What Wireless N Desktop PCI Network Adapter?

Jezcentral · 12 Nov 2009 at 14:44

I'm going to need to add wirelessness to my rig, as I won't be able to plug it in at my new house.

What kind of card and router will fit the bill?

I need it to stay in good contact through one ceiling and one wall.
I'll be downloading stuff as well (purely legit stuff, iTunes and iPlayer).
I'll be gaming online (obviously

) so I don't want it dropping out, and as little latency as possible.

My rig is an i7 920 with only one GPU, the mobo is Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R, and the cable provider will be Virgin Media. No budget decided yet, but I'm looking for quality over cheapness.

mpj88 · 12 Nov 2009 at 16:17

I would recommend a usb adapter to have out the front off or away from you case. As i had a pci card and it did not work well, guessing as it has a large lump of metal between it and the router!! And any netgear i would suggest!

Jezcentral · 12 Nov 2009 at 17:35

Thanks, but I've only had ever had bad experiences with the USB dongles. They fall apart a week after you get them home. (Twice plus the experience of others).

Aren't the arials for the PCI card outside the case anyway?

mpj88 · 12 Nov 2009 at 19:45

Yes they are but usual the case back is to the wall so not great for reception ive been using a netgear usb dongle for over a year and never had any problems with it. I had one of these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-005-EX&groupid=46&catid=1452&subcat=1465 before and it was just no good!

Jezcentral · 13 Nov 2009 at 09:38

Does this mean that the worst thing for wifi is not walls/floors, but the PC case itself?

In this case, would this card be good? It is a PCI card, but the arial is attached by a couple of feet of wire, so it can hang down the back of the PC, reaching near the floor (or put up on the wall).

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/networking/2007/06/24/abit_airpace_wifi_pci-e_card/2

Thank you for your input Mpj. I had never thought of the case as being the problem.