards are tiny. Using a 80mm to 120mm fan is advisable and optional but good, you can buy thermal pads for the wifi cards, the top anti interference cage pops off, you then insert a 10x10x1.5mm thermal pad to bridge the chipset to the metal shielding, then use a 15x15x4 copper heatsink with adhesive to the shielding of the wifi card.

BPI R4 or BPI R4 Pro supports the install of two WIFI cards, and is one of the most powerful routers you can get for the price and features it comes with, notably the MediaTek chipset with multiple PPE HFO engines (Hardware Offloading). People often report issues using the official wifi cards you can get from BPi but are using AsiaRF cards with no issues. | Feature | MT7915 (AW7915-NP1) | MT7916 (AW7916-NPD) | |:---|:---|:---| | **Wi-Fi Generation** | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax + 6GHz) | | **MIMO Config** | **4x4** | **3x3** (2T3R) | | **Max Bandwidth** | 80 MHz | **160 MHz** | | **Average Power** | ~5W - 6W | ~5W | | **Peak Power** | **9W** | **8W - 10W** | | **Rec. Supply** | 3.3V @ 3A | 3.3V @ 3.5A | | **Best For** | Max range & 5GHz stability | Speed & 6GHz interference-free air | The Banana Pi R4 doesn't come cheap, and sadly does go way over your budget of $100 and the extras that you will need quickly rack the price up, but you're not just buying a router, it's a SBC power horse, and this router will not need a replacement for at least 5 to 10 years. In comparison to gaming equipment, it's the cost of peanuts. Rough Costing | Component | BPI-R4 (Standard) | BPI-R4 Pro (2.5GbE) | |:---|:---|:---| | **Main Board** | $105.00 | $165.00 | | **Wi-Fi Card 1 (4x4 MIMO)** | $26.00 (AW7915-NP1) | $26.00 (AW7915-NP1) | | **Wi-Fi Card 2 (6E Option)** | $32.00 (AW7916-NPD) | $32.00 (AW7916-NPD) | | **Copper Heatsinks (2x)** | $8.00 | $8.00 | | **Thermal Pads (High Cond.)** | $4.00 | $4.00 | | **Enclosure (Metal)** | $31.00 | $35.00 (Pro Specific) | | **Power Adapter (12V 4A+)** | $10.00 | $10.00 | | **Antennas (Set of 8)** | $16.00 | $16.00 | | **U.FL Pigtail Cables (8x)** | $12.00 | $12.00 | | **Cooling Fan (PWM)** | $9.00 | $9.00 | | **TOTAL ESTIMATE** | **$253.00** | **$327.00** | Personally I would opt to use two AsiaRF AW7915-NP1 cards, giving you a whopping 2x 4x4 MIMO which allows you to run a very good backhaul connection without sharing the same freq/channels with the devices actually using the wifi. Note if you do opt to go for the BPI R4 or R4 Pro make sure you get a high quality 12V 5A power, supply for good stability. Important cooling is very important on this board don't rely on 40mm fans to keep it cool, it's not enough when using high power wifi cards or SFP+ modules. If you look at the power usage of the wifi cards in the table I provided they both use around 18 watts combined, which is a huge amount of heat produced as the cards are tiny. Using a 80mm to 120mm fan is advisable and optional but good, you can buy thermal pads for the wifi cards, the top anti interference cage pops off, you then insert a 10x10x1.5mm thermal pad to bridge the chipset to the metal shielding, then use a 15x15x4 copper heatsink with adhesive to the shielding of the wifi card.

Bpi-R4 with case/etc. is $159 as long as you don’t need WiFi. Otherwise go with the flint 2 or openwrt one.

You can buy purpose-built OpenWRT routers, but there is definitely a learning curve. I use a Banana Pi R4, which has 2x 10Gb SFP ports. It has a web UI (LuCi) to configure most things, but as you learn more, you'll probably have to SSH into it and configure via CLI. For my use, it's perfect; it can push a lot of packets, it's small and low power (with several power input options) and I have full control of it. OpenWRT also lets me use it as a full Linux computer if I so desire. I have lots of devices on my LAN and about a dozen VLANs (just cos) so the advanced, high-performance router is a good fit for me.

Running a BPI-R4 right now as gateway/router/AP combo. Performance is good and for 250€ you will find little else with good performance and OpenWRT support. Using a GPON SFP stick for fiber Internet. Having the CPU and memory headroom is also nice. Currently running a samba share and VPN gateway as well. There is a note in the OpenWRT docs though about poor Wifi 7 performance punching through walls due to a relatively weak power amplifier. I do have any problems with it because I have drywall interior walls.

Probably, but the BPi-R4 has trash radio interfaces, so ditch it and get a Flint 2. Speaking from this exact experience, I can tell you that good WiFi 6 is *wildly* superior to bad WiFi 7. The BPi-R4 ships a very old OpenWrt firmware with closed-source drivers that works *okay,* but only at close range; with any meaningful distance or wall penetration, speeds crater. And its WiFi 7 is broken in the latest OpenWrt. You'll have a better time if you get a Flint 2.

Can confirm the BPI-R4 (with be14 wifi 7 NIC module) is NOT for the faint of heart. I’m still trying to get mine to play nice with max tx transmit. It seems the current Linux driver (mt7995e) has an issue with setting the max allowed transmit power incorrectly (limiting it to 6-7 dB when it should be capable of 23 dB at 5 & 2.4 GHz). There does seem to exist a patch to the driver that fixes it though that I’m going to play around with.

Brother let me tell you about my Banana Pi-R4! There are lots of good options out there but this one is my choice, the BPI-R4. It’s got a MediaTek MT7988A (Filogic 880) quad-core ARM Corex-A73 processor and 4/8 GB of DDR4 RAM. Two 10 Gb SFP+ ports and four 1 Gb ethernet ports. For additional hardware support it has one M.2 key for 4G/5G/LTE modem and one M.2 key PCIe3.0 1lane for NVME SSD. It also has a dual minPCIe3.0 2lane interface for the BE-14 Wi-Fi expansion card that supports Wi-Fi 7. With the combination of the MT7988A chip, the speeds of DDR4 RAM, 10 Gb SFP ports, and Wi-Fi 7 it boasts as one of the fastest routers available. You can read in more detail of the specs here if you are interested. [https://wiki.banana-pi.org/Banana\_Pi\_BPI-R4](https://wiki.banana-pi.org/Banana_Pi_BPI-R4)

The best router is obviously the Banana-Pi BPI-R4 which is not for noobs but with all the features you get, it beats anything mentioned in this Reddit. Generally a few Google or Duckduckgo searches will get it up in running 100% with OpenWrt and overlay file system for user files and configurations on extroot on 6.5 GB EMMC partition and a working fan. I went to read up in the Wiki, and studied some good tutorials except for the Banana Pi ones and just compiled an image on OpenWrt's firmware selector. I included the kmod for NVMe SSD and packages for EXTROOT support. Flashing was easy as inserting a Micro SD card that was previously prepared with Linux by extracting the compressed image using a simple gzip command piped to dd command Then  I add a QoS based on qosify and CAKE which has evolved from SQM but with adaptive bandwidth (cake-autorate) using eBPF for traffic clasificación and DSCP marking (different). Two files are all you need and I got them off a forum. I just added stuff to it like CDNs and streaming and gaming servers from a list of address and port that were targetted at MikroTik routers with RouterOS. Ironically, those lists are copy pasteable in the main qosify config and is compatible on OpenWrt but so much on RouterOS .  Top that off with a VPN from Zerotier or Wireguard to link other nodes.