Wireless Adapter with Lowest CPU Load

[Leyawiin]

Hey guys. I have an older (well, WAY older) PC tucked away in the kitchen and the USB wireless adapter I'm using sucks a lot of the meager resources an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ @ 2.4 Ghz can provide. I'm guessing that a PCI-E adapter would be better, but are there any that are better than the others as far as offloading the work onto the card instead of the CPU? As you can guess with an oldie like that I don't want to spend much (maybe $25-$30). Thanks.

 

[JackMDS]

You can reduce it load by configuring the Wireless card in the Adv. Power saving to Low performance.

That said Wireless cards are not graphic cards they do not load much the CPU to begin with so it is not really a wide factor of choice.

 

[Leyawiin]

So basically anything that's PCI-E is going to be better that the USB currently on it.

 

[azazel1024]

Obligatory "why don't you get a new computer?" question. A little Braswell based NUC is only about $200 full up and has integrated 802.11ac in it. Would likely be faster than the old Athlon by a fair margin. Or even a Baytrail NUC. Takes up a lot less space, uses a lot less power, many bits of it a lot faster...