Xcessiv wrote

My plan would therefore to put my R7000 in the basement, disable its WIFI mode, and use my Deco M5 units as access points.

 

@Xcessiv 

My recommendation would be to proceed with that plan. That is what I did in my house.

Multiple reasons:

1) If you are not happy with Deco mesh and decided to return it, you won't have to redo your home network. I have bunch of IP reservations: for wired network printer, for backup server, for file server, to name just few. Redoing them back and forth is unnecessary activity, in my opinion.

2) Deco is an excellent WiFi mesh system, but it is lacking in some router capabilities. Just check this forum.

In my household, where I have Hitron router in the basement, I also use 4 router Ethernet ports to wire to it devices such as backup server and file server. With their noisy fans it is the right place for them to be. If I had Deco placed there, that would be pointless because I don't need strong WiFi coverage in that corner, and also I would need an extra switch to attach to that Deco.

As for router performance, of course it depends on your home network utilization and number of devices, but for home network any router, even less capable than yours, should do just fine. When you turn off WiFi on router, you will also free its CPU power for remaining tasks of network management.