7372 vs R310 which one has stronger RADIO stability and higher per client throughput?

[miko_zoltan]

Friend of mine is having some retired AP from his company. Currently I was advised of the choice of 7372 and R310. I am deciding on which one would be a better AP to be deployed for the purpose.

Currently situation, a Mikrotik 951G-2HnD device has been deployed for WiFi coverage of a community hall of roughly 1200 sq.ft. The 951G works as both Internet router with 100Mb/s fibre Internet WAN access. The Wifi access is a 2.4G, 2x2 802.11n. It has been working fine for past two years or so. 

Recently, the hall has been re-purpose for some other functions with a higher number WIFI client access requirements. We are looking at 30-40 (stretched headroom to bump up to 70-80 clients) clients concurrent connect while 10% of these clients would be sending traffic concurrently.

I am seeing this requirement being a heavy load on the trusty Mikrotik. My current plan is to keep the Internet access router role for the Mikrotik while delegating ALL the wireless access work loads to a dedicated Ruckus AP powered with POE injector. There is no need for too many bell and whistle like captive portal, guest access and things. Ideally one SSID for both 2.4G and 5G band (or I should have one SSID for 2.4G and one SSID for 5G, please advise). Is it possible for the Ruckus to decide base on the client device's wireless capability to allocate it to the relevant band for best stability AND/OR throughput? The SSID will be password protected.

Base on my initial research on Ruckus website, I think the R310 is a better AP to be used for the purpose for the following reason.

1. R310 is Unleased ready, the configuration seems very easy, there is an edge against the Standalone AP firmware for phone APPS for monitoring of AP status.

2. The R310 support for 802.11AC client.

However, as I understand the 7372 was a more "mature" AP, I am wondering if its RADIO would indeed be stronger than the R310, hence better stability.

If I have to choose, stability and then throughput would take priority over the above two points stated for the R310.

I am doing this deployment as a voluntary work for the community hall, they have very limited IT resources for fixing issues. So I would rather to have a solution that is setup once and need not be touched for months or even years. The Mikrotik can achieve this well with the initial requirements.  
 
Thanks and regards. I look forward to some insights from you folks.

Miko

[robert_lowe_722]

Ok in that case I would suggest you get the latest standalone firmware supported by the 7372's and deploy 2 or 3 if possible. Use common config for the WLAN as you will need to manually config on both the 2.4 and the 5GHz radios of each AP. The 7372 was a rock steady AP in its day and I still have customers using them now without issue. Just a few pointers on the config:
20MHz channel width on both 2.4 & 5GHz radios. Don't leave as default as this will go to 40MHz in 5GHz.
Turn down the tx power on the 2.4GHz radios to 1/4 and leave the 5GHz at auto. This will help clients who could use either band to hopefully choose 5GHz.
Make sure you change the default password

[robert_lowe_722]

Just want to also say there is nothing wrong with Alex's reccomendations and if you had budget, I would also be reccomending ac APs but in the scenario you describe 7372s are more than capable.