Should I get N or AC for my wireless adapter?

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Krister Arvesen

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Jan 20, 2014
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I've been looking for a wireless adapter for my gaming PC build and I'm really not sure if I should get a Dual Band N or a AC adapter.
We don't have the best internet where I live and I really don't know all that much about this subject. I think we get 2.8 Mbit/s download speed over ADSL and our router is a ZyXEL P-2812 and it's a 802.11 b/g/n and to be honest I'm not sure if it's even a dual band router...
So considering this information would I benefit from buying a wireless AC adapter for my PC or should I just go for a Wireless N adapter?
Also suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I've been looking at the Asus PCE-N53, but I've seen some complaints about it not being compatible with Windows 8.1...
 
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First if at all possible use a ethernet cable for gaming. All wireless no matter what card you buy will get random network issues. If you must use wireless you are just going to have to live with some random lag in the games.

In your particular case you could get by with the cheapest 802.11n device on the market. Your router is only a single band router so if you were to buy a dual band card it will make no difference.

That said you might as well buy a dual band card unless the small difference in price is significant to you. Even the 802.11ac cards are coming down in price. I suspect in six months they will be about the same price as dual band 802.11n cards. It is already well under $50 difference in cost.

I would pick a...
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bill001g

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First if at all possible use a ethernet cable for gaming. All wireless no matter what card you buy will get random network issues. If you must use wireless you are just going to have to live with some random lag in the games.

In your particular case you could get by with the cheapest 802.11n device on the market. Your router is only a single band router so if you were to buy a dual band card it will make no difference.

That said you might as well buy a dual band card unless the small difference in price is significant to you. Even the 802.11ac cards are coming down in price. I suspect in six months they will be about the same price as dual band 802.11n cards. It is already well under $50 difference in cost.

I would pick a price point you are willing to spend on a card and buy the best you can get for that money. That way when you upgrade your router in the future you will not have to upgrade your card again. Anything you buy will be faster than your internet connection so it does not make a huge difference what you decide.
 
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Krister Arvesen

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Jan 20, 2014
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Thanks a lot for the answer!

I would use a ethernet cable if I could, but I have my room upstairs and the router and the plug is downstairs so I don't really feel like drilling holes in the floor, which leaves me with only wireless solutions.

And I might be able to squeeze in a Asus PCE-AC68 in my budget as that would probably serve me well for a long time. But I'm wondering... would I see any advantage with signal strength using this adapter or would it be just about the same as with a N adapter?

Also one last thing... With the internet speed we have over ADSL would we see huge improvements with a AC router or even just a Dual band N router?
 
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bill001g

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It gets very tough to say on some of the very newest 802.11ac technology. It is said that beam forming is suppose to increase the range but there is little actual user feed back on how true this is.

You really will only see a improvement if you replaced both your router and your card. The 802.11ac only runs on the 5g band in the first place so the card will just run at best 802.11n on the 2.4g band with your current router.

Still if your only goal is to access stuff on the internet then you will be limited by the ADSL well before even the worst wireless card is even partially stressed. Even on the very fast internet connection most people that use 802.11ac are using it to stream data INSIDE their house between devices.
 
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Krister Arvesen

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Jan 20, 2014
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Ok, thanks again!

I guess I'll go with something like the ASUS-PCE-N53 then and It'll be all good with that as the ADSL is the limiting factor here it seems. I don't see us moving any time soon and we literally can't get any better internet to where I live for now so...

Anyways thanks a lot for all the help!
 
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