re: What router should I buy?

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Let's clarify something here. You don't get 900 Mbps from an 802.11n router. On a dual-band router you can get 450 Mbps on each band provided that your router has a dual radio and three antennas and supports channel bonding and your remote receiver has similar capabilities. Most 802.11n devices like Chromecast operate only on the 2.4GHZ band and have a single antenna and no channel bonding so their speed will be a maximum of 75 Mbps, not much more than 802.11g. With channel bonding (which really only works on the 5GHZ band) you can double the speed to 150 Mbps. Adding a second antenna will give you 300 Mbps and a third will give you the maximum of 450 Mbps. Devices that operate on the 2.4GHZ band will continue to be plagued with congestion and channel overlap regardless of the protocol used.

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I already said all this, but you make a valid point about channel bonding and how the 40 MHz width is not really doable on 2.4GHz. I didn't know the Chromecast wasn't dual band. That kind of sucks.

That's another topic I need to add to the guide: Do people even know what bands they are using, especially those who use a single SSID for both bands? The router's going to select the strongest signal, which is almost always 2.4GHz because of its range advantage, so even their dual-band clients aren't reaping the benefits of 5GHz. Then these same people get AC Routers and think they needed them, never mind the lack of AC clients in their home and that AC can only operate on the 5GHz band.