m.2 E Key for WiFi; Plug and Play?

[TechTippee]

Greetings TechTippers,

 

My motherboard has a slot for an m.2 WiFi card. If I put one in my system, will it have WiFi capabilities automatically, or do I need antennae or something?

[RONOTHAN##]

You'll need to hook up antennas to have it work, and maybe install drivers (depending on the specific card you get). 

[Needfuldoer]

You'll need antennae, especially if the card was pulled from a laptop (which use wires around the screen for WiFi antennae).

 

If anything, you should be able to find short adapter cables that can plug into the card and give you regular thread-on "SMA" connectors on the outside of the case. Then you can just get some router antennae off Amazon or eBay, since many routers (and PCIe WiFi cards) use SMA connectors for their antennas.

[Alex Atkin UK]

19 hours ago, TechTippee said:

Greetings TechTippers,

 

My motherboard has a slot for an m.2 WiFi card. If I put one in my system, will it have WiFi capabilities automatically, or do I need antennae or something?

You absolutely need to check the manual as the above posters missed an important detail.

 

Some motherboards only have CNVIo M.2 WiFi sockets which will need a CNVIo or CNVIo2 card which are not forwards/backwards compatible, it has to be the exact version your motherboard supports.  Others may be full PCIe and not work with a CNVIo card.

If you get the wrong card, your PC likely wont POST at all with it installed.