Best PCI-E wireless card and routers

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Dranzer42

Reputable
Jul 31, 2014
10
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4,510
I'll start off with my desktop build which is this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£157.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.96 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H97 GAMING 3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£78.79 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£65.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Intel 520 Series Cherryville 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£179.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£295.68 @ More Computers)
Case: Lian-Li PC-7HWX ATX Mid Tower Case (£119.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£80.76 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer
Monitor: Asus VS247H-P 23.6" Monitor (£125.09 @ Scan.co.uk)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£26.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1154.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-21 17:49 BST+0100

My current router is the Virgin Media Super Hub 2 which does not support 802.11 ac

I'm having issues that my current Asus PCE-N53 card combined with the superhub is resulting in me getting a 4 bar connection and only 5-10mbps(I should be getting 40-60 ).

My desktop is pretty low down on the floor upstairs and the opposite side of the house to the router which is downstairs. I'd say there's probably a floor and 1 or 2 walls in between the desktop and router if I look at it as a straight line from the wireless card to router.

Unfortunately, a wired connection is out of the question unless I have no other option. So I figure I need a new PCI-E card and a stronger router that so I could use the Virgin Media Superhub 2 as a modem for the new router.

So any recommendations on PCI-E cards and/or routers with strong signal strength will be greatly appreciated. It's hard to tell by reviews since its always 50/50 , some say its great signal strength, some say its terrible so I'm looking for some recommendations.

I'm also running Windows 8.1 so the PCI-E would need to be compatible with that.

Thanks for any help
 
Solution
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The reason you see such variations in the reviews is because people houses and number of neighbors with interfering wireless make far more difference than the tiny differences between routers. When you look the data up in the FCC site where they test routers using a very standard lab testing method you almost can't tell the difference between routers...at least on wireless signal levels.

If you have a fairly strong signal but still poor throughput it is likely you are getting interference from neighbors. Pretty much it is the standard recommendation of try other radio channels on your router to get one with less interference. If you get enough signal and your router supports it there should be quite a number of 5g channels to try...
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bill001g

Titan
Aug 9, 2012
28,363
2,766
125,640
The reason you see such variations in the reviews is because people houses and number of neighbors with interfering wireless make far more difference than the tiny differences between routers. When you look the data up in the FCC site where they test routers using a very standard lab testing method you almost can't tell the difference between routers...at least on wireless signal levels.

If you have a fairly strong signal but still poor throughput it is likely you are getting interference from neighbors. Pretty much it is the standard recommendation of try other radio channels on your router to get one with less interference. If you get enough signal and your router supports it there should be quite a number of 5g channels to try. You also can try to set the channel width to 20mhz. When you run 40mhz you are trying to use 2 20mhz channels at the same time which increases your speed but also increases you chance to get interference.

You could also try simple thing like making sure the antenna on the back of the computer are facing toward the router. The metal case does a great job of blocking the signals.

802.11ac generally will run faster at the same signal level but it by itself does not actually increase the amount of signal you will get. It also uses 80mhz of radio...ie 4 channels so it greatly increases the risk of interference. So it you never really know if 802.11ac is actually going to be faster....on paper it looks good but unforgettably you will only find out for sure after you spend the money and put it in your house.
 
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Solution
christinebcw

christinebcw

Honorable
Sep 8, 2012
472
0
10,960
And another lower-cost option is to consider different antenna. I always recommend local purchases for those, as well as the Powerlines, because they'll either have an immediate impact, or little or none so I recommend "local purchasing" as an easy and quicker way to return them - "Sorry, these didn't help."

As the above counseling offered, "so many variations" reduces the benefits of reading-only for studying purchase options. At some point, it's still going to be "try it, and maybe try a few more."
 
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