For myself I went with a $19.99 D-Link Router refurbished from newegg that had very very minimal configuration and options and flashed it with DD-WRT turning a $20 router into the functionality of a higher end more costly router. Been running this router for about 3 years now with no problems.
Flashing with DD-WRT I have added advanced options I didnt have with the firmware that came with the router initially.
Added features that I use with DD-WRT on my router:
QoS - Quality of Service, so that a slice of bandwidth is allocated to the priority of my VoIP so that no matter how much network traffic there is, it doesnt affect the VoIP phone. Prior to this with the original firmware I didnt have this control and so if people were streaming and another person downloaded, the VoIP phone would get choppy and cut out when in use.
Throttling of bandwidth to specific devices so that a download with a fast connection to the internet backbone at the other end wouldnt consume too much bandwidth.
Boost the wireless signal strength is a feature that this DD-WRT had as well, but I set it back to factory default for fear that I could over drive the transmitter and cook it. It runs warm as it is and there was a warning with increasing the broadcast output strength of the wireless of the router which stated something along the lines of warning to the affect that running router outside of factory spec could damage it.
DD-WRT has so many features to where this router could be configured for even a more complex configuration, but I just mainly required the ability to control the bandwidth among devices so that everything runs smoothly and no choppy audio VoIP phone calls.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/indexCan check here to see if your router is supported:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database**Note: If you mess up the flash process you can kill a router. Additionally you need to pay attention to what the Rev is of the router. Some revisions are not supported.
