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Asus PCE-AC66 Dual Band 5GHz AC1750 PCI-E Adapter Review
Welcome to my review of the Asus PCE-AC66 wireless card. The main question about this card with its AC1750 spec,
can it replace the wired connection for home use? Well I will be putting this card to the test to find this out.
The card features a 5ghz and 2.4ghz band which has a max throughput of 1300mbs and 450mbs respectively.
The ASUS PCE-AC66 is fully backward compatible with all previous Wi-Fi protocols so this will work on your current router if you don’t yet own an AC spec device.
The Asus PCE-AC66 is on sale now at £74.99 from www.overclockers.co.uk
you may feel that the cost of this card is a tad high but if you want the best possible speed, great looks and hard wiring the house or office isn’t an option then this is the card to get.
Asus are confident in this product and have given it an excellent 3 year warranty.
This card uses a single PCI express lane so there is no bottle-neck you get from using USB devices.
The TX power can be adjusted from 1mw all the way up to 200mw and Asus boasts 150% more coverage than standard wireless adapters.
So let’s take a look at the box and contents
Front of the box shows all of the key features of the device and a cut-out to show the external antenna base.
The back side of the ASUS PCE-AC66 Adapter retail packaging shows off some of the key features of the device with graphs highlighting wireless speed and key points of use.
Inside the packaging you will find the AC66 device itself, the external magnetic antenna base & 3 antennas, an extra low profile PCIe bracket, driver CD, warranty card.
Here is the card up close and feature’s an attractive red aluminium heat sink which will look great in your windowed case.
Under the hood is a Broadcom 802.11ac chipset which is good news as they are one of the most reliable and compatible chipsets around and not to mention fast too.
The red theme is continued on the PCB
The base housing the 3 antennas is magnetic so can be mounted in most places and comes with 1 meter of cable.
Installation & Software
Installing was brisk and the supplied CD already had the latest drivers and software so it was all ready to go. The platform I’m using is Windows 8 Pro 64bit.
The supplied software as an attractive user interface and has a wealth of options.
The 3 antennas are excellent at picking up wireless signals and I think it just about picked up everyone’s connection in the neighbourhood with 27! to choose from.
There is 2 sliders for setting the TX power of the device on both the 2.4 and 5ghz band from 1mw all the way to 200mw
There is a wireless survey page and status page with all the information needed to get connected.
Testing & throughput
The device was tested roughly 10 meters away from the router with 1 wall to penetrate – in this case a ceiling, with the router being on the ground floor and adapter on the first floor. This is by no means a scientific test and pretty much out of the box testing.
Router in use is the TPlink Archer 6 AC1750 router which uses the Qualcomm Atheros chipset, so I was interested in how the performance was with different chipset brands.
The AC-66 adapter has no problem connecting at 450mbs for the 2.4ghz band and massive 1300mbs in the 5ghz band. I used wireless Channel 6 (2.4ghz) and 36 (5ghz) and checked if I was overlapping any local connections.
I used Lan Speed Test with the Wi-Fi security set to “open” for maximum throughput and here are the results.
As you can see the performance is absolutely brilliant for wireless connections and I was able to max out my full speed BT infinity line on both bands.
The 5ghz connection would be ideal for just about anything you wish and the 2.4ghz leading the way for distance and wall penetration.
Conclusion
Well The ASUS PCE-AC66 Adapter has performed great and I feel this could replace a wired connection where it’s not possible to install one.
To get the most of this adapter you will need an AC1750 spec router which are not cheap but if you want the performance there is always a price tag with it.
This adapter will also work great with your old router and certainly help with speed and distance, let’s not forget this device picked up 27 connections and I’m not exactly in an urban area.
I was impressed with the 450 & 1300mbs connections out of the box and for those with high speed cable and FTTC connection this will certainly run those at the optimum level.
The only real con with this product is the price tag and I think Asus should have made the wires for the base a bit longer, but other than that it performed as intended.
I hope you have enjoyed my review and thank you for reading.