Wireless desktop help

[danielhowk]

is there a way to make my desktop wireless?

i heard 2 ways so far. a usb stick and a pci-e slot wireless. which is better ? im running at 50 mbps download / 10 mbps upload speed.

which brand do u recommend and which model for the best ?

[skywake]

 

USB will do the trick, there's not going to be much difference between the two. Also if 50Mbps is your target then anything above ~N600 should do the job well enough.

[danielhowk]

USB will do the trick, there's not going to be much difference between the two. Also if 50Mbps is your target then anything above ~N600 should do the job well enough.

what about pci-e whats a good brand 

[skywake]

what about pci-e whats a good brand 

There's not really much of a reason to go with PCIe. With some of the really high end ones it matters a bit because of the extra power you can push through it. But for bandwidth? It's not going to make even the slightest difference. Especially if your aim is to cover your 50Mbps connection. Things like placement will be bigger factors for the speeds you're talking about so the flexibility of USB wins out.

 

As for brand well... Netgear, Asus, TP-Link... they're all pretty similar. It's worth remembering that most of them are literally the same chip just with different packaging. 

[danielhowk]

There's not really much of a reason to go with PCIe. With some of the really high end ones it matters a bit because of the extra power you can push through it. But for bandwidth? It's not going to make even the slightest difference. Especially if your aim is to cover your 50Mbps connection. Things like placement will be bigger factors for the speeds you're talking about so the flexibility of USB wins out.

 

As for brand well... Netgear, Asus, TP-Link... they're all pretty similar. It's worth remembering that most of them are literally the same chip just with different packaging. 

my desktop is pretty far from the router about 4 walls away. i heard usb tends to give alot more problems. hiccups etc. pci-e is more stable ? or usb is very up to date that is as good as pci-e now . a few years back it seems usb tends to give alot more problems . heat from usb causes disconnect ? 

[skywake]

my desktop is pretty far from the router about 4 walls away. i heard usb tends to give alot more problems. hiccups etc. pci-e is more stable ? or usb is very up to date that is as good as pci-e now . a few years back it seems usb tends to give alot more problems . heat from usb causes disconnect ? 

For speed there are some advantages with PCIe. As I said you can push more power through the adapter and there is generally better cooling. The higher end wireless AC PCIe adapters have decent heatsinks for example. It has nothing to do with bottlenecks in terms of the interface bandwidth, it has far more to do with how the card can be designed. And if speed was the issue then I'd 100% recommend going that route.

 

But for 50Mbps plain-old wireless N is good enough. With those sorts of speeds the bigger issue is whether or not the adapter is connecting well rather than whether or not it can sustain the highest speeds. And with that in mind USB is generally a better idea. Because it's far easier to put a USB adapter in a good position than a PCIe card. Even if you don't run extensions odds are you have a USB hub on your desk or a pass through on your keyboard etc. That's why I'd say USB is the better option for most people.

[danielhowk]

For speed there are some advantages with PCIe. As I said you can push more power through the adapter and there is generally better cooling. The higher end wireless AC PCIe adapters have decent heatsinks for example. It has nothing to do with bottlenecks in terms of the interface bandwidth, it has far more to do with how the card can be designed. And if speed was the issue then I'd 100% recommend going that route.

 

But for 50Mbps plain-old wireless N is good enough. With those sorts of speeds the bigger issue is whether or not the adapter is connecting well rather than whether or not it can sustain the highest speeds. And with that in mind USB is generally a better idea. Because it's far easier to put a USB adapter in a good position than a PCIe card. Even if you don't run extensions odds are you have a USB hub on your desk or a pass through on your keyboard etc. That's why I'd say USB is the better option for most people.

just read about powerline. are those options better ? is powerline more superior in any way ? im looking for a stable , consistent connection

[skywake]

just read about powerline. are those options better ? is powerline more superior in any way ? im looking for a stable , consistent connection

Again, there are advantages and disadvantages.

 

Powerline will give you better speeds than WiFi if you have a poor WiFi signal. For example if there are multiple brick walls between you and your access point. But WiFi will generally give better speeds if the signal is good, especially higher spec WiFi. Also the latency on Powerline is quite a bit higher than what you'll see on WiFi. Though on the other hand pings on WiFi tend to randomly spike far more than powerline does. 

 

For sharing a 50Mbps internet connection? .... it's probably all going to give you about the same result.

[SnafuPossum]

As long as you dont have a lot of noise in your powerlines (a bunch of electronics plugged in, in the house) a nice powerline setup will be more consistent and stable. However wifi can(can being a very good signal and ac standard on both router and pc) have more bandwidth.

[Firet2000]

what about pci-e whats a good brand 

Tp-link.

[danielhowk]

Again, there are advantages and disadvantages.

 

Powerline will give you better speeds than WiFi if you have a poor WiFi signal. For example if there are multiple brick walls between you and your access point. But WiFi will generally give better speeds if the signal is good, especially higher spec WiFi. Also the latency on Powerline is quite a bit higher than what you'll see on WiFi. Though on the other hand pings on WiFi tend to randomly spike far more than powerline does. 

 

For sharing a 50Mbps internet connection? .... it's probably all going to give you about the same result.

 

 

As long as you dont have a lot of noise in your powerlines (a bunch of electronics plugged in, in the house) a nice powerline setup will be more consistent and stable. However wifi can(can being a very good signal and ac standard on both router and pc) have more bandwidth.

 

 

Tp-link.

PCE-AC66 - Asus

USB-AC56 - Asus

found these pci-e and usb from asus. are they good ? 

not sure if im buying older models.

[danielhowk]

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