Do Mpcie wifi cards work with regular antennas?

[ali_t9001]

I have a Maximus v gene mobo, and in order to keep both pcie x16 slots free for SLI, I want to get an mpcie wifi card. Do I need specialist antennas or can I buy regular ones?

 

[john-b691]

Depends what you mean "special". These are mostly used for laptops but the connections are standard...for a laptop antenna connection.

For obvious reasons you need to have a short cable that connects to the card and extends outside the case. At this point the connector is one of the 2 standard ones. You need to keep these cables as short as possible, they are very fine and have a huge amount of signal loss if you go much more than 6 inches or so.
You may need up to three antenna depending on which card you buy.

You may want to consider USB or a ethernet to wireless bridge. Tends to be simpler and I have not seen any difference in performance.

 

[ali_t9001]

Thanks, I think I'm going for ethernet after all- it seems like the cheapest, most efficient solution.