Old Laptop is faster then New Desktop!

A usb wifi adapter would be a good place to start. Just make sure you get one that at least supports the 'N' standard. I've got one of these on my HTPC, seems to work well:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156321

Ethernet is faster than wifi and capable of way more than 300KB/s. If the ethernet is blinking constantly its sending traffic constantly. That's what its supposed to do. Your wifi light is blinking very slowly because you're sending very very little data browsing vs downloading huge game files.

You need to provide some actual information on your hardware, internet speed, and equipment. we dont even know if your laptop is faster since you didn't give us a download speed for it. It just sounds like you're on 3Mbps DSL at the moment and trying to browse while downloading games. That may not be the case, but that's why you need to provide actual information

You are sure you've installed all the drivers and checked in your device manager to be sure all are working properly?

Well it could be your new desktop hard drive is infested with Malware, the fact your light is blinking, so much means there is a lot of traffic if its just you that means something is running stuff on your computer. I'd download Malware bytes and Spybot Search & Destroy on your notebook and install them there. I'd pull your hard drive from your desktop and attach it as a slave and scan it for Malware and virus with both Malware programs (1 at a time) and run your anti V on it too. Do it again every time you find and remove something.

What speed of internet are you paying for and what style of service is it? DSL, cable, fiber?

Apple devices do not support QoS (Quality of Service,) meaning, your Apple laptop (unless it's running Windows) is likely using all of the available bandwidth your router will allow it, which can cause Windows based machines, which do properly support QoS, to have what would appear to be a very slow connection to the internet. This is true for all Apple products. It gives the appearance of better performance, but it's actually because the products thrash the network activity of other devices, rather than cooperating nicely.

You will never get a better connection through wireless than using a wire, unless your wire is broken or malfunctioning. Even at best, wireless will give you a fraction of the throughput and have greater latency. This likely has absolutely nothing to do with your perceived difficulties.

If you do plan to replace your Killer Ethernet device, I would suggest replacing it with an Intel wired PCIe based Ethernet adapter, not a wireless device, unless you absolutely must have your desktop run wirelessly.

If your desktop computer is just freshly built, it is very likely there are a multitude of patches waiting to be applied, unless you have specifically done so already. These take bandwidth to download. While it's unlikely you'll notice it, it can affect your internet's apparent speed.

Windows 8.1 has an updated browser. Sites such as YouTube may be treating the browser on your Mac differently than on your desktop. They have both an HTML 5 and a Flash version of their software, and most users are not going to realize which they've got in front of them when they pull up the site. This can easily affect the outcome of watching videos on their site. The HTML 5 version was in Beta, last I recall, but is where they are headed, as the internet community isn't exactly in love with Flash, it just happened to be the only game in town at the time. YouTube opts people into the HTML 5 browser program without asking or saying. It's funny, as the two computers I have here were both running Windows 8 at the time, but one was on the HTML 5 viewer and the other was using Flash. It was just random selection by YouTube.

Are you downloading Steam games while trying to watch videos on your desktop? Have you confirmed there is no other activity on your network other than the video test? Are you trying to watch the exact same video with the exact same bit-rate settings on each machine?

Maybe you should do a bandwidth test, so you have some real numbers:

http://www.speedtest.net/

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

http://www.bandwidthplace.com/

These sites will tell you just how fast data can travel between their host site and your machine. I suggest you run the same test on your laptop and your desktop and tell us what the numbers say. You may be surprised.

Killer Ethernet is not an MSI product, therefore, while the fix may be supplied by MSI, it won't be sourced by them.

Here is the site to download the latest drivers for your Killer Ethernet e2200 product:

http://www.killergaming.com/support/driverdownloadsupport

Make sure you get the correct 64 or 32-bit driver, to match your Windows installation.

If you didn't download the drivers for your Killer Ethernet from their website, I wouldn't expect them to be the most current. Motherboard manufacturers have so many products in circulation, it's quite common to find outdated drivers on their sites, and driver disks are usually obsolete the moment they ship with a product, and really are most useful to get you going if you have no other choice.

Have you tried resetting both your modem and router? Both are prone to malfunctions, just like computers, as they do internal processing and routing of data packets. Pull the plugs on both, leave them for 30 - 60 seconds, and power them back up, and see what your speed results are after a fresh boot of both devices. If your modem has a battery backup, you'll need to remove that as well, but if all the lights go out when you pull the power, there's no battery in it to worry about.

On another note, is your wireless secured in any way? Does anybody else have access to your network that could potentially be using up your bandwidth?

Do you have a service utility panel or wiring access connection anywhere within perhaps 10 feet of your DSL line? DSL is extremely susceptible to external noise, and speeds will end up in the toilet if noise does end up on the line being used for DSL.

DSL can also be shared with a regular household telephone, therefore every telephone installed to the system needs to be installed behind a DSL filter to prevent the voice communications from affecting the data portion of the line.

When performing an online speed test, make sure Steam is not downloading, and no other devices are trying to send / receive, or you'll get erroneous results. It also doesn't hurt to run the speed test two to three times, so you can take an average, or just to be sure you didn't get an odd result. It's also not uncommon for servers such as Steam to slow down during peak hours. I've seen Steam exhibit very slow download speeds before, but it should come and go, not be consistent.

Killer is a brand of Ethernet device manufacturer. They make a chip which handles networking functions, and supposedly does so better than the competition (debatable), and MSI happens to have used Killer's particular e2200 chip on the motherboard which you purchased. I am skeptical about whether this is the actual source of your problems or not. My guess is that there is a definite problem in your entire configuration, not just your desktop, and your Killer Ethernet device or modem is just unable to cope with it.

I still strongly recommend resetting both modem and router, and would add, checking for firmware updates for both products is a very good idea.

To answer your question of what a network card is, NIC (Network Interface Card,) it's really just a device that connects your computer to a network, wired or wireless. When people talk about installing a network card, they are essentially replacing or supplementing the device that is built into the motherboard to handle networking, by means of an add-in board such as this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033

You're welcome.

A router is a device that is sometimes used to translate a single, public IP address so multiple computers can share it. If a modem doesn't have enough connectivity options, a router can also provide additional attachments to the network. If all you have is a modem, the routing functions are either being performed by the modem or you simply don't need a router.

Just like a NIC (Network Interface Card) a router can be wired, or include wireless connectivity.

The Killer Ethernet is suppose to reduce Lag for gamers by giving games higher priority then surfing the internet or streaming video. I've heard that some of the issues for this board can be cured by DL the latest Killer drivers form Killer or MSI but Win 8 has a problem doing it and you have to use another device to DL then transfer the driver over and update. Worse case you can buy a 1GB PCI-E 1x card and pop it in your computer and use it. Just turn off the Killer in the BIOS.

Some ISPs will provide a modem Router combo product if your using a wireless connection for your notebook and you don't have a separate router then the Model has a built in Access point or Router which is how you notebook is reaching the internet. Your Nic cards (Laptop & Desktop) have a unique MAC addresses (nothing to do with Apple) think of it as a street address and you LAN is the street. The Router or Access Point will provide the IP address think of that as the City, State and Zip when you address a letter, email in this case.

My asus mobo, had a similar feature that made it's downloads unbearable. I just uninstalled the software and the problem went away.

I saw a review for this motherboard and the main problem was the compatibility with Windows 8.1 MSI answered and listed a link for the new drivers and a tech support number to call for help. I'll list their message below for you.

Win8.1 came out at the time these products are still on the vendor's shelf, however we do have up-to-date drivers posted on our website, see below URL.
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z87-G45-GAMING.html#download

If you have any questions, please kindly get in touch with our tech support team directly at 626.271.1004 for assistance during regular business hours from M to F, 6am to 6pm Pacific Time, or you can email us at usreview@msi.com.
When contacting us, please kindly include your product info, thank you.


Best Regards,
MSI Review Team

I already linked to newer drivers on Killer's own website than the MSI link. Glad nobody is listening.