m.2 wifi adapter question

[Ipwnuhardliek]

I have the gigabyte Z390 Aorus pro WiFi motherboard that has on-board WiFi 5(AC) and antennas. I have upgraded my router to WiFi 6(AX) and would like to upgrade my PC to receive the new speeds. I was wondering if I placed a WiFi 6 M.2 card in the motherboard would it use the built in antennas to receive the new signals or would I need a separate card that goes in the PCIE slots and possibly hinder my GPU's air intake?

[Juular]

16 minutes ago, Ipwnuhardliek said:

would it use the built in antennas

No, Wi-FI adapter will have it's own antenna connectors where you'll need to connect antenna piece that just screws in place of PCI-e slot cover, without interfering with GPU airflow.

But more important question is whether you'll be able to use M.2 Wi-Fi adapter with this motherboard ? And i pretty sure that the answer is no because both slots are key M while all M.2 Wi-Fi adapters i've seen are key A\E (i pretty sure it's some standard related limitation). And only motherboards i've seen that have key-E slot are those that have Wi-Fi module already just implemented as M.2 adapter.

[Windows7ge]

That depends on how those two factory antennas are connected on the back. If you're looking to use a Wi-Fi adapter that is basically designed to go into a laptop then depending on how those antennas connect to the motherboard you may be able to re-use them. However you'll need to physically disconnect them from the motherboard and into your new Wi-Fi adapter.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I think it may use an M.2 card but its hidden under the VRM heatsink, at least it appears to be in some sort of socket if you look on Google images for bare shots of the board.