Access Point Shopping

Ok, so looking for advice for shopping for a wireless access point for me and my family. The Situation:

-6 People With Smart-Phones

-3 Smart TV's

-2 Very Light Usage Laptops

-3 Acer C720 Chromebooks Used for Schoolwork

-1 Nintendo Wii (used for Netflix )

-My gaming Rig

My gaming rig isn't up and running as of yet, but I intend to game in 1080p if that has an impact. There aren't currently any major problems but there are noticeable and sometimes dramatic slowdowns on the machine I currently use during peak hours.  The Current Wireless Access Point is a Belkin N450. The Current Modem is a Cisco 2100 Cable Modem. I can provide model numbers if requested.the preferred setup would be to have 3 Channels, One for the Phones and TV's, one for the Chromebooks and Laptops, and a Private one for me. Budget is Preferably below $120. If this is impossible, that number is flexible(no more than +$100). if you think three separate channels is un-necessary than please say so and why.

I may be wrong but I don't think triple band routers are a thing as of yet. Unless you pay for two different broadband connections the highest you could get is two "channels".

I was in your same sort of situation very recently and so I bought this router: http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WDR4300-Wireless-Gigabit-300Mbps/dp/B0088CJT4U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421036960&sr=8-1&keywords=tp+link+n750

I like the router so far, it's got gigabit ethernet, and it's dual band so you will have 2 separate channels: one that is 2.4GHz and one that is 5GHz.

The one thing that is a problem though (but from what I've seen recently this seems to be a pretty pervasive problematic trend in modern routers, especially dual band) is the range kinda sucks.

The standard and slightly slower (pretty much normal wifi speed) 2.4GHz network is a lower frequency and thus has a larger range, whereas the faster 5GHz network is higher frequency so it has a lower range. 

That being said, the 2.4GHz wifi on my new router still has a smaller range than my previous Linksys Wrt-54 wireless G router, which is oolldd.

I don't experience any choking or over congestion on this router, if you would like to see the devices on my network to see how much load I use you can visit here: https://teksyndicate.com/forum/networking-hardware/help-me-pick-out-new-router/191986

So if you have a 2 story or exceptionally large house, you may want to look at a higher range of routers, but my knowledge is limited there so I don't know how high end you would have to look to guarantee a really good range.

EDIT: My house is also ancient so for all I know there could be lead panels in the walls that feast off of and destroy wifi signals. So you may get a better result with range, but most reviews I've watched still agree the range is sub-par.

http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Networks-UniFi-Enterprise-System/dp/B004XXMUCQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421038185&sr=8-1&keywords=ubiquiti

You can also buy a 3 pack, these things are amazing.

What would be ideal for you is a pfsense or DD-WRT router, but using a Unifi AP (or several). That will allow you to prioritize your gaming traffic (latency is key) over, say, your parents downloading an eBook (latency doesn't really matter). It'll also allow you to do all sorts of other cool stuff but if you've watched the pfSense video TekSyndicate did then you know about that. DD-WRT can do some of that, OpenWRT is better, but nothing really beats pfSense...

I'll do some more in-depth research, thanks for the suggestions

Just so you're aware, you can run pfSense on freaking anything. I run mine on a 1.24ghz single core with 1GB of RAM and it does fine. So if you can scrounge up an old Pentium 4 or something then that'll get the job done.

I'll look into that. I have yet to watch the video, but is it possible to do this using an old laptop? I don't have the budget to build another computer, but I do have an old laptop that I am currently using as my main PC. I will look into other options as well

You need to have two network interfaces for it to work properly. You could use a usb network adapter but it's not recommended.

If the laptop has a mini PCIe slot, you can actually buy NICs that go in those. That still isn't the absolute best option, but I would be willing to bet its better than a USB NIC.

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-ST1000SMPEX-Express-Gigabit-Ethernet/dp/B006VCPB2S

Either way its still better to use a junk desktop with 2 Intel NICs and a crappy hard drive. You could also invest in an embedded ITX system, but they can get pricey...

Ok, so after watching the overview video on pfsense, I'm still pretty sure I'm just going with one of the above suggested access points. While the opportunity for customization and exact control of the network is intriguing, it is far beyond my current technical understanding and budget.