Does more antenna mean better wifi signal? PCIE Wifi Adapter question, help please!

trihuynh1995

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Oct 13, 2012
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I am just finished putting together my computer and need to connect it to the internet. The router is placed in my land lord apartment which is down stair. My destop is in my room which is in second floor. The wifi is being used by me, my roommate and our landlord family.
My choice is between these two PCIE Wifi Adapters:
TP Link TL-WDN4800 Wireless N Dual Band PCIE Adapter ($40) and Rosewill RNX-N250PCe (RNWD-11005) Wireless Adapter ($20)
The TP Link is dual band and has 3 antennas but is doubled the price of the Rosewill which has only 2 antennas.
So would the more expensive one give me better internet signal? Is the $20 difference in price worth it?
I think the router uses 2.4 GHZ channel, can I use 5 GHZ channel for better internet connection?
Thank you for helping me!
 
"better" is not easy to define.

So if we ignore lots of stuff and assume you have a unlimited internet the unit with 3 antenna likely can run 450m and the one with 2 antenna can run 300m. So it is better in some ways.

So now lets assume you have a 50m internet connection a 450m nic and a 300m nic will both at maximum run 50m its not like they can magically make your internet faster.

Now all this does not even matter if the router also does not have the same features. Does little good to put a dual radio nic in when the router can only run say at 2.4g. This is the same for the other features like mimo (this is related to number of antenna). Your "better" buy will be a nic that is similar to the router in abilities but you should also consider buying a more advanced nic if there is little difference in price just in case the router would ever be updated in the future.