PCI or USB WiFi Card vs Mobo Wireless for Desktop

[Reven]

Hello everyone,

I was curious if you had any suggested wireless cards for desktop gaming? I just moved to a new place and there's no way for me to bring ethernet to the room. I'm using a new xfinity cable gateway.

Kinda pigging backing off of this, how much of a difference is there between mobo and PCIe wifi (Assuming USB is the worst)? I am thinking about upgrading my entire build in 6 months. If mobo wireless is pretty good I may end up going for a cheap WiFi card to give me basic networking now, but if motherboard wireless is still shit I'll invest in a high end card now.

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[razel]

Our sageous moderator answered this question previously. I don't have the thread memorized though. In short, PCIe WiFi. USB adapters have a TON of overhead increasing latency which is your goal of reducing. Speaking of which try wired best you can. Flat Ethernet cables are now much more affordable and even thin ones from Monoprice are great. The max length is 20ft for the thin ones.

Even coax or powerline. Seriously for gaming wireless for gamers that make money or in a competitive clan don't do it unless they're just having fun at a café out somewhere.

 

[Reven]

It's a rental and they've bolted the cable to only a specific room, so unfortunately I am out of luck...

Is this the thread you were referring to? https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...mmendation-for-desktop.2466459/#post-38084747

EDIT: It appears that card is only 2x2 wireless. Would I be better served going for 4x4 11ac? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H9QMOMY/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER or https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TQEX7AQ/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[razel]

Reading comprehension once again... You have power in that room, but it sounds you insist on wireless so best of luck.

 

[Reven]

Razel, I appreciate the help but there's no need to be rude? I did go over your post - coaxial is not an option as there is no cabling in the room. The gateway is over 20ft away in the living room. I play for fun, I want low latency but don't need it to be pro-gamer LoL levels either.

This being said, powerline networking appears more easy than I first thought. I assumed moving into an old home would cause issues, but bar one post on this forum that appears to not be the case.

My research has indicated this seems to be a solid product: https://www.cnet.com/products/trendnet-500-av2-adapter/review/
My question is if you think a split ethernet cable would make sense for this. I have two power plugs in the room. One needs to go to the power strip, the other to this. I was going to just connect the xbox wirelessly, but given the push back I was thinking of either: a) using a splitter to share the single port b) adding a second powerline adapter but plugging it into the power strip (which appears to give far lower performance).

 

[VirtualLarry]

Neither. Use a wireless ethernet bridge, or media extender.

It will connect wirelessly to you ISP router, and connect via ethernet to your PC and Xbox.

 

[Reven]

Thanks Larry, so you don't think there would be latency issues? The Xbox One already has wifi so in this case I'd just connect my desktop.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, you would have the latency issues of wifi versus ethernet, and half- versus full-duplex, but you wouldn't have the added overhead and latency of the USB Wifi software stack.
Generally, I've found, that using ethernet out of the PC, to a wireless bridge, is better than putting Wifi directly on the PC, or in my case, directly on each PC. (I've got half my LAN hanging off of a wireless bridge, it works pretty great for me.)