Netgear WNDR 3700 hasn't started shipping out yet so i dunno if its gonna support third-party firmwares or not but with the default set of functions ( i don't see how you can download Torrents unless you hack your WD MyBook to download torrents ( it has to be WE ). On the plus side its dual band whereas the ASUS RT-N16 is not. It doesn't make any difference to me but you should check out if you need dual band.
(Dual-band a/b/g/n routers support both bands for 11n. They enable 11a and 11n users to transmit at 5 GHz and 11b/g and 11n users to transmit at 2.4 GHz; however, both bands may run simultaneously or only one band at a time. Simultaneous support provides load balancing and offers the most compatibility with all four standards (a, b, g and n). With simultaneous bands, data transfers could be configured, for example, on the 2.4 GHz network (SSID #1), while users who do video streaming could be configured on the 5 GHz network (SSID #2).)
As for the rest of the things Torrent, SAMBA NAS, miniDLNA Server, Auto Downloader, QOS ( highly customizable), ASUS RT-N16 is just a breeze to use. You have custom scripts that do mounting, unmounting , installing packages etc for you
.
To sum it up ( i don't know if third-party firmware is there for NEtgear offering or not)
If you buy ASUS
Pros
-Your very own linux setup on your HDD to fiddle around with.
-Media Server miniDLNA.
-rTorrent with web interface of ruTorrent.
-Web Server / FTP Server
-Open VPN
-2 USB ports.
-32Mb ROm and 128 Mb Ram ( compared to 8 and 64 )
-Highly customizable.
-Future Support for 3g ( if you know russian, you can do it now
)
Cons
-No dual band
-Speeds don't match to that of Netgear ( almost a 5-10% diff. ) i.e 9-10 Mbps on ASUS whereas from tests i can see Netgear is hitting 12.
BTW both these routers will generate a lot of heat
.