USB WiFi Sticks

[Techstorm970]

Are USB 3 WiFi sticks any good, or is the USB 3 port a severe bottleneck?

[Skiiwee29]

I honestly do not like them as they are cheap, and often don't have the strength required to provide good range and speeds. I would recommend an internal PCIe card if you  need wifi. 

[ARikozuM]

USB 3 allows more than enough bandwidth for WiFi. If you need a USB model, I would go for one with flexible antenna placement for a clearer line of sight, so to speak.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, techstorm970 said:

Are USB 3 WiFi sticks any good, or is the USB 3 port a severe bottleneck?

I can get 1080p videos going fine with USB 2.0 sticks using the wireless N standard 

 

So I guess it depends on your needs

[Mira Yurizaki]

10 minutes ago, legacy99 said:

I honestly do not like them as they are cheap, and often don't have the strength required to provide good range and speeds.

Cheap? What? If you're buying the $10 special at Walmart, of course it'll suck.

 

Anyway OP, USB 3.0 is not a bottleneck as USB 3.0 speeds are 5Gbps and the fastest Wi-Fi standard available now only goes up to 1.3Gbps (on a good day with multiple antennas). As long as you get an 802.11ac adapter, you should be fine.

 

EDIT: This is also on the caveat your network is 802.11ac. But if the adapter supports 802.11ac, it should have good 802.11n performance as well.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, legacy99 said:

I honestly do not like them as they are cheap, and often don't have the strength required to provide good range and speeds. I would recommend an internal PCIe card if you  need wifi. 

I would say that the connection would depend on their needs/uses. For example, if it's a money issue then USB cards can be extremely helpful for debugging multiple systems. However, if it's for a single system with intended for sure or near permanent WiFi use, PCIe would be a way to go as well. Some people just like having the PCIe lanes, other won't need them as much. It really depends. 

[Guest]

Anything in particular you're looking for? 

[Techstorm970]

802.11ac USB3 WiFi stick that is good enough for playing online games, specifically Overwatch, Rocket League, and Gmod.

[tlink]

usb 3 has some problems due to it using 2.4ghz which can cause interference. in most cases usb 2.0 is fine. i advice against pcie cards unless you can bring the antenna away from the backside of the pc since there often is a lot of interference there. there generally is no difference in strength when comparing pcie or usb wifi adapters since all that matter is the chipset used (and antenna, signal strength and shielding ofcourse), the chipset couldn't care less about the interface since the bottleneck is almost always the actual over air transmission for most people. but that depends on your setup ofcourse. usb 2.0 theoretical maximum throughput is 35 megabyte per second and 280 megabit per second, of course it can't actually reach that but even half of that will probably be enough for you. now imagine that usb 3.0 has a maximum throughput of 4 gigabit per second or 50 megabyte per second you can see that it won't be a bottleneck on any consumer wifi network.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, techstorm970 said:

802.11ac USB3 WiFi stick that is good enough for playing online games, specifically Overwatch, Rocket League, and Gmod.

-removed

 

Price range? 

Edited April 4, 2017 by IAmLamp

[Techstorm970]

Just now, IAmLamp said:

Price range? 

None, really.  Just something with a good price to performance ratio.

[tlink]

Just now, techstorm970 said:

None, really.  Just something with a good price to performance ratio.

TP-LINK TL-WN722N is a great little wifi dongle, i would recommend that on the cheap side. i actually own it and it comes with an usb extension cable so you can put it high for better reception or something like that. but it depends on your enviroment really what will be good enough for you. just getting one and returning it if it doesn't live up to expectations is the best way to go about it if you ask me. the TP-Link AC600 is its upgraded brother that has 5ghz capability's but i don't actually own it so i can't really recommend it.

 

the TL-WN722N has a max troughput of 150mbit, in the real world that would be like 40mbit per second or something like that depending on your setup. 

[Techstorm970]

2 minutes ago, tlink said:

TP-LINK TL-WN722N is a great little wifi dongle, i would recommend that on the cheap side. i actually own it and it comes with an usb extension cable so you can put it high for better reception or something like that. but it depends on your enviroment really what will be good enough for you. just getting one and returning it if it doesn't live up to expectations is the best way to go about it if you ask me. the TP-Link AC600 is its upgraded brother that has 5ghz capability's but i don't actually own it so i can't really recommend it.

 

the TL-WN722N has a max troughput of 150mbit, in the real world that would be like 40mbit per second or something like that depending on your setup. 

Thanks!  

[Guest]

2 hours ago, techstorm970 said:

802.11ac USB3 WiFi stick that is good enough for playing online games, specifically Overwatch, Rocket League, and Gmod.

Just to be sure, since I don't know the throughput of those games, USB 3.0 would be a good way to ensure you're getting what you need. I apologize for my some what of the 2.0 recommendation. I'll edit the post.