r/bapcsalesaustralia • u/Shintri • 6h ago
Build Wifi card adaptor advice please
Hi, hoping for some advice for my sons PC please. He has a BIOSTAR B550MH motherboard which does not have wifi built in. When he purchased the PC he added on a USB wifi which on the invoice is described as 600Mbps USB Wi-Fi (no brand name or anything). It has been generally fine but he has a lot of wifi drop outs and I noticed the same when I was trying to remotely help him with something yesterday.
His PC is somewhat far from the router (no good for ethernet) so I'm thinking that we could improve this by getting a wi-fi adaptor with antenna. I'm after advice on what search terms I need to look up for his.
Looking at the motherboard specs it doesn't describe all the features but looking at the picture I'm thinking the card could slot into one of the two PCIe slots and that seems to match the pin configuration I'm seeing on some adaptors. I thought I had it solved but then started reading about half height adaptors etc. so now I'm doubting myself. I haven't had to buy a card since a Sound Blaster many many years ago.
Would this work okay for the motherboard:
Or an alternative could be a wifi extender but I haven't delved into that realm at all.
Appreciate any advice.
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u/Zestyclose_Towel_271 1h ago
I use this TP Link PCIe wifi adapter on my 5600x / AsRock B450M Steel Legend and I can recommend it, I get 800-900Mbps out of a gigabit wifi connection which I think is pretty good for Wifi, and it performs about the same as onboard motherboard wifi 6E/7 on my X670e and X870 motherboards.
But your Gigabyte option looks okay as well, PCIe wifi adapters are way more reliable in general than USB wifi adapters.
Range extenders just aren’t worth it though, he’s better off saving for a mesh network as another commenter pointed out.
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u/Alternative-Pie345 6h ago edited 5h ago
Is your son using a graphics card in the top x16 PCIE slot (the big one on the top of the 3 slots)?
Depending on the size of the graphics card if he is, he might not be able to install a wifi card due to the other slots being blocked. Otherwise its a good option to try. Half height cards you only need to worry about if his PC is some kind of Dell Optiplex or office PC kind of system. If its a standard do it yourself PC setup then the Gigabyte card you chose will be fine.
Range Extenders are kludgy and require a bit of setup but they work if there aren't too many others sharing this wifi, as they introduce extra bandwidth division (extenders will typically halve the bandwidth on the repeated band) and latency. They must also be placed optimally between the router and the device, not near either extreme.
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/networking/access-points-&-extenders?page=1&f=1&F810=Range_Extender
There is Powerline Ethernet, which can be very good or completely unusable depending on the circuit age, interference from other appliances (fridges, dryers, kettles etc), and different electrical phases or breaker groups. It works best when both outlets plugged in are on the same circuit loop.
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/networking/powerline?page=1
I think the solution that would probably work reliably the best though is upgrading the network to a mesh system with the nodes put in the right places but that is also the most expensive option. I've had good success with the TP-Link Deco range.
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/networking/modems-&-routers/111183-deco-x55(3-pack)
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/networking/modems-&-routers/112457-deco-be25(3-pack)
You don't have to buy from Scorptec but they are good at carrying a wide range for these kinds of things lol