Is "Asuswrt-Merlin" for Asus routers stable, and worth using? Robotron2k84?

[the86d]

I've got an Asus TUF-AX5400, and it just hit EOL.
I haven't done much research, but came across this

https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/about

forked:

https://github.com/gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng

Wondering if it'd be worth getting "Asuswrt-Merlin" on it.

Do 3rd party FW builds run the CPU(s) hotter/cooler?
Need a laptop cooler under her to help?

Are they stable?
As I need Internet to work from home most of the time..

Any XPs that you have with similar, would be appreciated...

I do have a NIB backup router that Frontier sent me, and said I would not be charged (but we shall see, or I'll send it back), as they said that their router was "more compatible" with their service, even though it is just DHCP on the WAN port, RIGHT?!?!!? Stumped the Frontier support lady on the phone, she knew nothing, like most of them that answer phones for a living.

I am using Dual WAN and I have another provider, as Frontier here in the last couple months goes down more than it should, maybe a couple days a month...
Is that supported on 3rd party firmware, I assume? (Currently Fail Over, w/Allow Fallback checked, as the fiber is the faster pipe, and secondary is MUCH slower on DL, and exponentially slower on Upstream.).

Current 1GBPS speedtests REALLY burn up the CPUs on the tricore...
image.png
Kidding, never pegs the CPU with up or down tests...
Speedtest 12-7-2024.jpg

I'd guess I should get a few more years out of her either way, we aren't currently having any issues.

[ibanezfoo]

Do it. Its at least fun to mess with. I use DDWRT and whatevever else I come across.

Also, don't ever use speedtest.net to test your speed. Its a lying scam. I've had folks at work try to say we are having network issues then our network guy has them go to speedtest.net and it shows 900+ but their stuff still runs slow. I have them just use the google speed test and look at that the speed is actually 30/30.

[OlderThanDirt]

At one point I was running 4 ASUS WiFi RT-AC5300 routers. The main problem I had was memory leak over time until the routers would become unresponsive making remote management impossible. I tried Asuswrt-Merlin and it was a definite improvement, but still didn’t meet my needs.

[high_revs]

i used ddwrt long ago. loved it.