My first laptop: Would like router advice!

So I just purchased my first laptop, a Lenovo T430 with upgraded Ultimate-N 6300 AGN adapter. I'm already over-budget with the laptop, so I'd like advice on a router ( <$100 preferrably ) that will suit my needs.

I plan to stream video/music and do quite a bit of gaming and regular old downloading. My friend also said to make sure I buy a router that's DD-WRT compatible, whatever that means.

I'd like to get my purchase done while these Black Friday weekend deals are still happening.

I'm sure this gets asked all the time, but thanks for taking the time and helping. If you need any further information than what I've provided, please ask. Thanks!

 

DD-WRT is simply a third party, open-source firmware that you could flash onto your router a.) if your router supported it, and b.) if you so desired. not sure why your friend would make that recommendation unless he planned to set it up and configure it for you, otherwise i'd say it's rather unnecessary for the vast majority of router owners. here's a link for you to check on a specific router's compatibility anyway.

as for choosing a router, it should be noted that you have a MIMO (and more specifically triple-stream) capable, dual band wireless card. so first off, you'll want a dual band router. and by MIMO/triple-stream i mean that your 6300 supports up to three separate antennae, each capable of achieving 150Mbps. this means that if your wireless card has all three antennae installed, you'll be able to take advantage of 450Mbps speed (which you'll only ever sort of come close to intranet, i.e. streaming/transferring locally over your own network). so if you're looking at routers that are marketed as N150 for example, this means that they support up to 150Mbps on 802.11N. same with N300 for double-stream and N450 for triple-stream. N600, N750, and N900 marketed routers indicate that the unit is MIMO capable on both bands, 2.4ghz and 5ghz.

as far as what specific routers offer good price/performance--i'll let tijo and/or downloads give you some recommendations. they're both quite knowledgeable in this department. i have the same wireless card as you and they helped me to decide on a netgear WNDR-4000v1 (N750) for myself. i do know that once you start getting into multi-band MIMO (e.g. N600+), you start pushing that $100 USD mark. i hope this has been generally helpful.

 

Thanks a lot. This post was extremely helpful. I don't know anything about routers so this taught me quite a bit!