Wireless Network Adapter?

Mig · 4 Jan 2011 at 11:06

Hi all,

Building my first PC. For reasons of space, for the past 7 years I have only been able to use high end gaming laptops as a desktop replacement.

For this reason, I have no idea how I will need to connect my new PC to a wireless network (I will not be able to connect via LAN). With my first laptop, I had to buy a wireless network card; my second laptop came with a built-in wireless network card/adapter(?)

Does the motherboard come with wireless capabilities already or what do I need to buy to allow me to connect?

Probably stupid questions, but I'm new to this.

Thanks.

Guardsmon · 4 Jan 2011 at 12:12

Hi Mig,
It depends on what computer you have? Some motherboards have wireless onboard, but these are normally just the SFF ones. If you're bought the computer pre-made then it could have a wireless card already installed. We'd need the specs/model to know.

Assuming you don't have one then you'd be best looking at either PCI/E wirelesss network card or a USB wireless card.

Werewolf · 4 Jan 2011 at 12:19

Some of the higher end motherboards come with wireless adaptors (a lot of Asus boards come in about 3-4 variants of which one at least usually has wireless), but it's usually at a premium compared to the base versions of the motherboard that doesn't have it.

However generally it'll be much cheaper to go with either a wireless PCI card or possibly a wireless USB dongle.

ms2010 · 4 Jan 2011 at 13:13

As already stated some motherboard's may have wireless onboard, however for every other machine without wireless there are afew options to consider:

Internal wireless card e.g. TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Adapter

USB wireless card e.g. OcUK Value 300Mbps Wireless N USB Adapter

or the other option is using a LAN connection using something like: Devolo 1382 dLAN Highspeed Ethernet II Adapter - HomePlug 1.0/ Powerline

which allow you to use the powerlines in your house as a network link to the router (1 plug at the PC connected with a cat5 cable, and another plug at the router connected with another cat5 cable)

Mig · 4 Jan 2011 at 15:01

Thanks guys. The motherboard I will be getting is the Asus P6X58D Premium Intel X58. Can't really tell if it comes with one from the product description, so I'm guessing it doesn't.

Is there any difference between the USB and internal cards? TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Adapter looks like a safe bet to me (thanks ms2010).

redballoon · 4 Jan 2011 at 15:09

If you ever want to use Crossfire/SLI on that board you'll block both PCI slots if the cards have large heatsinks (using the bottom slot would block even more important stuff if it's a long graphics card). Might be a better idea to go for a PCIe x1 wireless card.

Mig · 4 Jan 2011 at 15:23

I may want to use Crossfire one day, but I imagine it would be a few years from now. I will have a think.

ms2010 · 4 Jan 2011 at 22:08

Using the PCie x1 slot is an alternative internal wireless card and I do like the idea of using an otherwise useless slot on the motherboard, however looking at the only example that OcUK supply its half the bandwidth of the other options at 150Mbps instead of 300Mbps

TP-Link 150Mbps Wireless Lite N PCI Express Adapter

Looking at the spec sheet on the Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard, with Dual Gigabit LAN controllers it's almost a shame not to cable it up

, although if you don't transfer large amounts of data between multiple machines on your LAN, there is really no need for a Gigabit link. It wouldn't really make any difference to the speed of a broadband connection.

Mig said:
Is there any difference between the USB and internal cards?

I've used a USB wireless G adaptor before and noticed no difference in speed to a wireless G PCI card.

The only thing worth mentioning is the USB wireless cards can be alittle vunerable to being knocked and damaged sticking out of the USB port.
However that's more of an issue when using one on a laptop rather than a desktop PC.

USB can be the easiest way to add a desktop machine to a wireless network
and leave the system slots free for further upgrades, however if the machine is going to be moved around a lot (being a desktop probably not so much

), an internal card may prove the better idea, so there's less chance of damaging or loosing the wireless card.

Although I can't comment from experience on the speed differences for wireless N, between USB and internal, I would guess it would be similar to my experience with wireless G and there be little or no difference.