I need to replace my DOCSIS3 router with something a little more flexible and trustworthy, but I don't want to end up with something less powerful than a walmart router. In other words, I need hardware that'll guarantee the router will never be the bottleneck regardless of how congested the connection is (excluding internal network traffic, which is minimal). I have a computer that could do the job but I'm not sure if it can keep up with modern gaming traffic - it's an Athlon II with 2GB DDR2. If that doesn't cut it then the next best thing would be to get a powerful enough ARM computer like a Raspberry Pi.

My internet connection is around 270/20 mbps down/up btw, nothing TOO fancy. Any thoughts?

Is this a combination MODEM/router or just the router?

What about wifi requirements?

My modem is supplied by ISP, but I currently have a Netgear 47 (if I interpreted the sticker correctly) router that has served me very nicely.

Before that, I had a couple of Linksys routers that never gave me any trouble until they died of old age, but, frankly, I think the Netgear is a little better.

It's an all-in-one, but I don't trust it much so I'll just be using it as a modem after I switch routers. I'll add a third-party wifi access point later when I need it... now THAT will probably definitely be a raspberry pi... or even just a compatible wifi card if I feel like fiddling with that when the time comes. The pi might be safer though since it'd be isolated...

Naw I don't want another prebuilt router, I'm looking for hardware to build my own using non-proprietary software. Apparently the one I have gets its software updates not from the manufacturer but from my ISP, which is unnecessarily spooky. Not only that but they happen automatically and tend to cause short-term connectivity problems. I guess I don't mind if the MODEM auto updates like that, but I'd rather do my own router updating.

Have you heard of OpenWRT or DD-WRT?

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Gaming does not require all that much bandwidth but it does depend on the game itself. It also depends on concurrent users and what else your internet is being used for like streaming movies. The Athlon should be able to handle gaming.

While you can write your own firewall rules I suggest using a firewall distribution like ipfire. I use a NUC type device with multiple ethernet adapters and run PFsense which is BSD based.

Agree with all of the above.

If you split your home infrastructure into two devices by separating the wireless component from the router, you have a performance gain.

Though more information should help
You are looking for 1G,10G, etc throughput on the router ad including the interfaces?
Towards wireless, what is your expectation towards performance delivery and what does your current hardware support?

All of the above of course will depend on what you expect to pay in both hardware and the wan speed from an ISP.