Help me find a good Wifi connector please?

[zcailz]

Hi, I just started looking at wifi cards for my computer and I have no idea if i should take a pci card a m.2 card or a usb stick what would be best and wich one should I choose? Thanks!

[sphbecker]

12 minutes ago, zcailz said:

Hi, I just started looking at wifi cards for my computer and I have no idea if i should take a pci card a m.2 card or a usb stick what would be best and wich one should I choose? Thanks!

That depends a lot on the connections your motherboard has. I am a big fan of this product, but it does take up a PCIe slot, also the Bluetooth only works if you run an internal USB cable (due to the way M.2 cards works)

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-WBAX200-rev-10#kf

 

If you have a correctly keyed M.2 slot, then that might be cleaner, but the slot MUST be an A or E keyed slot (which allows for USB connectivity for bluetooth). Storage M.2 slots are typically B+M keyed and will not work for WiFI cards.

 

I hate USB for things like this and avoid whenever possible.

[zcailz]

3 minutes ago, sphbecker said:

That depends a lot on the connections your motherboard has. I am a big fan of this product, but it does take up a PCIe slot, also the Bluetooth only works if you run an internal USB cable (due to the way M.2 cards works)

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-WBAX200-rev-10#kf

 

If you have a correctly keyed M.2 slot, then that might be cleaner, but the slot MUST be an A or E keyed slot (which allows for USB connectivity for bluetooth). Storage M.2 slots are typically B+M keyed and will not work for WiFI cards.

 

I hate USB for things like this and avoid whenever possible.

thanks!

[sphbecker]

14 minutes ago, zcailz said:

thanks!

Really sorry but it looks like I recommended a discontinued product. Here are two cards you can buy that still use an Intel chipset. These are both from no-name companies, but keep in mind that it is the Intel chip you are getting, the card itself it basically just a PCIe to M.2 adaptor. Most of the name brand cards use broadcom chipsets, which work, but most people will tell you Intel is the gold standard. With these cards, you just need to install the Intel drivers, no need to install anything from these company's webpage.

 

https://www.newegg.com/fenvi-fv-axe3000-pci-express/p/0XM-00JK-000A1?Item=9SIADXZE416894&Description=AX210 card&cm_re=AX210_card-_-9SIADXZE416894-_-Product&cm_sp=SP-_-489007-_-0-_-6-_-9SIADXZE416894-_-AX210 card-_-ax210-_-3

 

https://www.newegg.com/teday-td-ax210-pci-express/p/0XM-01CY-00041?Description=AX210 card&cm_re=AX210_card-_-0XM-01CY-00041-_-Product&quicklink=true

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

7 minutes ago, sphbecker said:

Really sorry but it looks like I recommended a discontinued product. Here are two cards you can buy that still use an Intel chipset. These are both from no-name companies, but keep in mind that it is the Intel chip you are getting, the card itself it basically just a PCIe to M.2 adaptor. Most of the name brand cards use broadcom chipsets, which work, but most people will tell you Intel is the gold standard. With these cards, you just need to install the Intel drivers, no need to install anything from these company's webpage.

 

https://www.newegg.com/fenvi-fv-axe3000-pci-express/p/0XM-00JK-000A1?Item=9SIADXZE416894&Description=AX210 card&cm_re=AX210_card-_-9SIADXZE416894-_-Product&cm_sp=SP-_-489007-_-0-_-6-_-9SIADXZE416894-_-AX210 card-_-ax210-_-3

 

https://www.newegg.com/teday-td-ax210-pci-express/p/0XM-01CY-00041?Description=AX210 card&cm_re=AX210_card-_-0XM-01CY-00041-_-Product&quicklink=true

 

Nice to see AX210 PCIe cards finally show up.  Last I checked they were all AX200 but in my experience the AX210 performs a fair bit better even on WiFi 5/AC networks.

[sphbecker]

5 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Nice to see AX210 PCIe cards finally show up.  Last I checked they were all AX200 but in my experience the AX210 performs a fair bit better even on WiFi 5/AC networks.

Yeah, performance on of the AX200 card wasn't all that impressive. I mean, 600-700mbps over WiFi is pretty nice, but falls far short of what WiFi 6 should have been able to deliver (I typically expect about 50% of the theoretical limit from WiFi, what I saw was more like 25%). I haven't tested AX210 yet, but I would be interested to see if it works better on WiFi 6 networks or if it only shows improvements on 6E.

[Alex Atkin UK]

14 hours ago, sphbecker said:

Yeah, performance on of the AX200 card wasn't all that impressive. I mean, 600-700mbps over WiFi is pretty nice, but falls far short of what WiFi 6 should have been able to deliver (I typically expect about 50% of the theoretical limit from WiFi, what I saw was more like 25%). I haven't tested AX210 yet, but I would be interested to see if it works better on WiFi 6 networks or if it only shows improvements on 6E.

I did get 940Mbit once on the AX210, but there's something a bit odd about 5Ghz in my room as I seem to average somewhere between 400-800Mbit even though the Access Point is on the ceiling with direct line-of-sight.  Tried several different Access Points and they all behave the same, the speed seems completely random.

I also seem to get better real-world performance copying over Samba shares than iperf3 would suggest.