The Asus RT-N12/B, RT-N13U, RT-N16, and RT-N66U are all reasonably solid.
Jack, you can go higher end than the Asus RT-N16 on the end of things, if you really
need to. The problem is, do you really need anything more than 802.11n in the first place? Unless you've got 802.11ac equipment, or the 2.4GHz bands are too congested already in your area, there's certainly not going to likely be any appreciable difference with faster spec WiFi, especially when 802.11g can still outperform most all broadband connections. Yes, internal file transfer speed can be important, but do you need much more than wired GigE? Isn't 10BT technically still enough bandwidth to stream compressed HD video these days?
The Asus
RT-N16 and
RT-N66U are incredibly beefy chunks of hardware when you look at the specs, and you can turn the things into absolute monsters running the
Kong build with
Optware (excuse the workarounds necessary with the limited NVRAM on the RT-N16). That said, I'm not really sure the RT-N66U is worth the money at $150... and these things still aren't going to really be usable for a DVR backend or anything of that nature, but thanks to the USB ports, you can do NAS storage off it, a web server, a whole slew of nifty things. Beyond that, you're talking prices and equipment that's really getting into the low-end SME equipment market which is absolute overkill for the average home.
There's Buffalo routers, too, but the benefit of getting DD-WRT installed by default doesn't outweight the lesser build quality for the money unless you're all thumbs...
The biggest weaknesses with all these routers anymore no matter the manufacturer (Asus, Buffalo, Linksys, Netgear, etc.) is the power brick. They're all shipping with flimsy, gutless, cheap Chinese DC converters. Fortunately, they're pretty easy to replace and upgrade. The RT-N16 I'm running at my primary gig has a $15 12V 4A LCD power brick with low ripple, and the thing has been dang near bulletproof running off a UPS. Complete overkill, but I like stable... and when I can get $90 worth of electronics to operate as a $700 firewall with more features and throughput to boot? Yes please, I'll even buy a backup at that price. This is hardware tailor made for the prosumer and small-medium NPO markets.
As for DOCSIS 3 cable modems? Motorola Surfboard. The SB6121 is pretty reasonably priced most places (under $80), a solid device, and should be on the approved list.
Relevant reading off my blog:
http://www.techmeshugana.com/2013/03/ask-daley-cable-modems-and-routers/
