FriendlyElec Nanopi R4S Mini Router OpenWRT with Dual-Gbps Ethernet Ports 4GB LPDDR4 Based in RK3399 Soc for IOT NAS Smart Home Gateway (with MAC Chip)

This is an excellent base for Openwrt. Small, fanless, powerful. I had zero problem flashing an SD card with Openwrt, loading it is very fast, then runs without issue. Much better setup than my ASUS all-in-one. It is now simply the radio and this box handles everything that requires intelligence. In all, I'm glad I waited to separate the router from the radio. This is a much better solution than an x86 box.

The hardware is great. The metal case is heavy and it feels good in the hand. It's plenty fast enough. It's also Open Source from the firmware up! Best router I've ever own.

Not only does this run OpenWRT well, you can also run Debian Bullseye arm64 (if you want to run your router with a full-blown Linux). There is a version built directly from the Debian binaries available on github/inindev (google for "github nanopi r4s debian linux"). I run it from a samsung usb sd drive.

Can run Cake at full speed on a 500/20 line in OpenWRT.